SwissLeaks: international reactions press Switzerland

In Britain, a parliamentary Committee announced the opening of an inquiry into the HSBC.



The French Finance Minister Michel Sapin promised a strong response from Paris.

"For us, this is important information, which changes nothing in our policy. We are determined to have them punished those who committed fraud and who helped to defraud, "said Sapin.

The Belgium, who saw off six billion euros through Switzerland affiliate of the British Bank, is preparing to issue warrants of arrest against former and current executives of HSBC if the Swiss authorities do not cooperate.

For the Belgian lawyer Sabrina Scarna, the Swiss authorities will certainly show easily availability for a collaboration with an inquiry of this nature.

"In Switzerland, there are two notions: tax evasion, which is not considered serious in the criminal sense of the term, and tax evasion. And just in case of tax fraud is that Switzerland could collaborate, the country's authorities to recognize with difficulty ", explained this expert in tax law.

An investigation by an international consortium of journalists conducted by the French newspaper Le Monde, found that undeclared amounts totalling EUR 180.6 billion transited through Switzerland affiliate accounts of British bank HSBC in Geneva, between November 9, 2006 and March 31, 2007, concealed, among others, in ' offshore structures ' in the British Virgin Islands and Panama.

Among the customers of British bank that availed themselves of this via fraudulent, are political leaders, bankers, lawyers, monarchs, businessmen, sportsmen, actors and probably of Saudi suspects to funded Osama Bin Laden.

Confidential information of HSBC in Switzerland came to the press thanks to Hervé Falciani, a franco-Italian who collected information while responsible for computer service in Geneva branch between 2006 and 2007, and that the Swiss authorities seek to stop since 2008.

Falciani has been instructed by Israeli intelligence to inform banks in Lebanon of security flaws at HSBC, with the aim of dissuading customers from using illegal money to finance terrorism.

HSBC has ensured that Switzerland branch suffered in recent years a "radical transfromação" that exclude the possibility of similar practices currently, but in Switzerland the fears for the damage this scandal for the image of the country begin to do arise voices that are calling for an investigation. Until today, the only investigation moved by the Swiss authorities concentrated on Herve Falciani.



By Nelson Pereira

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