http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080718.KIEBER18/TPStory/Kieber makes first public address
GREG MCARTHUR
July 18, 2008
Sitting in front of a computer all day, watching thousands of banking documents scroll down the screen, Heinrich Kieber says he had an awakening.
The 43-year-old computer technician, who caused a massive, international tax scandal when he stole banking records on 1,400 wealthy clients of Liechtenstein's LGT Group - including 100 Canadian clients - made his first public address yesterday at a U.S. Senate subcommittee hearing.
Appearing before the subcommittee on a television screen, filmed in silhouette and speaking in English, he explained that it wasn't until he was assigned to scan and index LGT's paper records that he started to wonder why someone would want to bring millions of dollars to his home - a tiny, Alpine principality with only 35,000 people.
"It was then when I began to realize the very questionable business the LGT was often involved in and the dubious clients they were serving, the kind of business that goes beyond just facilitating massive tax evasion," Mr. Kieber said in the pre-recorded interview.
"Going through thousands of documents, I got very - I got the very clear picture of the highly sophisticated and sometimes surprisingly simple tricks and methods used. ..."
Many of Mr. Kieber's former countrymen and colleagues have characterized his motivations as more selfish in nature. When he originally stole the data in 2003, he attempted to use it to leverage Liechtenstein's royal family, which owns LGT, and threatened to release the documents if they didn't help him with legal problems related to a fraudulent real estate deal. He eventually agreed to return the records, and swore that he didn't make any copies. But he did have copies, and he later sold them to the German intelligence service for more than $7-million.
Yesterday, he alleged his former employer uses a number of schemes to subvert revenue authorities and law enforcement agencies from around the world.
Specifically, he said when a U.S. client wants to ship money to LGT without setting off alarms, the bank will help conceal the path through a series of transfers to shell corporations and bank accounts. Often, the first transfer is to a bank account in Canada - chiefly because such a transaction "from the IRS point of view is not suspicious," Mr. Kieber explained.
LGT bankers also take steps to distance themselves from their country because of its reputation for tax evasion and money laundering, he said.
"The LGT Trust only uses cellphones from Switzerland or Austria, again because of the existence of a Liechtenstein-own country code," he said. "When calling, the clients should use the code words agreed and never state their own names or name of the legal entities."
Liechtenstein's embassy in Washington issued a press release yesterday highlighting some of the international agreements it has entered into to curb illicit use of its banking system.
"We do not want the Liechtenstein financial centre to be perceived as a jurisdiction that actively assists bank clients
circumvent their national tax obligations," Prime Minister Otmar Hasler said.
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=5396300&page=1
Witness Protection for Bank Whistleblower; UBS Exec Takes 'the Fifth'
Senate Hearing Has All the Trappings of Mafia Investigation
By JUSTIN ROOD
July 17, 2008
Testifying on video at today's hearing, and in silhouette, was Heinrich Kieber, a former employee of the LGT Bank of Liechtenstein, the source of 12,000 pages of bank documents detailing secret, multi-million-dollar accounts held by "many, many, many" U.S. citizens for the alleged purpose of dodging taxes.
(ABC News)
One witness, fearing for his life, testified at the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations hearing via videotape, his face a mere shadow on the screen. Three other witnesses refused to testify on the grounds they could incriminate themselves.
And the yarn that unraveled – of secret codes, snooping G-men and admonitions against using home phones or writing information down – sounded as much like background research for a "Sopranos" plotline as what it was: an expose of wealthy Americans allegedly trying to keep their riches beyond the reach of Uncle Sam.
Testifying on video was Heinrich Kieber, a former employee of the LGT Bank of Liechtenstein, the source of 12,000 pages of bank documents detailing secret, multi-million-dollar accounts held by "many, many, many" U.S. citizens for the alleged purpose of dodging taxes
http://business.theage.com.au/business/lowy-a-turncoat-and-mystery-48m-20080720-3ibk.html
Lowy, a turncoat and mystery $48m
Email Print Normal font Large font AdvertisementJohn Garnaut
July 21, 2008 - 12:34AM
Page 1 of 3 | Single page
IT'S a little over 13 years since one of Australia's richest and best-connected citizens, Frank Lowy, was summoned to the Tax Office's Chatswood branch to be interrogated under section 264 of the Tax Act. He was said to be sweating and uncomfortable but meticulously polite.
The Tax Office had been combing through the Lowy family's tax affairs as part of a new program to audit Australia's top 100 companies, including Lowy's Westfield empire. Westfield's tax affairs were considered to be aggressive, and so the audit was widened to include the Lowy family.
Auditors believe they have found a range of aggressive tax minimisation schemes - denied emphatically by the Lowy family - which enabled Lowy to pay a tax bill that seemed to belie his $3.1 million annual Westfield salary and his $840 million in assets, as estimated by BRW magazine at the time.
Much of Lowy's tax bill had been reduced by lawful prepaid interest schemes, where he claimed tax deductions for paying large interest bills up front on various projects. Other schemes involved Lowy's 35-metre pleasure boat named after Lowy's mother, Ilona, which was said to operate as a charter business.
Mark Ryan, a spokesman for the Lowy family, said: "The assessment regarding the boat was challenged by the family and ultimately a court decision was made in favour of the family."
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-taxshelter19-2008jul19,0,7391840.story
Beverly Hills mall mogul to testify before Senate subcommittee
The panel is investigating overseas banking practices that may allow clients to evade U.S. tax laws.
By Roger Vincent, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
July 19, 2008
A Beverly Hills shopping center magnate whose family investments have been routed through a bank in the tiny country of Liechtenstein is set to testify next week before a Senate subcommittee in Washington conducting a probe of overseas tax havens.
The committee has called Peter Lowy to testify Friday as part of its investigation into how financial institutions in Switzerland and Liechtenstein may be engaging in banking practices that result in "tax evasion and other misconduct," according to the panel.
Peter Lowy Westfield America mallsAustralian-born Lowy, 49, is an American citizen and head of the U.S. division of Westfield Group, one of the world's largest shopping center chains. Ranked as one of the wealthiest individuals in Los Angeles, he is a major political donor and philanthropist.
The Australian company has 24 regional malls in California, including centers in Century City, Arcadia and Woodland Hills.
Lowy has hired prominent Washington lawyer Robert S. Bennett, who said Friday that his client would testify voluntarily. He stressed that the committee was probing the role of the offshore banks and not his client or the Lowy relatives, the second-wealthiest family in Australia.
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