Bochum, Germany  - Germany launched Friday a series of trials of tax dodgers whose hidden riches in the Alpine principality of Liechtenstein were exposed when a bank executive betrayed the secret.

Judges told the first multi-millionaire up for trial he would probably receive a suspended term of two years' jail for evading 7.5 million euros (11.8 million dollars) in tax between 2001 and 2006.

Germany's BND foreign intelligence service described in February how it bought data on trusts managed by the Liechtenstein Bank LTG on behalf of wealthy tax-shy Europeans. The BND reportedly paid about 4 million euros (6 million dollars) for one DVD with the data.

Since then, German prosecutors have recovered 110 million euros in arrears from repentant taxpayers hoping to ward off trials, according to a prosecutor, Eduard Gueroff, quoted Friday by the newspaper Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung.

Other European nations have mounted similar sweeps using the leaked data.

The man, 66, on trial Friday in the western city of Bochum made his money in real estate and lives in Bad Homburg, a suburb of mansions and millionaires near the city of Frankfurt.

Under a plea bargain, he admitted evasion and prosecutors asked for the jail term to be suspended. The judges must approve the deal.

Prosecutors in Bochum said they have opened inquiries against about 700 tax dodgers all over Germany. Under German tax law, they were supposed to report all dividends and interest earned abroad by trusts that they fully controlled.

Liechtenstein has angrily denied abetting tax evasion, but also refuses to disclose whose money it is keeping, saying it is up to bank clients to honestly report their income in their home nations.

The scandal broke in February when police identified Klaus Zumwinkel, chief executive of world parcels and mail carrier Deutsche Post, as a suspect. TV news trucks staked out his home as it was searched and he resigned his post.

Many scared taxpayers turned themselves in, even if they were not named on the DVD. The newspaper quoted Gueroff saying that after 200 searches of homes and offices, prosecutors were still not finished.

"We're doing a bit more raiding again at the moment," he said. (dpa)