French prosecutor used covert measures in Google investigation

Eliane Houlette said her team, which was responding to fraud allegations, worked offline and never mentioned company by name

The French investigators who raided Google's Paris offices last week have revealed the extreme security measures taken to keep their investigation hidden from the technology group, with teams working offline and never referring to the company by name.

Codenamed operation Tulip, the investigation was named after the shell company in the Netherlands through which Google routes billions in revenues each year to avoid taxes on most of its overseas income.