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Man linked to stolen bank data found dead in Swiss prison

02 October 2010 04:40 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. A man held in connection with client data stolen from a bank and sold to German tax authorities has been found dead in prison, Swiss authorities said on Friday, APA reports quoting â€œReutersâ€.
The 42-year-old man was found dead in his cell at Berne regional prison at around 12:30 a.m. EDT on Wednesday, police said.
"Findings so far rule out third-party interference. It could be a case of suicide," the Berne regional police said.
The man was arrested mid-September as part of an investigation into the theft and sale of bank data to Germany, said Jeanette Balmer, spokeswoman for the federal prosecutor’s office in Berne.
No further details of the investigation could yet be revealed as this might jeopardize ongoing enquiries, she added.
A number of compact discs said to contain confidential data on tax evaders have been offered to German authorities.
The most prominent case resulted in German investigators searching Credit Suisse offices in the country in July after analyzing a disc bought from a whistleblower said to have the names of 1,500 alleged tax cheats.
Under pressure from an international crackdown on tax evasion, Switzerland has committed to accepting no more untaxed money in future.
Germany, which has been one of the harshest critics of Switzerland’s bank secrecy laws, expects to clinch a landmark tax deal with Berne by the end of October aimed at resolving the problem of an estimated 200 billion euros ($273 billion) of untaxed German wealth hidden in Switzerland.
German tax authorities have reported a surge in the number of tax dodgers turning themselves in after the government decided to buy stolen data.