Public prosecution spokesman Job Tilmann said in a telephone interview that the seven-month-old probe had been recently extended to Kohlhaussen and three other Commerzbank staff members, whose names or rank he did not reveal."We are at the very beginning of these investigations. It is too early to say when we will have a result," Tilmann said. Commerzbank has been at the centre of a tussle over alleged corporate tax evasion since a raid on its premises in February, after which the bank was forced to repay several hundred million marks in back-tax for the period from 1984 to 1995.
Commerzbank, which is contesting the size of the repayment, citing "differences of opinion" with tax authorities, said Kohlhaussen's involvement had come about because he signed tax returns during the period. "It has to be made very clear that these allegations are not accusations of personal wrongdoing. They only concern the bank's own tax returns," said Commerzbank spokesman Peter Pietsch in a telephone interview.
On the broader charges of corporate tax evasion, Pietsch said: "I can only repeat what Mr Kohlhaussen said himself in the past, that these charges are absolutely out of proportion." Pietsch added that Commerzbank had paid 5.2 billion marks in taxes over the period in question. Tilmann said the new part of the probe concerned the valuation of items on Commerzbank's balance sheet, particularly losses booked at group level for US subsidiaries which he said had been already written off in the US.