A French employee of HSBC has revealed that Swiss banks are assisting their rich customers to evade taxes in their home countries. None of this will shock readers here, but it’s become public knowledge now because of whistleblower and former head of HSBC computer secrurity, Herve Falciani, and has led to criminal prosecutions.
When HSBC officials would do nothing about the tax evasion he saw as being rampant at the bank, Falciani left Switzerland with incriminating records and returned to his native France. There the French authorities got involved and, rather than return the records to the HSBC in Switzerland (and here is where the story departs from the usual; i.e., a cover-up), the French Government used them in actions it took against the account holders and shared them with other countries.
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s report on the case can be found at https://www.cbc.ca/video/#/News/TV_Shows/The_National/ID=1603363331 . Thanks to David for the report.