Banker arrested in Hoeness tax evasion case

A banker from the Swiss private bank Vontobel has been arrested in Warsaw in connection with German football manager Uli Hoeness’s tax evasion activities. Vontobel has confirmed knowledge of the arrest.

Hoeness, the former Bayern München president, was convicted of tax evasion in March and sentenced to three and a half years in prison. The southwest German newspaper Wisbadener Kurier reported that an arrest warrant had been issued for the Vontobel banker who had been responsible for Hoeness’s accounts since the 1990s. The banker was arrested by Polish police in Warsaw on Wednesday.

According to the finance news platform “Inside Paradeplatz”, no charges were brought against the Vontobel banker during Hoeness’s trial. However, the banker’s name and the work done for Hoeness at the bank were made known – information which German authorities then used to bring a case against the individual.

The Hoeness trial became the most closely watched tax evasion case in German history.

Some 55,000 tax evaders have turned themselves in over the last four years and paid a total of about €3.5 billion (CHF4.2 billion) in back tax, according to the German taxpayers’ association.

The number of voluntary disclosures rose four-fold in 2013 from the previous year.