BERLIN, Feb 26: The United States and Australia joined in the hunt for tax dodgers using Liechtenstein as Germany said on Tuesday it had widened its investigation into the scam in the Alpine principality.

The US Internal Revenue Service said it was investigating more than 100 American taxpayers over bank accounts held in Liechtenstein, while Australian tax authorities said they were looking into 20 cases.

Italy and France were quick to follow suit, saying that they had found their nationals on a list of names with accounts in Liechtenstein being circulated by the tax authorities.

Earlier, Sweden confirmed that it was among nine OECD countries that were studying information on accounts in the small country nestled between Austria and Switzerland, suggesting the tax probe was taking on an unprecedented international scope.

In Germany, state prosecutor Hans-Ulrich Krueck said investigators had turned their attention to a second foreign bank believed to be involved in the scandal that initially focused on Liechtenstein’s LGT group.

Krueck said inspectors stumbled across information pointing to the institution while investigating there German banks for helping clients evade taxes by placing billions of euros in trusts in Liechtenstein.

“In the course of our investigation, the name of a second foreign bank believed to have provided clients with similar advice on the management of their investments, emerged,” he said.

Krueck did not name the bank nor the country where it is based, but a report in the Sueddeutsche Zeitung daily said authorities were targeting a subsidiary of Swiss private banking group Vontobel in Liechtenstein.

In Zurich, Vontobel on Tuesday rejected the reports, saying that none of its client data was being examined in connection with the affair.

“Vontobel Treuhand AG, Liechtenstein, wishes to confirm that none of its client data have been obtained unlawfully or used for improper purposes,” the parent bank said.

A Vontobel spokesman added that the director of its Liechtenstein unit had previously worked at the principality’s LGT Group.—AFP