Liechtenstein issues arrest warrant for tax-leak suspect

Liechtenstein has issued an international arrest warrant for a man suspected of leaking confidential banking information that led to tax evasion investigations around the world, police said yesterday.

A picture of a balding, middle-aged man with glasses has been posted on the Liechtenstein police website with a request for information on his whereabouts. The notice says the man – Heinrich Kieber, 42 – is suspected of acquiring customer information belonging to a Liechtenstein financial institution and selling it to foreign authorities.

German officials have said its intelligence service paid an informant more than €4m (£3m) for a CD believed to contain 1,400 names of alleged tax cheats, about 600 of them Germans.

Liechtenstein's LGT Group said last month it believes the data was stolen from its subsidiary, LGT Treuhand, by Kieber, a former employee. The bank is wholly owned by the Alpine principality's ruling family.

Liechtenstein will demand Kieber's extradition if he is arrested abroad.

The information obtained by German intelligence has also led to tax evasion investigations in France, Britain, Australia, Italy, New Zealand, Sweden, the United States and elsewhere. Liechtenstein has insisted it will keep its practice of allowing foreigners to open trusts anonymously.