By Cliff Weathers
/ AlterNet
HSBC, the world’s second largest bank, helped some of the richest people in the world stash away billions in assets to avoid taxes.
The Swiss arm of the British banking giant encouraged wealthy clients
to hide their fortunes from governments and other taxing authorities and
helped to make their transactions untraceable.
A group of media organizations, including the BBC, The Guardian, LeMonde, and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists obtained documents revealing the complex tax dodge scheme.
The
documents reveal that HSBC’s exclusive Swiss bank allowed rich clients
to withdraw bricks of cash in various foreign currencies to hide such
transactions. The bank also conspired with clients in creating
undeclared “black” accounts to hide their wealth from domestic taxing
authorities. Moreover, this service was aggressively marketed by HSBC
bankers to uber-rich clients, including wealthy heirs, unethical
financiers, business executives, Hollywood stars, European royalty and
even global crime figures. READ MORE
