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GERMANY

Germans use Swiss bank data for new tax raids

Hundreds of German tax inspectors launched nationwide raids on Tuesday, based on 40,000 data sets on suspected tax-dodgers in Swiss banks from a CD authorities had bought for €4 million ($5.3 million), officials said.

Germans use Swiss bank data for new tax raids

The latest mass search was based on data described as "authentic and of excellent quality" by the state premier of southwestern Rhineland-Palatinate, Carsten Kuehl.
   
"Based on the available information, we expect to recover tax revenues 
worth €500 million nationwide," he said.
   
The purchase of such CDs by German authorities from unnamed sources is 
controversial, but the minister said authorities had to "use any method deemed permissible after careful checks of the legal situation."
   
The disk contains information on more than 10,000 customers of various 
Swiss financial institutions, news website Spiegel Online reported, citing unnamed investigation sources.
   
About 400 tax inspectors and investigators took part in the raids on 
Tuesday, reportedly searching some 200 locations.
   
After similar such operations in the past, many German customers with Swiss 
bank accounts were urged to turn themselves in and pay taxes they had evaded.
   
An association representing German taxpayers has condemned the CD 
purchases, charging that German authorities are engaging in shady deals with criminals who are offering the data.
   
Germany has been at the forefront of a push against tax havens and offshore 
banking and took a tough line in the bail-out talks for debt-hit Cyprus, charging that Russian tycoons have used the island's banks to dodge taxes and launder dirty money.

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GERMANY

Germany cracks down on fake Covid vaccine documents

German police have set up a special team to fight a growing number of forged vaccine certificates being sold in the black market

Germany cracks down on fake Covid vaccine documents
People who are fully vaccinated can show their vaccination booklet, which has a stamp and a sticker inside. Photo: Ina FASSBENDER / AFP

Police in Cologne have warned of a group of fraudsters selling fake vaccination certificates, a growing problem the scale of which is still unclear.

The police said the fraudsters worked in encrypted Telegram chats, making investigations difficult, and were selling fake documents with all the stamps and signatures, including a mark about vaccination with BioNTech or AstraZeneca.

READ ALSO: Germany probes Covid-19 testing centres for fraud

The fraud involved both real traffic in fake documents as well as scams luring customers into paying €100.

People in Germany who are fully vaccinated can show their vaccination booklet, which has a stamp and a sticker inside. Those who don’t have a booklet get a piece of paper.

Covid health passes are currently being rolled out across the EU, with a European health passport expected to be available from mid-June.

READ ALSO: What’s the latest on how the EU’s ‘Covid passports’ will work for travellers?

Over 44% of the adult population in Germany has received at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine, and more than 18% of Germans have been fully vaccinated.

German police have said forged coronavirus vaccine documents are becoming an increasing problem.

Last month, a couple in Baden-Württemberg was accused of selling fake coronavirus vaccination certificates.

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