German prosecutors intensified a tax evasion clampdown by raiding the homes of Credit Suisse employees and reaching a deal with Liechtenstein's LGT to settle a tax probe. A spokesman for the Duesseldorf prosecutor's office on Thursday said four employees of Credit Suisse are being probed on suspicion of aiding tax evasion.
The homes of two employees were searched as part of the probe, the prosecutor's office said. In July Credit Suisse's private banking offices in Germany were raided with the aim of gathering information on the role of bank staff in cases of alleged tax evasion.
Separately, LGT and its employees have paid around 50 million euros ($66.15 million) in fines to settle a damaging tax probe, said a spokesman for the public prosecutor in the German city of Bochum.
"We have closed the case. There are fines of around 46 million euros for two legal entities, this affects LGT," the spokesman said on Thursday, confirming a report in Germany's Sueddeutsche Zeitung. Procedures against a further 46 people accounting for fines of around 4 million euros had also been dropped, he said. In March, the German cabinet approved a tax agreement with Liechtenstein aimed at improving co-operation and information sharing between Berlin and the Alpine principality, a government spokesman said.