Liechtenstein : Bank names data thief

The banking group says that a former employee called Heinrich Kieber stole the data to blackmail the bank and third parties several years ago. In a deal, he agreed to hand the data back to the bank. But the data that has now surfaced in Germany seems to be that same data, leading the bank to suspect that Kieber kept a copy and now, for reasons best known to himself, has released it.

There are startling resemblances between the LGT case and the Credit Suisse case involving Cayman Islands data. In each case, a disaffected senior employee took data and passed it to the authorities.

In World Money Laundering Report Vol 8 No 5, we reported on the action that had been taken to close down the website of wikileaks.org. That case involves Bank Julius Baer's Cayman Island operation. In that case, an employee who blames the bank for what he does not describe but seems to be some form of breakdown is accused of being the source of documents posted to the internet allegedly relating to BJB's clients.

In the LGT case, the only thing LGT seems to have done to upset Kieber was to give him a job. Kieber was, the bank says, in serious trouble having been involved in a fraud in Spain. But as he had not been charged when he applied to join LGT, his problems were not discovered. Then in 2001, after he joined LGT, he was convicted of another fraud. He left the bank and left LGT. But he copied about 2.5Gb of data to disks including a mass of client data. For more on this kind of risk - and how it is growing apace - see the infotech section of The Chief Officers' Network

Kieber was not, the bank says, irritated with the bank. Rather he felt that the legal authorities had not treated him fairly. But he used the data to blackmail the bank into helping him mount an appeal, the bank says. It says it agreed to help him in return for the four DVDs that contained the data. But his demands were ridiculous. He demanded that he be issued with two new passports amongst other things. He told the authorities that he would pass the data onto the media if he didn't get his way. The authorities called his bluff and issued an arrest warrant. But LGT's approach paid off and he returned to face court.

But now, LGT realises that the data that the German tax authorities are talking about is the same data. The bank says "we are as sure as we can be that it was him."

In the meantime, Kieber has gone to ground. He is suspected to be hiding out in Australia under a new identity. So someone gave him a passport.