1ST LEAD Swiss prosecutors search HSBC in money laundering probe By Albert Otti and Thomas Burmeister, dpa
Basel, Switzerland (dpa) – Swiss prosecutors searched HSBC‘s private bank in Geneva Wednesday after launching an investigation into aggravated money laundering against the financial institute.
The Geneva prosecution office said it was reacting to last week‘s media reports, which alleged that the Swiss branch of the major British lender helped wealthy clients to evade millions of dollars in taxes.
The bank‘s files were leaked to French authorities by a former HSBC computer expert and included data from several clients linked to crimes such as arms trafficking and corruption, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) has reported, in what has been termed the Swiss Leaks case.
“We have cooperated continuously with the Swiss authorities since first becoming aware of the data theft in 2008 and we continue to cooperate,” HSBC Private Bank Suisse said in a brief statement.
HSBC admitted last week that a number of its clients had taken advantage of Swiss banking secrecy rules to evade taxes. It stressed that it had closed questionable accounts and had overhauled its business model.
Prosecutors said the current investigation targeted the bank as a legal entity, but added that “the process may be extended to persons who are themselves suspected of having committed acts of money laundering or participated in such acts.”
The 60,000 leaked files contain details of about 100,000 HSBC accounts from clients around the world, holding more than 100 billion dollars.
The leaked data showed that HSBC served people close to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, former Egyptian president Hosny Mubarak and former Tunisian president Ben Ali, the ICIJ said.
In 2011, Switzerland froze 650 million francs (696 million dollars) of assets that were linked to Mubarak and had been parked in Swiss banks, as well as millions of francs linked to the regimes of Ali and Assad.
The Swiss Leaks revelations have resulted in investigations against potential tax evaders in several countries including France, Britain, Germany and Belgium.
