HSBC Hit With Claims Over Offshore Accounts For Serious Criminals - Media

Tom Burroughes

9 November 2012

HSBC, which this week revealed continued regulatory probes against it in the US and that it has set aside $800 million as a consequence, faces another major investigation from UK authorities after it allegedly opened offshore accounts in Jersey for criminals, the Daily Telegraph newspaper said today.

The tax authorities have obtained details of every UK client of HSBC in Jersey after a whistleblower provided a detailed list of names, addresses and account balances earlier this week, the newspaper said.

The publication said it understands that “among those identified on the list are Daniel Bayes, a drug dealer who is now in Venezuela; Michael Lee, who was convicted of possessing more than 300 weapons at his house in Devon; three bankers facing major fraud allegations and a man once dubbed London’s `number two computer crook’.”

“A series of other accounts containing six-figure deposits are also registered to modest addresses in relatively poor parts of the country,” according to the report.

HSBC, in a statement emailed to the media, said: "We are investigating the reports of an alleged loss of certain client data in Jersey as a matter of urgency. We have not been notified of any investigation in relation to this matter by HMRC or any other authority but, should we receive notification, we will cooperate fully with the authorities. HSBC remains fully committed to adoption of the highest global standards including the procedures for the acceptance of clients."

The report, if confirmed as accurate, would be a major embarrassment coming after the UK/Hong Kong-listed bank revealed in its quarterly results on Monday that it had to make a provision of $800 million stemming from ongoing US anti-money laundering, Bank Secrecy Act and Office of Foreign Assets Control investigations.

Today’s newspaper report said HM Revenue and Customs is “now understood to be trawling through a list of the names and addresses of more than 4,000 people based in Britain who had bank accounts at HSBC in Jersey”.

The report quoted a spokesperson for HMRC as saying: “We can confirm we have received the data and we are studying it. We receive information from a very wide range of sources which we use to ensure the tax rules are being respected.”

In its third-quarter results, HSBC said its global private banking business logged a gain in pre-tax profit, at $252 million in the three months to the end of September, amid cost-reduction measures.