Geneva (AFP) – Swiss banking secrecy has not only allowed to evade taxes, but also to cover the criminal activities of large scale, such as money laundering of the drug or the financing of international terrorism, according to a survey released Monday by the international press, coordinated by the French newspaper Le Monde.
This investigation, dubbed SwissLeaks is file-based bank HSBC Switzerland, with headquarters in Geneva and stolen in 2007 by former Franco-Italian computer scientist Hervé Falciani.
The newspaper Le Monde has had access, by a secret informant, these files, providing information on more than 106,000 customers of the Swiss bank from approximately 200 countries.
The World Network told the International Consortium of investigative journalists (ICIJ) data, which were analyzed by more than 140 journalists from fifty media.
In Switzerland, the newspaper “The Guardian”, “Time”, “Le Matin Dimanche”, the “Tages-Anzeiger” and “SonntagsZeitung” attended SwissLeaks.
The files contain personal information about customers, notes bankers, and account movements.
As a result of these publications, voices were raised in Switzerland to demand prosecution HSBC against Switzerland, hitherto spared in this country, while investigations are already open in Belgium and France.
“I am very angry” and “an investigation” would be the least of it, “said Monday morning Micheline Calmy-Rey, a former Socialist minister of the Swiss government, adding that the image of Switzerland was seriously damaged by this case
-. ‘Des shortcomings of the past ‘-
Meanwhile, the Swiss bank HSBC has responded Monday in an email to AFP that information, saying they belonged “to the past.” “Since 2008, HSBC has radically changed its strategy,” added the bank, acknowledging that he had “shortcomings” in the past.
In these files are Saudis names, suspected of having financed Osama bin Laden in the 2000s, drug barons, arms traffickers and corrupt diamond.
According to the bank HSBC Switzerland, new management, put in place after the theft data in 2007, “conducted an in-depth examination of the cases, including closures client accounts that did not meet the high standards of the bank, and the establishment of a very thorough internal control system “.
” These revelations about practices of the past must be remembered that the old business model of the Swiss private bank is no longer acceptable, “concluded the Swiss bank.
The bank has cleaned up its customer portfolio, which suffered severe weight loss cure.
His clientele is reduced by 70% since 2007 and managed accounts are more than 10,000 ., against 30,000 there 8 years
The assets managed by the bank also shrunk from $ 118 million to 68 billion at end-2014
-. Crowned heads and celebrities showbiz –
The client names published on Monday by the press include those of the stars of show business, and business leaders or their heirs
These. names were previously known only by justice and some tax administrations, even if some elements had already leaked to the press.
Specifically, between 9 November 2006 and 31 March 2007, some 180.6 billion euros would have passed on HSBC accounts in Geneva, including hidden behind offshore structures in Panama and the British Virgin Islands, according to investigators.
In France, comedian Gad Elmaleh is quoted to have disposed of a poorly stocked account in Geneva, with a little over 80,000 euros between 2006 and 2007. According to the newspaper Le Monde information, it would have rectified the situation with the French tax authorities.
Among the names mentioned in various media include in particular the King Mohammed VI of Morocco and Jordan’s King Abdullah II.
The Swiss newspaper Le Temps focuses on politically exposed persons , citing among other Rami Makhlouf, a cousin of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
It also quotes former Haitian Minister Frantz Merceron or former Egyptian Minister of Trade and Industry Rachid Mohamed Rachid who had been sentenced to five years in prison in June 2011 for misuse of corporate assets from the fund for the development of the country.
“HSBC Private Bank (Suisse) continued to provide services to Customers who were adversely cited by the United Nations, in legal documents and in the media for their connection with arms trafficking, conflict diamonds, or corruption, “criticizes his side ICIJ.
The banking secrecy in Switzerland has fallen as fast shrinking in recent years, the pressure on Swiss banks having greatly increased while many governments have intensified the hunt for tax evasion.
On Monday and Tuesday, a G20 meeting held in Istanbul, where are found of finance ministers and central bankers. The G20 has made the fight against evasion and tax optimization one of his horses battles.
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