BERLIN (AP) — German tax authorities have purchased confidential information about clients of British private bank Coutts to check if they were hiding money in Switzerland, German media reported Saturday.

Financial Times Deutschland and Der Spiegel, citing anonymous sources, said that officials in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia paid €3.5 million ($4.26 million) for a CD containing the names of some 1,000 rich Germans who had accounts with Coutts in Zurich.

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