THE first of hundreds of rich Britons being investigated over secret Liechtenstein bank accounts has been identified as a property magnate thought to have fled to South America.

Michael Miskin, 65, is among 300 British people named in stolen bank documents that were sold to the tax authorities by a whistleblower who worked at LGT, one of the principality’s biggest banks.

Tax authorities across the world are now using the data to investigate people suspected of hiding their assets in the tax haven.

Miskin, once an active Freemason, amassed a fortune during the 1980s through Waterglade International, a property firm that specialised in building shopping arcades.

When the company floated in London in 1987, he became a multi-millionaire and soon afterwards left the company. Waterglade went into receivership in 1994 owing almost £30m, including an estimated £800,000 in Vat.

LGT documents made public in a US Senate investigation into tax havens show that Miskin used the bank to hide assets from his wife Stephanie during divorce proceedings five years ago.

At one stage Miskin had $6m (about £3m) in LGT bank accounts. The retired businessman still owes his ex-wife a divorce settlement of £3m.

The whereabouts of Miskin are unknown, but he has recently claimed in documents still to be a British citizen. Over the past 15 years he has lived in California and Mexico and, according to some sources, may be living in Costa Rica.

One former friend said: “It is as if he has disappeared off the face of the earth. It was extraordinary - one day he just got up and left his wife after 38 years. He still owes her a fortune from the divorce settlement.”

The American tax authorities are also investigating claims that Miskin should have paid tax while he lived in California. At the time he had claimed to be resident in Bermuda for tax purposes.

Miskin is just the first of hundreds of Britons who could be prosecuted using the data bought from Heinrich Kieber, 43, the Liechtenstein informant.

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) believes that it will collect £300m of unpaid tax by investigating those identified. It is also pursuing another Liechtenstein bank, understood to have hundreds of other British clients.

Dave Hartnett, acting chairman of HMRC, has said there are “paragons of virtue that will fall from grace” as a result of data obtained from Kieber. They are understood to include celebrities and peers. He is optimistic that prosecutions will begin within months. Anyone found guilty of evading tax could be jailed for up to six years. Hartnett has said that he will “push for sentences”.

Kieber, meanwhile, fears for his life. A website is offering $10m for his whereabouts. Drugs barons and other criminals may be named in the documents he has sold.

Rumours are also sweeping Europe that even more data on rich investors from Liechtenstein may be bought up by tax authorities.

Germany’s government last week bought another set of data listing the names of 1,850 more people with bank accounts in the principality.

The recent US Senate investigation estimated that Liechtenstein bank accounts are used to avoid £1 billion of tax a year.

A partner at one the world’s biggest accountancy firms said: “By buying stolen data, tax authorities have encouraged anyone in a bank in Liechtenstein, Monaco or any other tax haven to sell private banking records for cash.

“Ethically and legally that is surely a highly questionable way to proceed.”

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