German investigators have started swooping in on customers of Luxembourg’s Banque et Caisse d’Épargne de l’État (BCEE) suspected of tax evasion, a source close to the matter told Reuters yesterday.

Investigators have carried out searches and further inspections are expected this week, the source said.

Up to 200 investigators from the Cologne state prosecutor’s office and the Wuppertal tax agency have carried out raids, according to German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung and broadcasters NDR and WDR.

They said around 120 BCEE customers from the German states of North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhine­land-Palatinate and Saarland were being targeted.

Cologne’s state prosecutor and BCEE declined to comment.

“This area will only change if the state shows its teeth,” said Norbert Walter-Bojans, finance minister for North Rhine-Westphalia who also oversees the Wuppertal tax agency.

The western German state has acquired several sets of tax evasion information since 2010. Cologne’s attorney general is currently carrying out around 30 investigations against international financial institutions and their subsidiaries.

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