Germany sues Swiss bank over vanished East German cash

Berlin is suing one of Switzerland's largest banks in its bid to recuperate hundreds of million euros that went missing during the reunification of East and West Germany, the bank said. Julius Baer told AFP it was being sued by Germany for 110 million Swiss francs (91 million euros, $120 million), plus interest, over allegations a bank it later bought had allowed cash to be withdrawn illegally. ‘The bank denies the claim and has taken measures to protect its interests,’ spokesman Jan Vonder Muehll said in an email, adding that the bank had informed shareholders of the lawsuit in its last earnings report. Since East and West Germany were reunified in 1990, the country has launched dozens of lawsuits in various jurisdictions to try to recover money stashed by the former regime. German authorities filed the suit with a Zurich court last week charging that Cantrade, a bank bought by Julius Baer in 2005, had not stopped a former top East German official from illegally taking money. Vonder Muehll insisted, however, that Switzerland's largest bank UBS, which sold Cantrade to Julius Baer, should answer the accusations, according to AFP.