HSBC “Whistleblower” just a thief?
Swiss authorities apparently opened a criminal investigation after being informed that a former HSBC employee took client data from HSBC Switzerland and provided these client details to French authorities. According to the French newspaper Le Parisien the files contain thousands of client records from the HSBC Private Banking Geneva. The bank did confirm that a former IT employee took the data but mentioned that ‘potentially fewer than 10′ clients were affected by the incident. The bank confirmed that it filed a criminal complaint in Switzerland.
The so called ‘whistleblower’ is allegedly a 38 year old man with both the French and Italian nationality. He has been placed under police protection in southern France. The man’s lawyer, said that the man had been given a false identity and a new passport by the French authorities. Mr Rizzo described the Franco-Italian as an idealist who wanted to use transparency to fight financial crime, and added that he was collaborating with detectives in deciphering the documents.
However, a policeman said that the ‘whistleblower’ had made himself indispensable by coding the computer files using a system of his own invention.
Le Parisien reported that the French opened a criminal investigation to investigate whether HSBC clients were involved in money laundering in Switzerland. Disclosure of the case sparked embarrassment in Paris after government claims in August that it held a list of 3,000 tax evaders with Swiss accounts containing assets worth about €3 billion.
Last year, a former employee of LGT bank in Liechtenstein sold details of thousand of bank accounts to the German authorities for €4.2 million.
An interesting case; a lot of blogs and newspapers refer to it. But they all copy the “whistleblower” tag. Usually whistle blowing refers to an employee who raises a concern about wrong doing in an organization. All we read so far is that a HSBC staff member stole client data and took in to the French authorities; more like a criminal act than whistle blowing we would say based upon the facts as were published. No actual wrong doing of HSBC has been described. Their private clients could be involved in tax evasion (duhh…) and perhaps even money laundering (because of the tax evasion?) but whether or not HSBC can be held accountable for that is unlikely. Or is it? Remember the UBS case in the USA? Another case, another jurisdiction. Will French go down the US path to hold HSBC, or banks in general, accountable for providing the infrastructure for tax evasion and money laundering? Without any specific action (or specifics about HSBC not taking any action while they should have) this seems unlikely. There should be more (mud) under the sun to call this a whistleblower. Let’s see if there actually is an allegation of wrongdoing against HSBC, or that this is just a rogue employee exposing client details against all laws for a yet unknown greater cause. Is the confirmation that this guy has been provided with shelter and a fake identity by the French authorities reason to believe there is more to this case than just the tax evasion money the French have in target? We will keep you posted.