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HSBC faces fresh investigations over tax scandal

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  • 10/02/2015
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HSBC faces fresh investigations over tax scandal
HSBC is facing investigations at home and abroad following allegations that it colluded with Swiss clients to help them dodge tax.

Further details on the scandal came to light yesterday as the BBC Panorama programme said it has seen thousands of accounts from HSBC’s private bank in Switzerland which prove it helped rich clients “cheat the UK” out of millions in taxation.

Now, the UK’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) plans to investigate the bank, which is the largest in Europe by assets. There have also been calls for action in the US, Belgium, France, Argentina and Switzerland since the news broke.

HMRC is understood to have known about the private banking accounts since 2010, when the French authorities handed over confidential data, but laws at the time prevented the UK tax office from sharing the information with the police and media, according to the FT. This law has now changed.

PAC chairman, Margaret Hodge, said the committee will be “launching an urgent inquiry to which we will require HSBC to give evidence – and we will order them if necessary”.

The US Department of Justice, meanwhile, could also re-examine a deal that shields HSBC from prosecution for earlier infringements, according to the paper.

The bank paid $1.9bn (£1.2bn) in 2012 and entered into a deferred prosecution agreement over money-laundering allegations related to countries under US sanctions, such as Iran, and Latin American drug cartels.

HSBC said it is “co-operating with relevant authorities”.

 

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