Ian Traynor in Bonn
The epidemic of tax evasion scandals plaguing Germany’s banks and industrialists spread this week to the upper reaches of Commerzbank, following the disclosure that its chairman and three other senior figures are being investigated for alleged financial misdemeanours.
This follows on the heels of the biggest tax fraud inquiry so far, which began last week when 600 investigators raided the Duesseldorf headquarters of West-LB, the country’s third biggest bank, seeking evidence of its alleged role in aiding tax evasion by transferring clients’ accounts abroad.
Frankfurt prosecutors said Commerzbank chairman Martin Kohlhaussen, predecessor Walter Seipp, the head of the tax department Wolfgang Hoenig, and another board member Kurt Hochheuser were being investigated for their alleged role in the bank’s underpayment of taxes between 1984 and 1988.
Commerzbank, the fourth biggest commercial bank in Germany, hotly contests the charges and is fighting to regain some of the DM300-million.
Kohlhaussen had been targeted as he signed the tax returns. Hans-Olaf Henkel, head of the national industrialists’ association, is another in a succession of high-profile names whose tax affairs are being investigated.
Meanwhile, the high street banks are at the centre of a row with the authorities over their part in providing foreign banking, mainly in Luxembourg, for clients attempting to avoid paying tax on savings. About 17 000 separate investigations into tax fraud are under way and some 50 banks have been raided in recent months.
The tax fraud crackdown is believed to have been ordered by finance minister Theo Waigel, with Chancellor Helmut Kohl’s support.