Petition to stop Spain extraditing HSBC whistleblower Falciani
Friday, April 20, 2018 @ 8:46 PM
PODEMOS members are among 15 MEPs who have signed a petition calling for Spain not to extradite HSBC whistleblower Hervè Falciani, saying that thanks to his actions, the European Union has recovered €3 billion in unpaid taxes.
Monaco-born Falciani leaked the database of HSBC's Swiss holding, where he had been working in the IT department from 2001, when he was 29, and which uncovered a long list of tax-avoiders.
He had copied the confidential customer database whilst in the Geneva office of the Hong Kong Shanghai Banking Corporation – now British-owned – between 2006 and 2008 and was interrogated in December of the latter year by Swiss authorities for allegedly attempting to sell account details to the Lebanese bank, Audi, in Beirut.
Released on bail, Falciani fled to France to avoid extradition, as he holds French citizenship, but in January 2009 was arrested upon request by the Swiss prosecution for theft of personal data.
Seven months on, the French government admitted to having in its possession a list of 3,000 taxpayers with 'suspicious accounts' in Switzerland believed to be used for laundering money and, at the end of 2009, Falciani revealed his identity in a TV interview and confessed to being the HSBC employee who stole the data.
An international arrest warrant led to his being detained in Barcelona in 2012 and the National Court remanded him in custody, whilst Switzerland called for his extradition.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com