German state buys Swiss data to track tax frauds: FT

BERLIN (Reuters) - Authorities in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia have bought a CD from Switzerland containing wealthy Germans' bank details as part of a drive to identify tax evaders, the Financial Times Deutschland said in its online edition on Saturday.

Authorities in the west German region of North Rhine-Westphalia have bought data on German clients of a Swiss bank suspected of tax evasion, a report said on Saturday.Tax authorities had acquired a computer disc with data concerning around 1,000 German clients of the private Coutts Bank, a subsidiary of the Royal Bank of Scotland, the report in the Financial Times Deutschland said in its online edition.

Thousands of Germans declared financial holdings to avoid the risk of jail after several states bought disks containing Swiss banking data in 2010

The BBC reports New election blow for Germany's Merkel Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives have suffered heavy losses in an election in Germany's most populous state, exit polls suggest. Support for the Christian Democrats dropped from 35% to 26% in North Rhine-Westphalia, with the Social Democrats set to return to power with the Greens. It is the Christian Democrats' worst result in the state.

Goodness gracious, how gracious! The German business weekly WirtschaftsWoche reported Saturday that Germany offers to send tax men to Greece The German government is prepared to send 160 financial experts to Greece to help the country overhaul its tax collection, the business weekly WirtschaftsWoche reported Saturday.

Germany's most populous state has bought stolen information on 1,500 suspected German tax cheats holding bank accounts in Switzerland, a regional government spokesman told AFP Saturday.He would not give details on how the transaction was made or how much money was paid for the disc that contains the information but German press reports have given the figure of 2.5 million euros (3.4 million dollars)."The CD was bought in the last couple of days and is now being held by the financial authorities of North Rhine-Westphalia" state, he said.