Hervé Falciani: HSBC tax leaker gets five-year sentence in absentia

Falciani has lived in exile in France since he handed over the documents to governments around the world

Herve Falciani is said to don disguises (AFP/Getty)

The HSBC whistleblower who exposed tax dodging on an industrial scale through the UK organisation’s secretive Swiss private bank has been sentenced to five years in jail by a Swiss court.

Hervé Falciani, who downloaded details on 130,000 accounts while working on HSBC’s database, was found guilty of aggravated industrial espionage yesterday, but was acquitted of violating commercial and banking secrecy.

However, Falciani was not present for the trial – he has lived in exile in France since he handed over the documents to governments around the world, leading to authorities recovering about £500m of unpaid taxes.

The trial had been criticised by his lawyers in court, who claimed that “Swiss justice itself” was on trial, although prosecutors accused him of trying to cash in on the breach by attempting to sell the banking data.

He was condemned for the biggest leak in banking history between 2006 and 2008, which subsequently led to the prosecution of tax evaders including Arlette Ricci, heir to France’s Nina Ricci perfume empire, and the pursuit of Emilio Botín, the late chairman of the Spanish bank Santander.

The leaked documents also revealed that the HSBC chief executive, Stuart Gulliver, had £5m in a Swiss bank account. The account was in the name of a Panama-registered company and was used to hide the level of his bonus from colleagues.

The Swiss authorities fined HSBC £28m earlier this year after investigators said the bank had allowed money laundering to take place at its Swiss subsidiary.

In France, magistrates have launched a criminal investigation into the bank, accusing it of “complicity in aggravated money laundering and financial fraud”.

HSBC welcomed the sentencing of Falciani last night, saying: “HSBC has always maintained that Falciani systematically stole clients’ information in order to sell it for his own personal financial gain. The court heard that he was not motivated by whistleblowing intentions and that this was not a victimless crime.”