Banking data spy row with Germany escalates

Germany has summoned the Swiss ambassador to Berlin over a Swiss secret service agent alleged to have been involved in uncovering German tax investigators who bought stolen banking data.

The Swiss foreign ministry confirmed the development, saying it was time for an exchange of information between the two neighbouring states, but it did not elaborate further.

On Tuesday, Germany said it had invited the Swiss ambassador to a meeting “at short notice in the interest of the German-Swiss friendship” to discuss the case of an alleged Swiss spy arrested for industrial espionage in Frankfurt last week.

The suspect, a former policeman and employee of the UBS bank, was allegedly trying to investigate German detectives who had procured confidential banking client information in Switzerland.

Separate legal proceeding are pending in Switzerland against three Germans and the Swiss suspect for involvement in the purchase of banking data.

The government of North-Rhine Westphalia, which have bought at least 11 CDs over the past decade with data about Germans with bank accounts in Switzerland, has strongly protested against the alleged Swiss spy activity.

“Ongoing investigation”

The Swiss defence minister, Guy Parmelin, refused to answer reporters’ questions on the affair at the annual press conference of the Federal Intelligence Service in Bern on Tuesday.

“We do not want to comment on an ongoing investigation,” he declared.

Parmelin neither confirmed nor denied that the suspect had a mandate from the Swiss intelligence service, adding the Swiss banks regularly became targets of espionage. He said the secret service was acting within the law.