German spy case closes after mystery Mossad agent fails to show for trial
German spy Werner Mauss is said to have taken on the Mafia, ISIS and even attempted finding lost treasures - but the German tax authority was too much for him.
By HAGAY HACOHENUpdated: OCTOBER 9, 2017 09:43Top secret materials(photo credit: ING IMAGE/ASAP)
Famous German spy Werner Mauss was found guilty of tax evasion last Thursday after failing to provide a key witness: an Israeli Mossad agent. The agent, who was referred to in all legal discussions about him as “Mr. Adam,” was supposedly able to testify that Mauss's offshore accounts were meant to support his undercover work for various spy agencies, including the Mossad, which also deposited money into the account.The accounts contained 50 million Euros, and led to a year-long trial after they were exposed in the Panama Papers and the German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung.In August, the German news site RuhrNachrichten reported that an Israeli Mossad agent who was involved in the working relations between Germany and Israel was meant to appear in court and verify Mauss's claim that the money in the offshore accounts was linked to top-secret work.Werner Mauss (credit: Reuters)However, the Israeli declined to appear in the German court, as doing so would be a breach of Mossad security protocol. He offered instead to fill out an affidavit if one would be sent to Israel and approved by his department before he answered it.The German court rejected the offer, as it had no way of verifying who would actually be providing them with this information.Werner Mauss (credit: Ina Fassbender/ AFP)The English news service operated by Deutsche Welle, DW News, reported that Mauss received a two-year suspended sentence for maintaining the accounts between 2002 and 2011 and was instructed to donate 200,000 Euros to charity.Judge Markus van den Hövel said he had Mauss’s "impressive life's work" in mind when he made his judgment.Seventy-seven-year-old Mauss, began his career in security and espionage when he opened a private investigation agency at the age of 20. He claims to have been involved in a variety of top secret missions, from preventing a papal assassination by the mafia to fighting ISIS and even searching for lost German treasures from the Cologne Cathedral.
