French Prosecutor Seeks Trial for HSBC's Swiss Operation
PARIS — HSBC’s Swiss unit, the source of so much recent trouble for the British bank, has further problems.
France’s financial prosecutor’s office said on Friday that it had recommended to French magistrates that HSBC’s Swiss operation be criminally charged with encouraging tax evasion.
The Swiss unit, HSBC Private Bank (Suisse), now has a month to respond to judicial authorities, after which magistrates will determine whether the case would go to trial.
HSBC Private Bank is facing a number of investigations around the world, including charges in Belgium on grounds similar to those in France. Even Switzerland, hardly known for taking a hard line against banks that abet tax evasion, has opened an investigation of HSBC Private Bank for suspected money laundering.
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The accusations trace to 2007, when a whistle-blower named Hervé Falciani took files containing information on thousands of HSBC Private Bank accounts and handed them to the French government. Those same files ultimately served as the source of the data behind a report last month in which the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and other news outlets published files that appeared to show HSBC Private Bank working aggressively to enable tax evasion in the period 2005 to 2007.
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