” Client extremely satisfied “: The Hilton Hotel in Tel Aviv met the employees of HSBC Switzerland dozens of clients. Photo: Walter Bibikow (Mauritius Images)
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Belgium wants evidence
The Belgian judiciary has increased yesterday Monday in proceedings against HSBC Switzerland printing. A prosecutor in Brussels has made a request for legal assistance, according to a communiqué two months ago with the Swiss authorities. To date we have received from Switzerland “still no answer.” The prosecutor is now threatening so to issue against the former directors of the Bank issued international arrest warrants, no “effective cooperation” with Switzerland should be possible. Possibly the warrants would be extended to the current management. The background is the investigation against HSBC Switzerland for tax evasion and illegal practice of financial activities that started on November 17, 2014. Some of the information received by the bank itself, the Belgian authorities; others are available only through legal assistance. The Federal Office of Justice confirmed on Monday against the TA the receipt of the application. It was currently being tested, a spokesman said. The test is not yet complete, so no reply had yet been made as well.
HSBC Switzerland took no position on the threat. CEO Franco Morra added in a statement yesterday sent only position that the bank had already been made public: “We have no appetite for customers who do not comply with our compliance standards. The latest revelations are a reminder that the old business model of the Swiss private banking is no longer acceptable. “ (ms)
Since September 2014 some 140 journalists analyze customer data private bank HSBC Switzerland. Project is led by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). As of February 9, 2015 publish their research over 40 media, including “Le Monde”, “Süddeutsche Zeitung”, “Guardian”, BBC and CBS. In Switzerland, the “Tages-Anzeiger” involving “The Bund”, “Sunday newspaper”, “Le Matin Dimanche”, “L’Hebdo” and “Le Temps”. The Swiss research will be published on www.swissleaks.net
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They met their clients at the Hilton Hotel in Tel Aviv In Franklin Roosevelt in Paris.. In “his summer residence in Copenhagen.” In the shimmering heat of Pointe-Noire in Congo. In Nairobi, in Lomé, the capital of Togo, Senegal, Saudi Arabia. In the Park Lane Hotel in Antwerp, they sat together with Belgian diamond dealers. And of course the client also came to them in the stores to Zurich, Geneva and Lugano.
The customers of HSBC Private Bank Switzerland was spread across 150 countries, and then the oriented “relationship manager” of the bank. “Some were traveling for two weeks, came back for two days – and headed right back on the road,” a former employee recalls
1645 appointments with customers
The problem: Some customer meetings were illegal. And many decisions that have been felled in hotel lounges and gourmet restaurants, today employ the judiciary. The allegations always go in the same direction: HSBC Switzerland has been helping its clients in tax offenses, and their advisors have recruited illegally customers and / or supervised. So far, five states have determined against the Bank: France, Spain, Belgium, Argentina and the USA
This list could still extend.. Alone in the years 2004 and 2005 were held in 25 countries held at least 1,645 customer appointments, has as an evaluation of baz.ch/Newsnet result. The analysis is based on account data and electronic customer appointments notes the bankers. The records span the years 2004 to 2007. They are part of the data collection, which was leaked to the French newspaper “Le Monde” and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.
The data allow the tissues of the HSBC Switzerland zoom in. Thus, it can be observed how well the “cross-border” -Business – and how it brought the bank to lurch
The disaster began with five DVDs.. 26 December 2008 Hervé Falciani handed the silver discs at the airport of Nice French tax investigators. The computer had copied in the bank secret files, the names, account numbers and stands contained more than 100 000 entries. A treasure for the tax authorities, a disaster for the bank. And a political disaster: the “Affaire Falciani» disturbed the French-Swiss relations – for Switzerland was the man a data thief, for France a valuable source
If there is this: From 2010, the French gave the files on. , Belgium, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Spain, Canada, Australia, the United States. An unprecedented hunt for tax evaders to run. Spain drove at least 300 million euros of taxpayers’ money a, England 135 million pounds. In Greece, led the “Falciani List» a scandal, because politicians appeared in it. Under pressure from the fiscal hunt the voluntary disclosure skyrocketed – in France alone flowed 1.2 billion euros to the state
This was the first phase.. In some countries this will run until today; India has about also access to the data concerned and now shines through 627 names. Other states have completed the research. So Germany has gone through all 1136 items according to judicial sources.
“If 1 million USD received”
While the public was concerned with names and account balances of prominence, were washed up in the course of the investigation, the second phase ran in the background: the attack on the bank itself also plays here France – in addition to the United States – the role of the leader.. On 18 November 2014, the French prosecutors announced officially, the bank was being investigated. Preliminary, they demanded a deposit of 50 million euros.
Investigators accuse the HSBC ago, their relationship managers were active without the necessary permit in France. Police identified 24 bankers, who had met in France with customers. It was not just to maintain relations in a more relaxed atmosphere – it was a matter of business, as the notes of the consultants show: “Paris, 6. 1. 05: Client wanted to see me to discuss the closure of two accounts at Barclays Bank and UBS and the transfer of money to talk to us. Got the portfolio looked, we should get a fortune of $ 1 million. “
Not all customers were millionaires. The less money someone brought the bank, the better his contacts had to be. Thus, the head of a clothing boutique in Marseille was able to score, “Little customer, but good potential because of his mother and his brothers” noted the consultant. Or a client in Barcelona, who had deposited 700,000 dollars in the bank: Despite a heart attack shortly before he invited “his” banker to dinner, accompanied by “several friends and business partners.” To thank him and his son, the Bank offered an invitation to a Formula 1 race. The customer was as recorded in his Fiche “very pleased”. The bankers knew that they were moving on dangerous ground. “The Relationship Manager had special mobile phones to call their office can discreetly while they were abroad,” says a former employee of the Bank to baz.ch/Newsnet. “One day, one stopped at customs. Then they were allowed to take no more laptops. “
” Offshore Outlet »
The second accusation of the French to the bank turns to tax evasion. HSBC is said to have helped their clients as “organized gang” while hiding from tax money. The Falciani files show that the HSBC functioned as a kind of “offshore Outlet”. She offered her clients “off the shelf” companies in tax havens in order to avoid a new tax. From the summer of 2005 had to European clients of Swiss banks pay interest on the profits of their tax systems, low 15 percent, then 35 percent. But there are “opportunities” to avoid this tax, the bank said their clients.
What that meant a customer described the French investigators. He had paid just under 400,000 euros to an account: “The bank offered me to take over an offshore company in Panama or in the British Virgin Islands. For such companies, the new tax did not apply. The name
” Significant punishment “
HSBC Switzerland decided in the light of the allegations to cooperate with the French authorities , baz.ch/Newsnet are several interrogation protocols of the chief lawyers. Who said the bank would consider to end the dispute with France with an admission of guilt. It would not be the first such recognition: In the US, HSBC Switzerland has paid a sum of 12.5 million dollars to the US Securities and Exchange Commission already in November 2014. Even then, she admitted that her advisers had been recruited and serves customers without a license.
An agreement with France would delete just one of many fires. In the United States, the Justice Department will impose a million buses against the bank probably because of tax offenses, HSBC itself expects a “significant punishment.” And between Madrid, Brussels and Paris has emerged a investigator Alliance: Belgian and Spanish have established with the French ever a joint team and share evidence from. Spain, the Bank has not yet formally accused; Belgian prosecutors, however, did so in November 2014, almost in lockstep with France. A glance at the data shows that the bankers had traveled 2004 and 2005, more than 80 times to Antwerp. Many clients were diamond traders – and they were interested in cheap offshore constructs. A banker noted: “Antwerp, 2. 3. 05. We met the client in her office. We sell you a simple Panama Society for 1,200 dollars. I told her that we will warn you if the company no longer meets their tax purpose [. , .]. We would then adjust accordingly the structure. “
The HSBC chief legal officer pointed in his interview carefully, wanting to quit and the dispute with Belgium by consensus when all the facts are known. But even then the bank will record Falciani can not close. The account manager worked on four continents, the baz.ch/Newsnet-Analyse discloses meeting in Morocco, Italy, Turkey, South Africa and Israel. Many of these countries have not yet received the Falciani files so far; . France but still seems to be willing to share the data with other states
can How quickly go to shows the case of Argentina: end September 2014 sent the French data, in November attacked the taxman by , HSBC have built for 4040 Argentine customers’ Matrioschka system “of offshore companies, said an investigator to the press.
“Zidane”, “Cruyf”
HSBC did not respond to questions from baz.ch/Newsnet to travel by their Relationship Manager. In a general statement, the bank writes, the Swiss private banking industry had earlier works quite differently than today. You acknowledge “past compliance and control error”. The Bank of cooperating with the “relevant authorities” which these “matters” under investigation.
These “matters” includes the case of a Belgian exchange trader. On January 4, 2005, HSBC Banker following entry stored in the internal database: “We have a prohibition to call the customer. He always call us. Called today. He often mentions the name of a football player (“Zidane”, “Cruyf” [sic]); want to know the price of caviar, ie, the state of its assets. “
The highest” Caviar price »2006/2007 was exactly 1’249’672,00 dollars.
(Tages-Anzeiger)
Created: 09/02/2015, 23:45 clock
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