Hervé Falciani
Hervé Falciani | |
|---|---|
| File:Hervé Falciani 2012 cropped.jpg Hervé Falciani during an interview in 2012. | |
| Born | Hervé Daniel Marcel Falciani January 9, 1972 |
| Nationality | |
| Alma mater | Sophia Antipolis |
| Occupation | Systems engineer |
| Known for | Lagarde list |
Hervé Daniel Marcel Falciani (born 9 January 1972) is a Franco-Italian systems engineer and whistle blower who since 2009 has been collaborating with numerous European nations by providing information relating to more than 130,000 suspected tax evaders with Swiss bank accounts - specifically those with accounts in HSBC's Swiss subsidiary HSBC Private Bank.[1][2][3][4][5][6][full citation needed]
Falciani is the person behind the "Lagarde list", so called as it is a list of HSBC clients who allegedly used the bank to evade taxes and launder money that Falciani leaked to ex-French Minister of Finance Christine Lagarde, currently the managing director of the International Monetary Fund. Lagarde, in turn, sent the list to governments whose citizens were on the list.[7]
On 11 December 2014, Falciani was indicted by the Swiss federal government for violating the country's fabled bank secrecy laws and for industrial espionage. The indictment accused Faliciani (who was not named) of stealing information from HSBC's Geneva offices and passing it on to tax authorities in France. HSBC had been indicted in France for money laundering in November 2014.[8]
Biography
After studying at the Sophia Antipolis technology park, Falciani became a computer engineer at the Swiss branch of HSBC between 2001 and 2008.[9] In 2006 he reorganized the database of the organization to improve its security.[10] Falciani has declared that he realized that the way data was managed at HSBC fostered tax evasion, and proposed a new system, which was rejected by his superiors.[11] After the HSBC reaction, and because he believed that "it is a systematic violation of fundamental rights of citizens by subtracting funds that should be allocated to the general interest", for two years Falciani collected evidence of potential tax fraud involving 130,000 individuals. Falciani tried to make the information available to the Swiss judicial authorities, but was unsuccessful. This claim was corroborated by French prosecutors.[12]
To bring the matter to the attention of the Swiss prosecutor, he decided to activate an internal alarm system available to the Swiss banking employers, the Swiss Bankers Association (Swissbanking), and which is in direct contact with the government. Falciani then travelled to Beirut to a subsidiary of HSBC (Bank Audi, where he met someone who has direct contact with managers with an identity and a false offer: offers a system that does not exist for extracting data from the banking customers, making the manager puzzled, who then raised the alarm and starts off an investigation by the Swiss into industrial espionage. Falciani paid for the airline tickets from his own HSBC account so that authorities could track him.[11] On 22 December 2008, Falciani was arrested, questioned and released.[11][13][14] On release, Falciani travelled to France where he was arrested in January 2009, forcing the Swiss judiciary to issue an international arrest warrant for him. Switzerland called on France to search his home and to seize the laptop used to send the files. After searching the address, the prosecutor of Nice, Eric de Montgolfier,[15] opened his own investigation, not against Falciani, but against alleged tax fraudsters appearing in the list. The so-called Falciani list remains in France. An international collaboration began with various judicial authorities and remains ongoing. The Falciani list created a diplomatic incident between Switzerland and France. The latter finally agreed to return the data, but only after the contents had been examined.
Afterwards Falciani fled to Spain on the advice of the U.S. government because "it would be easy for someone to pay " to try kill him. Upon arrival, he was arrested in Barcelona in July 2012 due to the Swiss international warrant.[16]
He was jailed at Valdemoro prison (Madrid), awaiting the Audiencia Nacional to decide on his extradition Switzerland. On 18 December 2012, the Audiencia Nacional released him provisionally.[10] It was in maximum security conditions: eight bodyguards and bulletproof vest. Since then Falciani hid in Spain under a system of maximum security protection sponsored by the UN.[17]
Finally, on 8 May 2013, Falciani was released.[18] The Audiencia Nacional, given the ongoing collaboration between Spanish and French courts. The decision not to extradite Falciani was made because he provided information indicative of "severely irregular" suspicious activity, and of illegal and criminal offenses. He was released because in Spain there is no legal concept of bank secrecy, and information technology trade secrets can not be used to hide unlawful activities .[19]
In April 2014, Falciani was called to assist the Argentine federal taxation agency (AFIP) in the fight against money laundering.[20]
Political activity
Hervé Falciani is first in the electoral list of the new Spanish political party "Citizen Network X Party" (Red Ciudadana Partido X), for the European elections of 2014.[21] He was elected by citizens in Internet through open lists.[22][23][24][25][26]
Controversy
Falciani claims he was kidnapped by Israeli Mossad agents in Geneva, who were seeking information on bank clients with Hezbollah ties.[27]
Falciani claims that his motives are to repel Switzerland’s "attack" on other countries' tax laws and exchequers.[28] HSBC's position is that Falciani is not a whistleblower, and that has instead tried to sell the stolen data, only starting to cooperate with authorities after being imprisoned in Spain.[28]
Regarding the Swiss authority and HSBC claims that Falciani tried to sell the data, the Audiencia Nacional, a court in Spain, stated that "this fact":
appears somewhat confused and inconsistent with the factual story that we present, which do seem objectively specific episodes of provision of information and effective collaboration with authorities of other states, which indicates a determined attitude of Falciani and not an economic motivation."[29]
Indictment
Falciani was indicted by Switzerland on 11 December 2014 for violating the country's bank secrecy laws and for industrial espionage. Falciani (who was not named in the indictment, as is customary for Switzerland) was charged with stealing information from HSBC's Geneva offices and passing it on to French tax authorities. The Swiss prosecutors said they were willing to try Falciani in absentia for his alleged crimes.[8]
In the month prior to his indictment, France had indicted HSBC for money laundering. Falciani had also offered his services to the government of India, which had been investigating money laundering abetted by HSBC. The Swiss government had refused to help the Indian government in its investigation of Indian citizens who were abetted in tax evasion by HSBC on the basis that the information detailing HSBC's alleged transgression was stolen.[30]
In an interview with the Indian television network NDTV, Falciani said that Switzerland indicted him as part of an "agenda" to stifle whistle blowers like himself who have exposed corruption in the Swiss banking industry.[30]
See also
References
- ^ "Ex-HSBC worker says US told him to flee to Spain". AFP. 2013-04-21.
- ^ Brigitte Alepin Bill Gates, Pay Your Fair Share of Taxes...Like We Do! - 2012 p66 "The HSBC-2010 and Liechtenstein-2008 affairs are examples. In the HSBC-2010 affair, Hervé Falciani, a former bank executive with HSBC in Geneva, was arrested by the Swiss police on suspicion of data smuggling. He took refuge in France ..."
- ^ Mario Giordano Spudorati 2012 "Non era nella lista di Hervé Falciani, ma ha portato i capitali all'estero anche Luigi Bisignani, l'uomo finito al centro del cosiddetto «scandalo P4»: lo ha dichiarato lui stesso ai magistrati. Nel 1991 aveva ricevuto dalla famiglia Ferruzzi, per la ..."
- ^ El Estado del mundo 2011 (State of the World 2011) Bertrand Badie, Dominique Vidal - 2011 p526 " ... cuentas suizas sospechosas, casi todas ellas proporcionadas por un ex empleado francés de la filial suiza del banco americano HSBC, Hervé Falciani. Se ofrecieron varias listas de clientes de bancos suizos a diferentes Länderalemanes. A mediados de marzo de 2010 el Ministerio Fiscal de ..."
- ^ L'express international 3053-3069 p51 2010 "L'ovale gracieux de son visage masque une détermination d'acier. Aux yeux de la justice suisse, qui l'a entendue les 9 et 10 mars, Georgina Mikhael fait figure de complice d'Hervé Falciani, l'ex-informaticien de HSBC Private ..."
- ^ Le Figaro Magazine 1528-1531 2010 p22 "Visiblement, l'exemple d'Hervé Falciani a fait tache d'huile. Cet ancien cadre de la banque HSBC a transmis cet été au fisc français une liste de 3 500 noms de personnes soupçonnées d'évasion fiscale vers la Suisse."
- ^ "HSBC man who passed clients' details to tax investigators escapes extradition". The Guardian. Associated Press. Retrieved 11 January 2015.
- ^ a b Miller, Hugo. "Ex-HSBC Employee Falciani Said Indicted on Data Theft". Bloomberg. Retrieved 11 January 2015.
- ^ Ediciones El País. "La 'lista Falciani' conduce hasta Gürtel". EL PAÍS.
- ^ a b "¿Quién es Falciani? ¿Qué sabe Falciani?". eldiario.es.
- ^ a b c Ediciones El País. "Falciani robó los datos de la banca suiza tras ver sus actuaciones "escandalosas"". EL PAÍS.
- ^ 20Minutos. "Falciani colaboró con varias Justicias europeas con datos que llenarían "un tren de mercancías"". 20minutos.es - Últimas Noticias.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ "Todo lo que siempre quiso saber sobre Hervé Falciani". partidox.org.
- ^ "Falciani: "En HSBC Suiza vi actuaciones escandalosas"". Expansion.
- ^ Ediciones El País. "Hervé Falciani: "Estados Unidos me avisó: Ve a España, tu vida corre peligro"". EL PAÍS.
- ^ Ediciones El País. "Arrestado el exempleado de HSBC acusado de robar datos secretos". EL PAÍS.
- ^ "Falciani y el Estado español: paradigma de la corrupción estructural". eldiario.es.
- ^ "Falciani cifra en 200.000 millones el dinero que se evade en impuestos". eldiario.es.
- ^ Ediciones El País. "La Audiencia Nacional rechaza la extradición de Falciani a Suiza". EL PAÍS.
- ^ http://www.ambito.com/noticia.asp?id=737795
- ^ "Log In - The New York Times". nytimes.com.
- ^ "Falciani tirará del equipo del Partido X en las europeas". publico.es.
- ^ "El número dos de las primarias del Partido X cede su puesto a Simona Levi". eldiario.es.
- ^ "Partido X, Partido del Futuro". partidox.org.
- ^ "Hervé Falciani, un Indigné aux européennes". http://www.liberation.fr.
{{cite web}}: External link in|work= - ^ "Elections: Falciani tête de liste aux Européennes en Espagne - News Monde: Europe - tdg.ch". tdg.ch/.
- ^ Carvajal, Doreen; Minder, Raphael (8 August 2013). "A Fugitive with a Cause". New York Times. Retrieved 8 August 2013.
- ^ a b M.V., The fall-out from Falciani, Schumpeter Business and management blog, The Economist, Oct 16th 2013
- ^ Carreño, Belén (8 May 2013). "Falciani, libre". eldiario.es.
- ^ a b Tiwari, Noopur. "Black Money Whistleblower Herve Falciani Alleges 'Agenda' in Indictment by Switzerland". NDTV. Retrieved 11 January 2015.
External links
- Carvajal, Doreen; Minder, Raphael (8 August 2013). "A Fugitive with a Cause". New York Times. Retrieved 8 August 2013.