Disgruntled Tech In Liechtenstein Steals Banking Info On Tax Cheats; Turns It In For Rewards

from the good-or-bad? dept

Thu, Jul 17th 2008 8:14am — Mike Masnick

Forget the disgruntled tech holding the city of San Francisco hostage. An even more interesting story of a disgruntled tech is coming out of the tiny European country of Lichtenstein. Apparently (who knew?) Lichtenstein is a favorite destination for money of rich folks looking to avoid taxes. It's banking system is apparently quite secretive... except, of course, in the hands of a disgruntled computer tech. It appears that just such a tech, named Heinrich Kieber walked off with tons of data from Liechtenstein LGT Group, a bank owned by Lichtenstein's ruling family. He then sold that data to a variety of countries to help those countries find and arrest tax cheats. This turned out to be quite lucrative for Kieber. For example, the US offers such "whistle blowers" 30% of whatever tax money they recover. Germany apparently paid him somewhere between $6 million and $7.3 million for the info. The guy's lawyer insists he's a whistleblower -- while those exposed have a different word (or words) they think of when discussing Kieber.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: banks, disgruntled tech, heinrich kieber, lichtenstein, tax cheats, whisteblower
Companies: lgt group

28 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

James, 17 Jul 2008 @ 8:19am

HAHAHA!
Thats great... although that stealing data part ... hmm.. perhaps he could fined for the amount he received for blowing the whistle.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Anonymous Coward, 17 Jul 2008 @ 9:25am
  
  Re: HAHAHA!
  Who would fine him? Liechtenstein? But that would mean the money would go to Lichtenstein's ruling family, who own the bank. So the bank makes all the money that they were hiding?
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
GeneralEmergency, 17 Jul 2008 @ 8:42am

Whoa...
The last guy on the planet I'd want to be right now is the Information Security Officer at the Liechtenstein LGT Group.

This data theft is gonna result in people being X-Rayed going in and outta work at these banks, just like the diamond mines in South Africa.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Justin, 17 Jul 2008 @ 9:17am

Note to self
Stop banking in Lichtenstein.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
discojohnson, 17 Jul 2008 @ 9:17am

Fines are the least of his worries.
I'd be more concerned with being murdered.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Josh, 17 Jul 2008 @ 9:18am

Do not meddle in the affairs of sysadmins, for they are subtle and quick to anger - and they know where you stash your porn and illegal tax records.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 17 Jul 2008 @ 9:21am

Lichtenstein's banking secrecy laws make Switzerland look like an open source bank. I can believe a lot of the US customers are just a bit worried.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 17 Jul 2008 @ 9:27am

Hah! I wonder if he sold anything to Russia... Yeah, avoiding becoming very dead should be on the top list of his priorities.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
AJ, 17 Jul 2008 @ 9:34am

Thats great...
Irony is, he'll probably make tons more money having been fired, than he would have ever dreamed about work there. I'm betting he'll end up with a sizeable price on his head for his efforts. The kind of people that hide that kind of money probably have the means to make his life .... err.. difficult.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Anonymous Coward, 17 Jul 2008 @ 9:39am
  
  Re: Thats great...
  "...the means to make his life .... err.. difficult."
  
  Or non-existent.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
wasnt me, 17 Jul 2008 @ 9:38am

i don't think this guy will live to see fall.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Joe Smith, 17 Jul 2008 @ 10:04am

Rewards
If you surf around the net you will find that someone is offering a multi-million dollar reward for information as to the man's whereabouts. I guess someone wants to have a chat with him pretty badly.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Beta, 17 Jul 2008 @ 10:10am

There are several lessons in this. One is that a bank account is not reliably private if it's attached to your identity. A numbered account (which they create without ever asking for your name) is safer, but the really tricky part is finding a bank that won't rob you when you have no legal recourse.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Anonymous Coward, 17 Jul 2008 @ 10:33am
  
  Re: Numbered accounts
  I don't think that there are any jurisdictions where you can open a true numbered account. Most international banking regulations require that financial institutions 'know their customer' at some level. I know that even 15 years ago in Switzerland, it was pretty much impossible to get an anonymous numbered account. You could get one if a local lawyer vouched for you, but the lawyer was required to disclose your identity if there was a criminal investigation. Of course, there are probably shady jurisdictions where you can kinda do this, but to participate in the international banking system, they have to follow the rules to some degree.
  
  The real and smart way to do this is to have shell or even real companies. If you have enough money where taxes are a real issue, then it's far safer to have that money held by various companies, some of which could issue 'bearer bonds'...
  
  Besides, anyone who is trying to evade US taxes is pretty much a fool. Much better off holding ALL your assets in the US where there are innumerable tax loopholes vs trying to save 5% via some illegal scheme or be potentially subject to taxes in a high-tax bracket country. Unless, of course, your income is from illegal activities....
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Richard Breidenthal, 17 Jul 2008 @ 10:20am

Tax Cheats
Three cheers for the whistleblower. How much money do these people need? These folks can't spend all the money they have. They don't want to pay their share. That is how they accumulated the wealth, by not playing by the rules.
That's what caused the French Revolution.
let's hang-um.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 17 Jul 2008 @ 10:25am

I hope there are no whistle blowers from UBS that find out about this.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
DS78, 17 Jul 2008 @ 11:07am

Wow
Hell hath no fury like a sysadmin scorned. I can't wait for the movie to come out!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
SeaTec, 17 Jul 2008 @ 11:09am

Fraud
It seems that this guys was sought for real estate fraud in Spain. Hmm, why did they hire him?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Anonymous Coward, 18 Jul 2008 @ 4:03pm
  
  Re: Fraud
  It seems that this guys was sought for real estate fraud in Spain. Hmm, why did they hire him?
  Link for that?
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Seatec, 17 Jul 2008 @ 11:14am

NOt only the cusotmer of LGT are sweating but all the banks that have these accounts are scrambling to do back ground checks of their IT staff. Not to mention offering better bonus plans!!!!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Anonymous Coward, 18 Jul 2008 @ 4:05pm
  
  Re:
  NOt only the cusotmer of LGT are sweating but all the banks that have these accounts are scrambling to do back ground checks of their IT staff.
  They already do in most places. LGT doesn't?
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
boodgetta, 17 Jul 2008 @ 11:33am

Maybe he could change his name...
...and get a secret bank account.....!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Benjamin Wright, 17 Jul 2008 @ 11:35am

secrets
In the age of information, the rich, the powerful and the authoritative surprisingly find that they can keep no secrets. Therefore secrets become liabilities. --Ben http://hack-igations.blogspot.com/2007/12/people-in-authority-sometimes-abuse.html
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Fuzzy Wuzzy Balls, 17 Jul 2008 @ 1:25pm
  
  Re: secrets
  That dude is going to be whacked, they are going to shoot his ass and bury him in an unmarked grave somewhere. Wow, this dude has it coming my god,"concrete shoes, cyanide TNT". I'll admit that is was a good idea but, it was one of his last no doubt.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
udamdirtyape, 17 Jul 2008 @ 12:09pm

My new hero...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
JoeP, 17 Jul 2008 @ 3:43pm

New Identity
I would bet that, if there was enough money involved, this guy probably worked out a new identity with one of the governments he turned info over to....
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Huh?, 18 Jul 2008 @ 6:50am
  
  Re: New Identity
  Thats funny. You think some of the people affected by this aren't powerful government officials from within these governments or at least good friends with powerful government officials. The people who are charged with creating and enforcing the laws are most often the ones violating them. I don't care if they send this guy to space station, he's dead.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Mike, 19 Jul 2008 @ 6:02am

Let’s be clear on one thing. There is no such thing as a “tax cheat”.
“Cheating” on your taxes is the moral equivalent of telling a mugger you have no more money than what’s in your wallet when you’ve got a wad of currency crammed between your ass cheeks.
Stealing for thieves
[ link to this | view in chronology ]