HSBC raided as officials launch money-laundering probe
Swiss prosecutors have opened a criminal investigation against HSBC Private Bank, and raided the bank’s Geneva offices for evidence as it probes allegations of “aggravated money-laundering.”
Citing “recent public revelations” about HSBC’s activities in Switzerland, the prosecutor’s office warned that the investigation could extend to individual employees at the bank as it probes whether adequate measures were put in place to prevent criminal activity.
Attorney general Olivier Jornot and first prosecutor Yves Bertossa led the search of HSBC’s Geneva headquarters this morning, along with plain clothes investigators and financial analysts, according to ICIJ’s media partner Le Temps. The bank’s compliance department offices were also searched.
The raid comes amid growing scrutiny of the bank following ICIJ’s Swiss Leaks investigation. Together with more than 140 journalists from more than 50 media outlets, ICIJ analyzed a series of leaked files based on information taken from HSBC’s Swiss branch and handed to French authorities by former bank employee and IT specialist Hervé Falciani.
The Swiss Leaks revealed that the bank played an active role in assisting some clients with tax evasion, and also continued to serve other clients after they had been unfavorably named by the United Nations, in court documents and in the media as connected to arms trafficking, conflict diamonds and bribery.
HSBC conceded to ICIJ and its media partners that standards at the bank’s Swiss branch were “significantly lower” at the time covered by the leaked files (which include account details up to 2007), but said “significant steps” had been taken since then to implement reform and end business with questionable clients. The bank claims to have reduced its client base by almost 70 percent since 2007.
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Copyright 2014 The Center for Public Integrity. This story was published by The Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit, nonpartisan investigative news organization in Washington, D.C.
