Word: lehner
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...manner in which it was obtained. Other officials and experts warned that the government would be sending the wrong message by striking such a shady deal. "The German rule of law obliges the state to tax people equally, but the state should also not deal with criminals," Moris Lehner, a professor of international law at Munich's Ludwig Maximilian University, tells TIME. "The informant acquired the data through a criminal act, and the government has to weigh up its obligations very carefully." Peter Schaar, the German data-protection commissioner, added that a deal could "encourage other people to sell data...
...bank and get hold of the money with a weapon. Today you can do it electronically by stealing data." Swiss Finance Minister Hans-Rudolf Merz went a step further, saying his country would refuse to help the German authorities on tax issues involving the stolen data. Lehner however, says this may just be bluster on Merz's part. "Under the double taxation agreement between Germany and Switzerland, the Swiss authorities are obliged to help their German counterparts to investigate tax fraud if there is a suspicion of a criminal act," he says. (See pictures of the dangers of printing money...
...Despite the arguments of opponents, the deal did have plenty of support in Germany. Tax evasion is a major problem in the country, costing the government about $40 billion a year, according to Lehner. German opposition parties supported buying the CD if it would help uncover the identities of suspected tax dodgers. "It's a scandal that [the authorities] pursue every parking offender but not those people who evade paying up to $300 million in taxes," Sigmar Gabriel, chairman of the Social Democratic Party, told the paper Hamburger Abendblatt. The German police union was equally adamant that moral concerns should...
Schwartz asked what would happen when the five areas of focus Lehner mentioned began to compete, while Schrag questioned whether the alternative fuel strategies Lehner proposed would be as cost efficient as he suggested...
...Lehner also warned attendees against believing there is such a thing as a “safe” level of carbon dioxide, even though the United Nations talks in Copenhagen this fall emphasized the limiting level of 350 parts per million of carbon dioxide...