HSBC boss' account with Swiss branch revealed
Mon Feb 23, 2015 6:8AM
HSBC chief executive Stuart Gulliver (©AFP)
The chief executive of Britain's HSBC Private Bank has kept millions of dollars in the bank’s scandal-hit Swiss branch, the Guardian newspaper writes.
CEO Stuart Gulliver himself has been one of the clients of the HSBC branch in Geneva, Switzerland, claimed the British daily in a Sunday report.
The branch has been accused of helping wealthy clients evade UK tax using hidden accounts.
Gulliver held about USD 7.6 million (6.7 million euros) in 2007 in an account with the bank in the name of a Panamanian company, the report said.
According to the cache of files leaked in the so-called SwissLeaks case, HSBC Switzerland helped clients in more than 200 countries evade taxes on accounts containing USD 204 billion (119 billion euros).
The Guardian’s report came on the evening before Gulliver is due to present the HSBC’s full-year results.
Gulliver's representative told the British daily that the chief executive had used the Swiss account to keep his bonus payments prior to moving from Hong Kong to London in 2003.
Meanwhile, his lawyers confirmed that the boss uses the Swiss bank account, saying Gulliver lives in Hong Kong and pays taxes there and has also paid any taxes required in the UK.
Last week, Swiss judicial authorities raided the bank’s Geneva office as part of their money laundering probe.
The claims against the HSBC, which is Europe’s largest banking and financial services institution, emerged after the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) website early February leaked documents from the huge cache of data that a former software engineer at the HSBC stole and handed to French authorities in late 2008.
MAK/NN/HRB
CEO Stuart Gulliver himself has been one of the clients of the HSBC branch in Geneva, Switzerland, claimed the British daily in a Sunday report.
The branch has been accused of helping wealthy clients evade UK tax using hidden accounts.
Gulliver held about USD 7.6 million (6.7 million euros) in 2007 in an account with the bank in the name of a Panamanian company, the report said.
According to the cache of files leaked in the so-called SwissLeaks case, HSBC Switzerland helped clients in more than 200 countries evade taxes on accounts containing USD 204 billion (119 billion euros).
The Guardian’s report came on the evening before Gulliver is due to present the HSBC’s full-year results.
Gulliver's representative told the British daily that the chief executive had used the Swiss account to keep his bonus payments prior to moving from Hong Kong to London in 2003.
Meanwhile, his lawyers confirmed that the boss uses the Swiss bank account, saying Gulliver lives in Hong Kong and pays taxes there and has also paid any taxes required in the UK.
Last week, Swiss judicial authorities raided the bank’s Geneva office as part of their money laundering probe.
The claims against the HSBC, which is Europe’s largest banking and financial services institution, emerged after the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) website early February leaked documents from the huge cache of data that a former software engineer at the HSBC stole and handed to French authorities in late 2008.
MAK/NN/HRB