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The collaborative investigation, led by an independent journalism unit, International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and the Le Monde of France, and published by The Indian Express in this country, exposed how the Swiss branch of one of the world’s biggest banks, HSBC, profited from doing business with international clients, several of whom had questionable backgrounds.
India ranked 16th with assets of $4.1 billion (Rs 25,000 crore) stashed in these offshore accounts. The list was led by Switzerland with $31.2 billion, followed by Britain, Venezuela, the US and France. Among the 1,195 Indians named in the reports were members of top business families such as the Ambanis, Burmans, Chhabrias, Rahejas and Salgaocars. The list included politicians and diamond merchants. It also named some non-resident Indians and persons of Indian origin, both of whom are entitled to hold money abroad.
Some of these business people have denied the existence of these accounts. Others have argued these accounts were legal and threatened legal action for clubbing their names with those of illegal account holders.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley told the media the names revealed were already with the government. He added while action has been initiated against several account holders, only the names were not enough for prosecution and evidence of wrongdoing was required.
Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal said his campaign against HSBC in 2012 stood vindicated. “But bigger Q is — what did first Congress and now BJP do? Nothing? Why? Some of these people claim to hv both BJP n Cong in their pocket. Why doesn’t BJP govt act against HSBC officials? They will spill the beans. US did precisely that,” he tweeted.
According to the ICIJ website, the files at the foundation of the Swiss Leaks articles and an interactive application posted on the ICIJ website were based on data secreted away by Hervé Falciani, a former HSBC employee, turned whistle-blower. He turned the data over to the French government in 2008 and its tax authority launched an investigation, ICIJ said in a note on its website.
Le Monde obtained a version of the tax authority data, which covers accounts of a little more than 100,000 clients (individuals and legal entities) from 200-odd countries. The newspaper shared it with ICIJ, with the agreement that it would assemble a global team of journalists to explore the data and produce this reporting project.
“When ICIJ and its media partners contacted the bank for comment, HSBC, which is headquartered in London and has offices in 74 nations and territories on six continents, at first insisted ICIJ destroy the data. Late last month, after being informed of the full extent of the reporting team’s findings, HSBC gave a final response that was more conciliatory. In addition to the statement, HSBC repeated that ‘we do not comment on specific clients, even to confirm whether or not they are or ever were clients’,” ICIJ said in its note.
The files show the accounts to hold a little more than $100 billion in all, from $12.6 billion held in the name of governmental institutions from the oil-rich nation of Venezuela under the late former leader, Hugo Chávez, to amounts recorded as zero. The confidential files also provide a wealth of other detail, such as secretive offshore companies linked to some accounts.
The database came with this disclaimer: “There are legitimate uses for Swiss bank accounts and trusts. We do not intend to suggest or imply that any persons, companies or other entities included in the ICIJ Swiss Leaks interactive application have broken the law or otherwise acted improperly.”
Other findings of the investigation
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HSBC Private Bank (Suisse) continued to offer services to clients who had been unfavourably named by the United Nations, in court documents and in the media as connected to arms trafficking, blood diamonds and bribery. HSBC served those close to discredited regimes such as those of former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, former Tunisian president Ben Ali and current Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad
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Clients who held HSBC bank accounts in Switzerland include former and current politicians from Britain, Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, Kenya, Romania, India, Liechtenstein, Mexico, Lebanon, Tunisia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Paraguay, Djibouti, Senegal, the Philippines and Algeria
- The bank repeatedly reassured clients that it would not disclose details of accounts to national authorities, even if evidence suggested that the accounts were undeclared to tax authorities in the client’s home country. Bank employees also discussed with clients a range of measures that would ultimately allow clients to avoid paying taxes in their home countries. This included holding accounts in the name of offshore companies to avoid the European Savings Directive, a 2005 Europe-wide rule aimed at tackling tax evasion through the exchange of bank information
