Word: liechtensteins
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...Liechtenstein, the Rhine River, Europe's mightiest waterway, is just a swift alpine stream. Above the spotless streets of the capital, Vaduz, looms Vaduz Castle, and above that nothing but snow-capped peaks. It is hard to imagine this idyllic mountain principality with 35,000 citizens as the heart of Europe's axis of evil. Yet secret agents, investigators and a growing chorus of politicians in Germany, the U.S., the U.K. and even Australia are convinced that this tiny enclave is up to no good. German lawmakers have barraged Liechtenstein with such epithets as "rogue state" and "den of thieves...
...turned out that the men were Iraqi citizens trying to slip into the U.S. Last April, masked gunmen executed a jewelry heist in Dubai. They left behind DNA samples, which matched those that Interpol had in its database for two Serbian armed robbers who had escaped from a Liechtenstein jail in 2006. And in 2005, eight years after Georgian citizen David Kricheli was convicted in his absence of murder in Germany, he was arrested while driving across the U.S. border with Canada, carrying a forged Canadian passport. After he'd been living under a false identity for years, his fingerprints...
...probe began almost by accident. During an investigation into organized crime, agents of Germany's Federal Intelligence Service, the BND, became acquainted with an employee of a bank in Liechtenstein, a tiny principality between Austria and Switzerland with very secretive banking laws. The agents turned their contact over to German tax authorities. With the approval of the German government, tax investigators paid the contact more than $7 million (5 million euros) and provided him with a new identity in exchange for a CD detailing the Liechtenstein bank accounts of hundreds of German citizens...
...German taxman was Klaus Zumwinkel, the CEO of Deutsche Post WorldNet, the former German postal monopoly, which now owns DHL and has become a global logistics giant. He is suspected of evading taxes totaling some $1.47 million (1 million euros) by transferring funds to a bank in Liechtenstein. Police detained Zumwinkel for questioning last week and carted trunkloads of documents from his home and office. Under intense political pressure, Zumwinkel resigned from his job at Deutsche Post, which is still partially state-owned. Zumwinkel was released after questioning, and the investigation continues...
...Meanwhile, investigators are expected to continue their search for suspects. Merkel, due to meet Liechtenstein's Prime Minister Otmar Hasler in Berlin on Wednesday, is pressing to close any loopholes that encourage tax evasion. Whatever the outcome of that effort, it appears likely that in Germany's tax scandal, the drama has just begun...