German authorities search 13 Credit Suisse branches in tax evasion investigation

German authorities search Credit Suisse branches

BERLIN — All 13 branches of Swiss bank Credit Suisse AG in Germany were searched Wednesday in an investigation of suspected tax evasion, prosecutors said.

Some 140 police officers were searching branches in Berlin, Duesseldorf, Munich and other German cities based on findings from a recently bought CD containing data that documents alleged tax evasion via Switzerland, Duesseldorf prosecutor Johannes Mocken said.

Prosecutors suspect unidentified employees of Credit Suisse of being accessories to tax evasion.

Germany has opened 1,100 tax evasion cases based on the CD, Mocken said. He couldn’t give any further information on the searches since they were still ongoing.

A spokeswoman for Credit Suisse in Zurich said the bank was unable to comment immediately.

Germany has been one of the harshest critics of neighboring Switzerland’s strict banking secrecy laws. Switzerland has in turn criticized German tax authorities’ purchase of stolen data on German account holders in the Alpine nation.