The release on the website of International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) informs that the Swiss department of the HSBC bank assisted certain clients in tax evasion and provided criminals, drug dealers, and arms dealers with private accounts.
The bank’s paperwork over 2005-2007 contains information regarding 30,000 accounts for approximately $120 billion. According to the data investigated, a large part of assets (about $12.6 billion) belongs to the government of Venezuela.
That information was provided to a French newspapers and ICIJ by Christine Lagarde who held the position of French finance minister at that time. Lagarde received some files from Herve Falciani, a former employee of the HSBC bank who stole several discs with confidential data when he was dismissed.
The bank’s headquarters admitted guilt and declared willingness to incur liability for the illegal actions of the Swiss subsidiary. HSBC said the Geneva department had not been fully integrated into the system of the lending institution. The bank’s representative also noted that HSBC held radical transformation since 2007 and implemented several reforms to ensure that the system is not used for tax evasion and money laundering.
Law enforcement officials of several European countries report that the leak revealed information on billions dollars of unpaid taxes.
The Argentine authority alleged that the bank had laundered money and used illegal methods to pay no taxes in 2013. And the authorities of Belgium started investigating the Swiss HSBC Private Bank in 2014.
In 2012, the bank agreed to pay $1.9 billion in fines to the U.S. authorities to settle charges of illicit financial transactions, but only on the background of evidence that Mexican drug cartels moved money illegally through its subsidiaries.
HSBC is one of the largest financial conglomerates of the world which has over 6,900 subsidiaries in 84 countries.
