HSBC leaker Herve Falciani detained in Spain: police

Yahoo – AFP,  April 4, 2018

Herve Falciani, the former HSBC employee whose disclosures uncorked the
 "Swissleaks" scandal on bank-supported tax evasion, has been detained in
Spain (AFP Photo/Jean-Philippe KSIAZEK)

Madrid (AFP) - Spanish police on Wednesday detained Herve Falciani, a former computer analyst at the Swiss branch of HSBC who leaked documents alleging the bank helped clients evade millions of dollars in taxes, a police source said.

"He was arrested in Madrid, in the street on the way to a conference," a top police official told AFP, adding the arrest was made at the request of Switzerland, which is seeking his extradition.

A Swiss court in 2015 convicted Falciani, a French-Italian national, of aggravated industrial espionage and handed him a five-year prison sentence.

He did not attend his trial and has avoided Switzerland since.

Falciani leaked a cache of documents allegedly indicating that HSBC's Swiss private banking arm helped more than 120,000 clients to hide 180.6 billion euros ($222 billion) from tax authorities, sparking the so-called "Swissleaks" scandal.

While he is widely viewed as a whistleblower and hailed as a hero in countries where his leaked information is helping catch tax cheats, Swiss authorities prosecuted him for data theft, industrial espionage, and violating the country's long-cherished banking secrecy laws.

Falciani became an IT worker for HSBC in 2000 and moved to the bank's offices in Geneva in 2006.

The so-called "Snowden of tax evasion" and "the man who terrifies the rich" then obtained access to a massive database of encrypted customer information.

He took the client list in 2007 and went to Lebanon with his mistress the next year planning to sell the data. Swiss authorities described it as "cashing in".

Yet suspicious bankers in Lebanon were not interested in buying the dubiously sourced client list and at least one tipped off their Swiss counterparts to Falciani's activities.

Falciani then got in contact with European fiscal authorities and began passing them the pilfered information, which prompted numerous tax evasion audits.

Falciani rejects that he was only seeking financial gain, insisting he had wanted to expose how banks support tax evasion and money laundering.

He travelled to Spain by boat in July 2012 and was arrested in Barcelona on an international warrant seeking his extradition to Switzerland.

Falciani then spent a couple of months in a Spanish prison.

In 2013, Spain's High Court ruled against extraditing Falciani on the grounds that the charges he faced in Switzerland are not considered crimes under Spanish law.

HSBC to pay 300 mn euros to avoid French tax fraud trial

Yahoo – AFP, November 14, 2017

HSBC Private Bank, a Swiss unit of banking giant HSBC, has agreed to pay 300 million
 euros ($352 million) to avoid going to trial in France for enabling tax fraud. (AFP Photo/
FABRICE COFFRINI)

Paris (AFP) - HSBC Private Bank, a Swiss unit of banking giant HSBC, has agreed to pay 300 million euros ($352 million) to avoid going to trial in France for enabling tax fraud, prosecutors said Tuesday.

HSBC was accused last year of helping French clients to hide at least 1.67 billion euros from the tax authorities, according to a source close to the probe.

The deal struck between the financial crime prosecutor's office and the bank is a first in France under a new procedure that allows companies under suspicion of corruption or dissimulation of tax fraud to negotiate a fine to stop a case from going to trial.

The deal does not include a guilty plea and French prosecutors have now dropped the case against HSBC Holdings.

Investigators believe that HSBC's private banking division offered its customers several ways of hiding assets from the French taxman, notably via the use of offshore tax havens.

The banking giant was at first accused of failing in its supervisory role over its private banking division, but further investigation led to suspicions that HSBC "participated actively in the fraudulent practices", the source close to the investigation said.

The probe named the former chief executive of the bank's Swiss private banking arm, Peter Braunwalder, and another executive, Judah Elmaleh.

The case began when French authorities in late 2008 received files stolen by Herve Falciani, a former HSBC employee, whose disclosures sparked the so-called "Swissleaks" scandal on bank-supported tax evasion.

The French-Italian national -- dubbed by some media as "The Edward Snowden of banking" -- leaked a cache of documents allegedly indicating that HSBC helped more than 120,000 clients of a number of nationalities to hide 180.6 billion euros from tax authorities between November 2006 and March 2007.

He was sentenced in absentia in November in Switzerland to five years in prison. The leaked files led to investigations by tax authorities in several European countries including, in addition to France, Spain and Belgium.

Credit Suisse apparent target of massive tax fraud probe

Yahoo – AFP, Ben Simon, March 31, 2017

Credit Suisse simply said its offices had been 'visited' by authorities, but reports
 say it's the main target of a sweeping tax evasion probe (AFP Photo/FABRICE
COFFRINI)

Geneva (AFP) - Authorities in Europe and Australia announced a sweeping tax evasion probe Friday reportedly targeting Credit Suisse clients and senior employees, as investigators detailed arrests and the seizure of artworks and gold.

There was no definitive confirmation that Credit Suisse was the main target of the fraud investigations, run by at least four European countries and Canberra and apparently involving hundreds of suspects.

The Swiss financial giant simply confirmed that its offices in London, Paris and Amsterdam had been visited by local authorities on Thursday "concerning client tax matters".

"We are cooperating with the authorities", Switzerland's number-two bank said in a statement.

Dutch prosecutors said dozens of people who allegedly concealed millions of euros were being probed for tax fraud and money laundering and that records were seized on Thursday from "a Swiss bank" which they did not name.

Similar operations were carried out in Britain, France, Germany and Australia, all focused on clients who "deposited their money in the same Swiss bank", according to a statement from the National Prosecutor's Office for Serious Fraud, Environmental Crime and Asset Confiscation (FIOD).

Two people accused of not declaring their savings have been arrested and two other suspects were interrogated, the FIOD said.

"Properties, and jewellery, an expensive car, expensive paintings and a gold bar", were seized from houses in The Hague and three other areas, the Dutch statement added.

'Senior employees' targeted

Britain's Revenue and Customs office said that it on Thursday along with international partners had launched a criminal probe into tax evasion and money laundering "by a global financial institution".

"The first phase of the investigation, which will see further, targeted, activity over the coming weeks, is focused on senior employees from within the institution, along with a number of its customers," the statement from London said.

It also made no mention of Credit Suisse, but said the investigation should serve as a stark reminder to institutions that aim to help clients evade tax.

Would-be tax cheats "need to wake up to reality and accept that attempting to hide wealth overseas, or within institutions, doesn't work."

French prosecutors confirmed that they too had opened a tax fraud investigation into undeclared Swiss bank accounts.

The financial fraud office said it had identified several thousands of accounts in Switzerland that were allegedly used to hide money.

This amounted to suspected "aggravated dissimulation of tax fraud", it said, with no reference to Credit Suisse.

346 people implicated

In Australia, revenue and financial services minister Kelly O'Dwyer said investigators there had identified more than 346 people "with links to Swiss banking relationship managers" who allegedly promoted tax evasion.

Australian investigators plan to "move quickly" against those who schemed to hide wealth, she said, noting however that some of those in the firing line will likely be exonerated.

The launch of a coordinated, international probe targeting an iconic Swiss bank came as a surprise to Bern, Switzerland's ATS news agency reported.

The Swiss attorney general's office was not aware of the operations and demanded a written explanation from Dutch officials in particular over the lack of cooperation, according to ATS.

Credit Suisse has previously been in the crosshairs of tax officials.

US regulators fined the bank $2.6 billion (2.4 billion euros) in 2014 for helping Americans evade taxes.

"Credit Suisse continues to follow a strategy of full client tax compliance," the bank said Friday.

The coordinated probe comes as Credit Suisse rolls out its new Automatic Exchange of Information programme designed to share taxpayer information with relevant global authorities as part of a wider Swiss crackdown on money laundering and secretive banking.

burs/bs/jh

Related Article:

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Swiss authorities probe 7 banks for suspected metals price fixing

Yahoo – AFP, Nina Larson, 28 Sep 2015

Swiss competition authorities are investigating UBS, HSBC, Deutsche Bank 

and four other banks on suspicion of price fixing in the precious metals market

(AFP Photo/Fabrice Coffrini)

Geneva (AFP) - Swiss competition authorities said Monday they were investigating UBS, HSBC, Deutsche Bank and four other major banks for suspected price fixing in the trade of precious metals like gold and silver.

The Swiss Competition Commission (COMCO) said it was looking into whether seven banks had colluded to manipulate prices in the precious metals market.

The watchdog said in a statement that it had "opened an investigation against two Swiss banks, UBS and Julius Baer, as well as against the foreign financial institutions Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Barclays, Morgan Stanley and Mitsui."

The Swiss Competition Commission says

it is investigating two Swiss banks, UBS 

and Julius Baer, as well as against the

 foreign financial institutions Deutsche

Bank,HSBC, Barclays, Morgan Stanley

and Mitsui (AFP Photo/Fabrice Coffrini)

COMCO, which opened a preliminary probe in February, said it now had indications that the banks had "possibly concluded illegal competition defying deals" in the trade of the precious metals gold, silver, platinum and palladium.

"We think they can have manipulated the price of these precious metals," COMCO deputy chief Patric Ducrey told AFP.

The competition authority said it especially suspected the banks had fixed the prices of bid/ask spreads within the market.

Ducrey said the banks had all been informed of the ongoing probe, and that the investigation would likely conclude in 2017.

Impact unclear

Credit Suisse analyst Cristine Schmid told AFP it was too early to say how the COMCO probe would impact the targeted banks, beyond pushing up their legal costs.

HSBC is one of several banks being 

investigated by Swiss authorities for

price fixing (AFP Photo/Philippe Huguen)

"We would need to know first of all in case the allegations are true for how long this has lasted, what were the volumes affected and what is the average kind of spreads versus market spreads," she said, pointing out that the longer the alleged price agreements would have lasted, "the worse for the banks."

This was not the first time the role of banks in determining the price of precious metals has been questioned.

In August, the European Commission said it was investigating "anti-competitive behaviour in precious metals spot trading."

And in February, US financial media reported that the Justice Department had opened its own investigation into suspected manipulation of precious metals markets by 10 major international banks: HSBC, Bank of Nova Scotia, Barclays, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Societe Generale, Standard Bank and UBS.

Goldman Sachs, HSBC, Standard Bank of South Africa and the German chemical group BASF have also been under a US investigation since last November over a complaint alleging rigging of the prices of platinum and palladium.

There are moves underway to reform the 

century-old method of gold price "fixing,"

 since the current global benchmark,

 London's Gold Fix, has already been 

tainted by a rigging scandal (AFP

Photo/Sebastian Derungs)

Julius Baer, which was not part of the US investigation, told AFP Monday it would "constructively cooperate" with the COMCO investigation.

UBS, which did not immediately return requests for comment Monday, said in May it had won immunity from criminal fraud charges in the US probe, after agreeing to provide the Justice Department with information about precious metal transactions.

Reform under way

Precious metals have increasingly come under scrutiny after the discovery that other financial benchmarks have been rigged.

Some of the banks under investigation Monday were already hit by massive fines earlier this year after pleading guilty to US charges of conspiring to rig Libor rates, the global commercial interest rate benchmark used to peg millions of rate-sensitive contracts and loans around the world.

Traders operate in the pit at the London 

Metal Exchange in central London, 21 

September 2007 (AFP Photo/Shaun Curry)

That rate is estimated to underpin some $500 trillion worth of contracts.

The price-setting mechanism to determine benchmark prices for precious metals has also been under reform, amid calls for greater transparency.

Panels of banks have until recently agreed on the reference prices for the precious metals.

But last year, the exchange CME Group and financial information giant Thomson Reuters began providing an electronic system for setting benchmark silver prices, and the London Metal Exchange (LME) did the same for platinum and palladium.

There are also moves under way to reform the century-old method of gold price "fixing," since the current global benchmark, London's Gold Fix, has already been tainted by a rigging scandal and attacked by critics as old-fashioned.

A new method for setting the gold benchmark price is expected to take effect in March.

Jeremy Corbyn wins Britain's Labour party leadership contest

Britain's opposition Labour party has elected veteran left winger Jeremy Corbyn as its new leader. The one-time outsider succeeds Ed Miliband, who stepped down after the party's electoral defeat in May.

Avowed Socialist and anti-austerity advocate Jeremy Corbyn won 59.5 percent of the ballots cast, or 251, 417 votes, to take over the leadership position, the party announced at a special conference in London on Saturday.

He defeated three more centrist candidates. His closest rival, Andy Burnham, scored 19 percent. In all, party members cast 422,664 votes.

More 'decent society'

Addressing the party after the result, Corbyn said he wanted Labour to strive for a diverse, "decent and better society" open to all.

Corbyn, who has often voted against past party decisions, scored during the leadership campaign on a message of promising to increase state-funded investments and re-nationalizing parts of Britain's economy, including railways.

The defeated trio - Andy Burnham, Yvetter Cooper and Liz Kendall - were widely regarded as advocates of policies of former Labour Premier Tony Blair.

Labour out of power?

Critics, including Blair, had argued that Corbyn's socialist ideas and aversion to Britain's membership of the Western military alliance NATO, would alienate moderate voters and keep Labour out of power.

Corbyn only entered the contest at a late stage, saying he wanted to ensure wider debate among candidates.

Saturday's result means that he will debate head-to-head in the House of Commons every week with conservative Prime Minister David Cameron.

Advocate for the poor

Corbyn grew up in a political family. His parents met as activists during the Spanish Civil War. He worked for trade unions before being elected to the Commons in 1983.

Corbyn, who has never held major office but instead remained a serial backbench rebel, opposed the now deeply unpopular 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq that was advocated by Blair while in office.

Corbyn also opposes Cameron's austerity measures which have seen deep cuts to welfare and has in the past said he believes "we can learn a great deal" from Karl Marx.

ipj/sms (AFP, AP, Reuters)

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"Recalibration of Free Choice"–  Mar 3, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: (Old) Souls, Midpoint on 21-12-2012, Shift of Human Consciousness, Black & White vs. Color, 1 - Spirituality (Religions) shifting, Loose a Pope “soon”, 2 - Humans will change react to drama, 3 - Civilizations/Population on Earth,  4 - Alternate energy sources (Geothermal, Tidal (Paddle wheels), Wind), 5 – Financials Institutes/concepts will change (Integrity – Ethical) , 6 - News/Media/TV to change, 7 – Big Pharmaceutical company will collapse “soon”, (Keep people sick), (Integrity – Ethical)  8 – Wars will be over on Earth, Global Unity, … etc.) - (Text version)

“…5 - Integrity That May Surprise…

The Unthinkable… Politics, A Review

Humans will begin to search for integrity and fairness and it's going to happen in the places you never expect. I said this last week, so this is a review. There'll come a time when you will demand this of your politics - fairness and integrity. So when the candidates start calling each other names, you will turn your back on them and they won't get any votes. They're going to get the point real fast, don't you think? How about that?

Let me give you another potential. This country that I sit in right now [USA] will set the mold for that particular attribute. I have no clock. Watch for the youngsters to set this in motion, and they will, for they are the voters of tomorrow and they do not want the energy of today. To some of them, it's so abominable they won't even register to vote in this energy. You're going to see this soon. That was number five.. ..."

HSBC unveils radical overhaul to axe up to 50,000 jobs

Yahoo – AFP, Roland Jackson, Roland Jackson with Laura Mannering in Hong Kong, 9 June 2015

HSBC says about 25,000 jobs will be lost with the sale of operations in Turkey

and Brazil (AFP Photo/Ozan Kose)

HSBC will cut its global workforce by up to 50,000 as it exits Brazil and Turkey and mulls relocating headquarters back to Asia from London, the banking giant said Tuesday.

Europe's biggest bank aims to save up to $5.0 billion (4.4 billion euros) in annual costs within two and a half years as it seeks to boost profits and move past recent scandals that have scarred the British lender, including the rigging of foreign exchange markets.

HSBC said it wants to focus more on Asia, particularly in the Pearl River Delta region in southern China, amid an ongoing review of its London headquarters that will be completed this year.

Financial analysts predict that HSBC

 may relocate its headquarters from 

London to Hong Kong, owing to its low

tax regime (AFP Photo/Ben Stansall)

"We have reshaped HSBC, but it is clear it is insufficent," said chief executive Stuart Gulliver, who has implemented swinging cutbacks since becoming the bank's head in 2011.

With regard to the group's possible new base, Gulliver said "there is an opportunity to create another Hong Kong" in Guangdong.

"The world is increasingly connected, with Asia expected to show high growth and become the centre of global trade over the next decade," he added.

Philip Benton, an analyst at research group Euromonitor, said the bank was "redeploying their resources to where the most profit and the most revenue they can generate for the bank".

"HSBC is known as an Asian bank, that is what its heritage is. And I think the problem they faced in entering markets like Brazil and Turkey... it took them a while to be established and they were also up against strong competition from the local banks," he told AFP.

Headcount slashed

HSBC said there would be a 10-percent reduction in jobs with the shedding of between 22,000 and 25,000 positions worldwide.

A further 25,000 jobs would be lost with the sale of operations in Turkey and Brazil. However some or all of these staff could be kept on by potential buyers.

The group will meanwhile seek to axe its risk-weighted assets (RWA) by a hefty $290 billion, and also outlined plans to rebrand its British retail banking division.

The announcements sent HSBC's share prices dropping 0.97 percent to 613.50 pence in late deals on London's benchmark FTSE 100 index, which was down half a percent.

HSBC said the latest job losses would include between 7,000 and 8,000 positions in Britain -- where its retail bank is being relocated from London to Birmingham, central England, by 2019.

It also aims to trim its worldwide network of branches by 12 percent, with Britain being one of seven major regions to be impacted.

HSBC has been hit by Britain's banking levy on the financial sector -- which last year cost it $1.1 billion -- as well as new industry rules to "ring fence" British banks' retail operations to protect them from riskier investment divisions.

The bank aims to save $4.5-$5.0 billion in annual costs by late 2017.

However, the initial overall cost of the restructuring is estimated at $4.0-4.5 billion.

Swiss prosecutors have closed an investigation into claims HSBC's Geneva

branch helped clients evade millions of dollars in taxes (AFP Photo/Fabrice Coffrini)

'Strategic reset'

Investec bank analyst Ian Gordon described the news as "a positive announcement".

"Today’s strategic reset is focused on the delivery of cost and RWA efficiencies, and exiting unattractive markets," he said.

Nicolas Ziegelasch, head of equity research at broker Killik & Co, agreed.

"The announced restructuring is positive as the market had begun to question whether its sheer size and scale allowed it to generate strong returns," he said.

"The refocusing on the business on its Asian operations is in line with where future global growth will come from."

Founded in Hong Kong and Shanghai in 1865, HSBC has been based in Britain since 1992 when it took over Midland Bank and shifted its headquarters to London.

HSBC said it would change its brand name in Britain, with analysts saying it could turn current branches back into the Midland.

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Nina Ricci heir convicted of tax evasion in France with help of HSBC

Paris court sentences Arlette Ricci to three years in jail, two of them suspended, for ‘particularly determined willingness for over 20 years’ to hide money

The Guardian, Kim Willsher in Paris, 13 April 2015

Arlette Ricci is the first of around 50 wealthy French nationals being pursued in the
courts for allegedly placing money in Switzerland to avoid taxes. Photograph:
Loic Venance/AFP/Getty Images

The heir to the Nina Ricci perfume dynasty has been sentenced to three years in prison, two of them suspended, after being convicted on Monday of hiding money from the French taxman with the help of HSBC.

A Paris court also fined Arlette Ricci €1m (£722,000) after declaring she had shown a “particularly determined willingness for more than 20 years” to hide money left to her by her father in Swiss bank accounts.

“The seriousness of the facts are an exceptional threat to public order and the republican pact,” read the judgment, seen as an important precedent for as many as 50 other cases of alleged tax fraud involving HSBC in France.

Judges also ordered the seizure of a house in Paris and a property in Corsica with a total estimated value of €4m, that it said had been transferred to family trusts in an alleged attempt by Ricci to “organise her own insolvability” and escape financial penalties.

Ricci, 74, is the first of around 50 wealthy French nationals being pursued in the courts for allegedly placing money in Switzerland to avoid taxes.

During the high-profile trial, she was accused of hiding €18m from the French taxman. She had fiercely denied the accusations, insisting the measures taken to optimise her tax bill were legal.

The judgment comes just five days after HSBC Holdings was officially mis en examen, the French equivalent of being charged, for complicity in hiding fiscal fraud and illegal selling via its Swiss arm between 2006 and 2007. The bank was ordered to pay a €1bn surety. The Geneva-based branch of the bank is accused of having hidden around €5bn for nearly 9,000 wealthy French customers.

Ricci’s tax adviser Henri-Nicolas Fleurance was given a one-year suspended prison sentence and a €10,000 fine for attempting to organise her insolvency, and Ricci’s daughter an eight-month suspended sentence for fiscal fraud.

The heiress’s lawyers said they would consider the judgment before deciding whether to appeal.

The Swiss branch of HSBC, Britain’s biggest bank, was officially put under investigation last November on allegations that it helped rich clients conceal money in offshore accounts.

Ricci’s name was among around 3,000 suspected tax fraudsters holding non-declared bank accounts in Switzerland. The names featured in bank files passed to the French authorities in 2008 by HSBC employee Hervé Falciani.

Most of the cases were settled, but Ricci’s was among 50 that were handed over to the courts. She was arrested in 2011 after police turned up at her apartment on Paris’s chic Boulevard Saint-Germain in a dawn raid.

Ricci was held in custody for 48 hours before being put under investigation. Her lawyers had attempted to have the case thrown out, arguing that the Falciani documents were stolen and should not be admitted as evidence.

As well as French investigations, the Swiss branch of HSBC is facing charges of fraud and money laundering in Belgium after the Brussels authorities claimed it had “knowingly eased and promoted fiscal fraud by making offshore companies available to certain privileged clients”.

Nina Ricci, whose real name was Maria Adélaïde Nielli, was an Italian-born clothes designer who settled in France aged 12 in 1895. She died in 1970. Her son Robert, Arlette Ricci’s father, developed the company’s perfume sideline and raised the firm’s international profile. Arlette Ricci inherited his fortune on his death in 1988.

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