7 ms·

Most client & account data from 1988-2007; amounts from 2006-07. Seems like this is the same dataset which Falciani leaked to the french authorities 5 years a

Most client & account data from 1988-2007; amounts from 2006-07. Seems like this is the same dataset which Falciani leaked to the french authorities 5 years ago: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herv%C3%A9_Falciani http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herv%C3%A9_Falciani Edit: See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagarde_list http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagarde_list - this list has already a quite interesting history.

junto 12y ago
It is the Hervé Falciani leak. See the Guardian coverage: http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/feb/08/hsbc-files-expose-swiss-bank-clients-dodge-taxes-hide-millions http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/feb/08/hsbc-files-e... The origin of the leak The HSBC files were obtained through an international collaboration of news outlets, including the Guardian, Le Monde, BBC Panorama and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists 1 In late 2007, Hervé Falciani, an IT expert at HSBC's Swiss bank, hacked into its customer files. He fled to France with police on his trail for breaching Switzerland's rigid bank secrecy laws. 2 The French authorities detained him, but refused to extradite him when they realised the data could identify thousands of French tax evaders. Falciani now lives in France under protection. 3 In early 2010, under finance minister Christine Lagarde, France prepared confidential lists of the leaked names for other countries. The so-called "Lagarde list" led to scandal and arrests in Greece, Spain, the US, Belgium and Argentina. 4 Britain's tax authority, HMRC, received a list in 2010 from which it identified more than 1,000 tax evaders. More than £135m ($206m) was quietly recovered in repayments, but only one person was prosecuted. There has been no UK legal action against HSBC. Names were never revealed.
- tormeh 12y ago
  Why so few prosecuted in Britain? Wouldn't this be a good opportunity to get some assholes who thought they could shift the tax burden to others? Six month prison sentences sounds reasonable. British prisons suck, but given that this is partly the dodgers fault that's just poetic.
  - swombat 12y ago
    As I recall, to get prosecuted for tax evasion in the UK, you need to not only commit the tax evasion, but also to lie to the HMRC investigation of the tax evasion, at the point where they ask you to sign a form that explicitly says that if you lie now and they find out, they will put you in jail. So unless you lie at that point, you will not be prosecuted, only investigated. This may let some tax dodgers off the hook, but it also ensures that genuine mistakes are not punished by jail time.
    - tormeh 12y ago
      Protecting people from their own mistakes is fine, but they lost that defence once they put the money in secret swiss bank accounts. Secret. Swiss. Bank. Accounts. Might as well accidentally ask the local mafia to white wash some money while they twirl their mustaches.
      - vertex-four 12y ago
        Once you get into dealing with large amounts of money across the world, there's a lot of things that seem like they should be illegal that aren't. While this case is probably rather clear-cut, most cases are not. The Government doesn't actually want to put people in jail (what problem would that solve?), unlike the US Government - it just wants its money. The law seems reasonable to get that.
      - vidarh 12y ago
        The problem is that there's nothing illegal about putting your money in secret swiss bank accounts per se. It first becomes tax evasion (in the UK anyway; details may vary) the moment you fail to report income or capital gains that are taxable, since the UK does not tax wealth.
        tormeh 12y ago
        Yeah, but you don't accidentally both place your money in secret Swiss bank accounts and fail to report it. You may want a secret account for privacy and you may forget to report all your money. Doing both at once, however, is highly unlikely. There's an end to plausible deniability and beyond that end should lie prison time.
gadders 12y ago
So does any of this relate to current offences, or is it all historical?

junto 12y ago

It is the Hervé Falciani leak. See the Guardian coverage: http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/feb/08/hsbc-files-expose-swiss-bank-clients-dodge-taxes-hide-millions http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/feb/08/hsbc-files-e... The origin of the leak The HSBC files were obtained through an international collaboration of news outlets, including the Guardian, Le Monde, BBC Panorama and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists 1 In late 2007, Hervé Falciani, an IT expert at HSBC's Swiss bank, hacked into its customer files. He fled to France with police on his trail for breaching Switzerland's rigid bank secrecy laws. 2 The French authorities detained him, but refused to extradite him when they realised the data could identify thousands of French tax evaders. Falciani now lives in France under protection. 3 In early 2010, under finance minister Christine Lagarde, France prepared confidential lists of the leaked names for other countries. The so-called "Lagarde list" led to scandal and arrests in Greece, Spain, the US, Belgium and Argentina. 4 Britain's tax authority, HMRC, received a list in 2010 from which it identified more than 1,000 tax evaders. More than £135m ($206m) was quietly recovered in repayments, but only one person was prosecuted. There has been no UK legal action against HSBC. Names were never revealed.

tormeh 12y ago
Why so few prosecuted in Britain? Wouldn't this be a good opportunity to get some assholes who thought they could shift the tax burden to others? Six month prison sentences sounds reasonable. British prisons suck, but given that this is partly the dodgers fault that's just poetic.
- swombat 12y ago
  As I recall, to get prosecuted for tax evasion in the UK, you need to not only commit the tax evasion, but also to lie to the HMRC investigation of the tax evasion, at the point where they ask you to sign a form that explicitly says that if you lie now and they find out, they will put you in jail. So unless you lie at that point, you will not be prosecuted, only investigated. This may let some tax dodgers off the hook, but it also ensures that genuine mistakes are not punished by jail time.
  - tormeh 12y ago
    Protecting people from their own mistakes is fine, but they lost that defence once they put the money in secret swiss bank accounts. Secret. Swiss. Bank. Accounts. Might as well accidentally ask the local mafia to white wash some money while they twirl their mustaches.
    - vertex-four 12y ago
      Once you get into dealing with large amounts of money across the world, there's a lot of things that seem like they should be illegal that aren't. While this case is probably rather clear-cut, most cases are not. The Government doesn't actually want to put people in jail (what problem would that solve?), unlike the US Government - it just wants its money. The law seems reasonable to get that.
    - vidarh 12y ago
      The problem is that there's nothing illegal about putting your money in secret swiss bank accounts per se. It first becomes tax evasion (in the UK anyway; details may vary) the moment you fail to report income or capital gains that are taxable, since the UK does not tax wealth.
      - tormeh 12y ago
        Yeah, but you don't accidentally both place your money in secret Swiss bank accounts and fail to report it. You may want a secret account for privacy and you may forget to report all your money. Doing both at once, however, is highly unlikely. There's an end to plausible deniability and beyond that end should lie prison time.

gadders 12y ago

So does any of this relate to current offences, or is it all historical?