Stolen Liechtenstein bank account data may be used to by prosecutors justify a search warrant in a criminal probe, Germany’s top constitutional court ruled.
Data which may have been stolen from a Liechtenstein bank and later sold to German authorities can be used by a judge when authorizing prosecutors to raid homes as part of a probe into tax evasion, the Karlsruhe-based court said in an e-mailed statement today.
“The constitution knows no rules saying that a legally flawed collection of evidence in any case bars the use of that evidence,” the judges wrote. “An absolute rule warranting the exclusion of such evidence has only been accepted in cases touching the absolute core area of privacy.”
German authorities have bought several compact discs with account data of people who put money in Swiss or Liechtenstein banks, sparking discussions whether it is legal to use the information for prosecution. The data has lead to probes of thousands of potential German tax evaders.
One of them was former Deutsche Post AG Chief Executive Officer Klaus Zumwinkel who in January 2009 received a two-year suspended sentence and was ordered to pay a 1 million-euro ($1.3 million) penalty.
The case is BVerfG, 2 BvR 2101/09.
