A Liechtenstein lawyer has angrily denied allegations of money laundering contained in a 1997 anonymous report to the German Intelligence Agency (BND) which was only released just recently. The secret BND report, which describes the Principality as a haunt for organised crime, lists several pages worth of individuals and foundations alleged to have been involved in money laundering for Russian, Italian, and Latin American organised crime syndicates - including notorious drug boss Pablo Escobar.
Among those named is Liechtenstein lawyer and trustee Dr Herbert Batliner who is accused in the anonymous report of having accepted large amounts of cash from Russian clients without ever asking about the origins of the money. At a press conference last week Mr Batliner's German lawyer Peter Monauni emphatically denied the allegations and said Mr Batliner was taking legal action to fight "the false allegations of the German Intelligence Agency". "This is an unequalled defamation. Such allegations are completely fictitious. Dr. Herbert Batliner will fight them accordingly" Mr Monauni said.
In an interview with the German magazine Der Spiegel last week, the Liechtenstein head of state Prince Hans-Adam II said he suspected the report was authored by someone from Liechtenstein to serve their own agenda, but refused to mention any names. While giving his full support for an investigation into the German allegations, he also remarked that they should have been investigated properly in 1997. Der Spiegel, however, was less than kind to the tiny principality, stating that the German report demonstrates that "an entire country, in the middle of Europe, appears to be in the service of criminals from all round the world. The findings destroy once and for all what was left of Liechtenstein's battered reputation."
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