HSBC scandal

[dj1971]

I am completely shocked to log into the forum and find that no-one has posted a thread or is discussing events now having been made so public around the HSBC scandal.

 

This is a huge issue which effects us all. So why is no-one talking about it?

 

 

DJ

[BankFodder]

Because we are in the middle of negotiating a huge loan with them and we do not want to rock the boat

[Old Cogger]

well well well

[dj1971]

Fair enough. I'll start the ball rolling with an overview of what's been happening.

 

In May 2006 Stephen Green was appointed chairman of HSBC.

 

December 2008: Herve Falciani who had been employed at HSBC;s Swiss private bank as an IT expert was arrested by Swiss police and escaped to France with data containing information on 30,000 accounts at the private bank having been released on bail.

 

Herve claims he contacted HMRC informing them that he had information relating to British nationals evading tax. There was no response from HMRC, so Herve claims he called them but again no action was taken.

 

January 2009: Swiss authorities issue an arrest warrant for Herve and he was arrested by French police. Upon seizing his computer and finding the leaked data, French authorities refuse to extradite Herve and proceed to investigate the data themselves.

 

HSBC take the French authorities to court in an attempt to prevent them passing the data to other tax authorities.

 

Early 2010: French finance minister Christiane Legarde (currently head of the IMF) passed on data to tax authorities in a number of EU countries including our very own HMRC.

 

HMRC start analysing the data and of the 6,000 accounts it contained decide that these relate to 3,600 individuals of which 1,100 have been participating in tax evasion. (the il-legal non payment of taxes due)

 

September 2010: Mr Cameron appoints Stephen Green as trade minister and gives him a peerage. Lord Green takes up his post as trade minister in January 2011.

 

September 2011: David Hartnett told the treasury select committee "I think the whole nation probably knows that our department has a disc from the Swiss - from the Geneva branch of a major UK bank, with 6,000 names all ripe for investigation".

 

July 2012: Property developer Michael Shanly pleaded guilty to tax evasion of £430,000 and was ordered by the court to pay a further £469,444 in fines and costs. To date Mr Shanly is the only British national to have been prosecuted from data received in the leaked files.

 

December 2012: HSBC pays £1.2billion in fines after admitting that it had processed drug trafficking proceeds through Mexico and transmitted funds from sanctioned countries including Iran.

 

October 2013: Belgian prosecutors carry out raids on the Antwerp homes of a number of diamond dealers in a tax evasion investigation focusing on HSBC.

 

December 2013: Lord Green steps down as minister of state for trade and investment.

 

June 2014: HSBC sells a big chunk of it's Swiss bank to Liechtenstein LGT.

 

November 2014: France. Belgium & Argentina charge HSBC with aiding tax evasion through it's Swiss business.

 

9th February 2015: BBC program panorama airs it's investigation into the leaked HSBC files and alleged tax evasion.

 

Stoke City director Keith Humphreys threatened legal action after allegations in the panorama program alleged that Mr Humphreys had told his HSBC account manager in Switzerland that his account had not been declared to HMRC.

 

11th February 2015: HMRC CEO Lyn Homer tells the public accounts committee that of the 6,000 accounts on the leaked files it had found these related to 3,600 individuals.

 

Of these 1,100 were identified as having participated in tax evasion, most of whom had settled their accounts under a little known agreement called the Liechtenstein disclosure facility, 500 of which had done so following active persuasion by HMRC. The total collected in unpaid tax and penalties was £135million.

 

Miss Homer also told mp's of the committee that HMRC could find no record of the email alleged to have been sent by Herve Falciani in 2008, before french newspaper Le Monde published a copy of the email.

 

When asked by the committee's chair why there had been only 1 prosecution from the data received Miss Homer said that French authorities had placed strict conditions on how HMRC could use the data. She also told the committee that HMRC had tried to persuade the French authorities to relax the conditions and that they had none done so.

 

This allegation was later refuted by French finance minister Michel Sapin who said "I have not understood the comments made by the British authorities. The data on HSBC was transmitted to them in 2010, in the framework of the bilateral conventions that bind us. Nothing has been said to them since. These conventions do restrict the use of the information to tax purposes."

 

14th February 2015: Lord Stephen Green resigns his position at financial services lobby group TheCityUK.

 

15th February 2015: HSBC CEO Stuart Gulliver takes out a full page ad in some Sunday papers saying "we must show that the societies we serve expect more from us. We therefore offer our sincerest apologies." before going on to criticise "Major UK media" for publishing information from the stolen files.

 

18th February 2015: Officers from the Swiss prosecutors office raid the offices of HSBC's Swiss bank in Geneva and said they were investigating HSBC private bank and persons unknown for aggressive money laundering. The investigation could also be extended to people suspected of committing or participating in money laundering.

[dj1971]

For the purposes of clarification the 1,100 individuals identified by HMRC related to tax evasion (il-legal non payment of tax due) not tax avoidance which has been discussed extensively in the press & media lately.

 

The Liechtenstein disclosure facility I referred to in the second paragraph of 11th February is an agreement set up by then chancellor Alistair Darling and the Liechtenstein government to facilitate the disclosure of financial assets held by British nationals in Liechtenstein. Under the agreement anyone who voluntarily disclosed their financial assets to HMRC including immunity from criminal prosecution in the majority of cases and a fixed penalty of 20-30% rather than the up to 200% of tax owed available to HMRC in cases settled outside the agreement.

 

There are a number of important conditions that must be met for a case to be settled under these more favourable terms including the disclosure must be information that HMRC were not already aware of and must be made voluntarily i.e. without HMRC intervention. Therefore it follows that as HMRC already had the relevant information and the disclosures were not made without HMRC intervention, the Liechtenstein disclosure facility with it's favourable terms of settlement was not applicable to these 1,100 cases that HMRC allowed to be settled in that way.

 

As a result, the £135million collected in unpaid taxes and fines could have been much more and potentially have lead to more criminal prosecutions.

 

Which surely begs the question why did HMRC allow and indeed actively persuade those involved in some of these 1,100 cases to be settled under the more favourable terms and who authorised it?

[mikeymack2002]

Have you seen this

 

http://www.transparency.org/news/pressrelease/transparency_international_calls_for_criminal_investigation_of_hsbc_by_uk_a

 

Then this

Nicholas Wilson HSBC- Whistle blower on the Big Questions

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then finally this

 

https://www.startjoin.com/prosecuteHSBC

 

All from an Anonymous source as always the internet

[dj1971]

No I hadn't

 

Thanks.

 

Anyone got anymore?

[dj1971]

Today HSBC are expected to announce an annual profit for 2014 of £13.6billion and from that bonuses for it's top executives of £2.6billion.

 

CEO Stuart Gulliver wrote a "sincere apology" for it's failings in many of the national papers last Sunday, before going on to apparently justify it by saying that was nearly 10 years ago and we have changed.

 

Mr Gulliver who earns a £1.2million annual salary, plus £1.7million in "fixed pay allowance" paid every 3 months in shares, is expected to collect £7.5million from the bonus pot.

 

Although born and raised in Britain, Mr Gulliver is considered non'dom in the UK for tax purposes, meaning he does not pay UK tax on earnings from outside Britain. That combined with his employment contract at HSBC which is with HSBC's Dutch arm, could potentially mean that he pays no tax in UK.

 

Now. That considered, have a read of this:

 

 

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/feb/22/swiss-account-secret-of-hsbc-chief-stuart-gulliver-revealed

 

 

and this:

 

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/listen-tories-plot-bankers-dodge-5211052

 

 

Sorry my "insert link" tab does not appear to be working.

 

DJ