Liechtenstein bank allegedly stung in 13 mln dlr blackmail bid

AFP, August, 2008

BERLIN (AFP) — A bank in the tiny Alpine principality of Liechtenstein, which has been rocked since February by a major tax evasion scandal, was allegedly blackmailed into paying over 13 million dollars, a report said Saturday.

Four people are on trial at Rostock in northern Germany accused of obtaining nine million euros (13.9 million dollars) by threatening to reveal the names of 2,300 account holders of the Liechtensteinischen Landesbank (LLB), said the report in the Frankfurter Rundschau daily.

On Friday the court, which has been hearing the case since April, had documents relating to some 1,850 accounts held by one of the accused placed before it.

"Sums of several millions appear in these accounts," said Leonore Gottschalck-Solger, lawyer for the...