Geneva's public prosecutor searched HSBC's lakeside Swiss office. HSBC Holdings plc is a British multinational banking and financial services company headquartered in London. Geneva Attorney General and the prosecutor are conducting the search as a part of the criminal inquiry opened on the grounds of allegations of aggravated money laundering. “The search has been initiated because of recent public revelations about HSBC’s Swiss private banking unit,” the law enforcement authorities of Geneva canton said in a statement. A few days before the legal action, HSBC headquarters admitted the wrongdoing and apologized to customers and investors over the previous failings of its Swiss business. At the same time, London-based head office specified that its Swiss unit is not fully integrated into the lending institution’s structure. Besides, Franco Morra, chief executive of HSBC’s Swiss bank, said that the unit “began a radical transformation in 2008 to prevent its services from being used to evade taxes or launder money.” The UK bank’s Swiss unit was spotted by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. So, journalists conducted independent investigation and obtained concrete evidence that the Swiss unit sheltered secret accounts of drug dealers and arm dealers as well as advised clients on ways to dodge taxes. In the period from 2005 until 2007, the bank in Geneva registered over 30,000 secrets accounts with total deposits of almost $120 billion. In terms of a deposit’s size, Venezuela’s government tops the list with its holding of $12.6 billion. HSBC chain includes over 6,900 offices in 84 countries.
