The German tax authorities have decided to pay €2.5 million to a whistle blower who stole information on 1500 accounts, with the payments being dependent on the data being real. (See also here, and here) in order to catch tax evaders.

They did this before, with Lichtenstein in 2008, where payment netted tax revenues in excess of €200 million.

The Swiss have a problem, because I bought a 4 Gig memory stick a year ago for $12, and it’s smaller than a pack of gum.

Even if you assume 100K per account, this stick can hold about 40,000 accounts on each memory stick, and with the going rate from German tax authorities of about €1,666 per account, that memory stick could net an insider well over €50 million, with a bulk discount.

Their style of bank secrecy is likely to go away, because it is unsupportable.

Now, Germany needs to learn about the “Perp walk”.