Former HSBC Switzerland Employee Hervé Faciani Handed Five-Year Jail Term
November 27 2015 - 12:16PM
Dow Jones News
By John Letzing
ZURICH-- Hervé Falciani, a former employee at the Swiss branch
of HSBC Holdings PLC who widely dispersed once-secret data about
the bank's clients, was handed a five-year prison sentence in a
federal criminal court in Switzerland Friday.
Mr. Falciani, who worked for HSBC in Geneva, was convicted of
aggravated industrial espionage. The court found that he had sought
to offer stolen data about HSBC's clients to a handful of banks in
Lebanon.
In addition, the court found that Mr. Falciani tried to provide
the data to France's National Division of Financial Investigations,
Germany's Federal Intelligence Service, and Her Majesty's Revenue
and Customs in the U.K.
Mr. Falciani's data caused a stir in February, when it was used
by several media outlets to publish a series of stories about how
HSBC allegedly helped high-profile clients use their Swiss accounts
to avoid paying taxes. The bank said at that time that the Swiss
business has been "overhauled."
A spokeswoman for Switzerland's State Secretariat for
International Financial Matters said recently that the country
anticipates a flood of new requests for assistance from foreign tax
authorities tracking down information about Swiss bank accounts,
based on Mr. Falciani's data.
Mr. Falciani, a 43-year-old former computer analyst at HSBC,
didn't attend his trial in Switzerland, which he fled in late 2008
after he was questioned by Swiss police. Marc Henzelin, an attorney
representing Mr. Falciani, said he hasn't had a chance to read the
court's decision. But he said that based on his understanding of
the ruling, Mr. Falciani is likely to appeal.
In a statement, HSBC said it welcomes the Swiss court's
decision. "This was not a victimless crime," the bank said.
In 2012, Mr. Falciani was detained in Barcelona on an
international arrest warrant. He was held in detention for a few
months, before a Spanish court ruled in 2013 against his
extradition to Switzerland.
In December last year, Switzerland's Office of the Attorney
General charged Mr. Falciani with pilfering HSBC's client data
between 2006 and 2008, with the intention of "cashing in,"
according to a statement. The Attorney General's office said at the
time that Mr. Falciani had fled Switzerland the night before he was
due for further questioning by the authorities.
On the eve of his trial late last month, Mr. Falciani held a
news conference in France, near the Switzerland border, where he
said he is continuing to work with authorities and investigators
interested in his data.
Max Colchester in London contributed to this article.
Write to John Letzing at john.letzing@wsj.com
Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 27, 2015 12:01 ET (17:01 GMT)
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