HSBC Employee Steals Info from 24,000 Swiss Bank Accounts
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HSBC Holdings PLC (NYSE: HBC) said on Thursday that a former employee stole information from roughly 24,000 accounts from the company's private Swiss bank. The data is now in the hands of French authorities as complications arise over the stolen data in the possession of a government that is pursuing tax cheats.
Herve Falciani, a information-technology employee with HSBC, is alleged to have stole the data in 2006 and 2007 and later tried to sell the information to several governments.
After he was confronted with the allegations in December 2008, Falciani fled to France where government law enforcement later raided his home and confiscated the data.
The information was later returned to Switzerland and France has agreed to not use the data as leverage to with Swiss authorities to secure further information that would help track down tax evaders, but France did reserve the right to unilaterally work with the bank to catch tax cheats in France.
The information may also be used by other governments that France allows to catch evaders in their own countries.
HSBC was under the impression that fewer than 10 clients were affected by the information theft, but on March 3 the bank only discovered massive volume of the theft after the French returned the data to Switzerland.
The government in Switzerland last year, reluctantly agreed to hand over data on 4,450 accounts of U.S. taxpayers that have allegedly evaded U.S. taxes, but the deal has been held up due to legal issues.
Recently governments have become more willing to pay for the information regarding tax evaders, which Falciani was trying to take advantage of when he stole the information. The Swiss government has denied that this has become a practice of the country’s banking system.
HSBC currently has a total of near 100,000 clients that use its private banking services worldwide.
Herve Falciani, a information-technology employee with HSBC, is alleged to have stole the data in 2006 and 2007 and later tried to sell the information to several governments.
After he was confronted with the allegations in December 2008, Falciani fled to France where government law enforcement later raided his home and confiscated the data.
The information was later returned to Switzerland and France has agreed to not use the data as leverage to with Swiss authorities to secure further information that would help track down tax evaders, but France did reserve the right to unilaterally work with the bank to catch tax cheats in France.
The information may also be used by other governments that France allows to catch evaders in their own countries.
HSBC was under the impression that fewer than 10 clients were affected by the information theft, but on March 3 the bank only discovered massive volume of the theft after the French returned the data to Switzerland.
The government in Switzerland last year, reluctantly agreed to hand over data on 4,450 accounts of U.S. taxpayers that have allegedly evaded U.S. taxes, but the deal has been held up due to legal issues.
Recently governments have become more willing to pay for the information regarding tax evaders, which Falciani was trying to take advantage of when he stole the information. The Swiss government has denied that this has become a practice of the country’s banking system.
HSBC currently has a total of near 100,000 clients that use its private banking services worldwide.
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