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Data made public by whistle blower finds 1,785 Canadian accounts established by HSBC Private Bank clients in Geneva.
Ottawa (1 Oct. 2010) - A total of 1,785 private Canadian bank accounts – containing billions of dollars – have turned up on a list of secret accounts in Switzerland, according to a joint investigation of suspected tax evasion activities by CBC News and the Toronto Globe and Mail.
The Canadians – unidentified so far – are included on a far-larger list of about 80,000 accounts belonging to Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) Private Bank clients in Geneva, according to whistle blower Herve Falciani.
Falciani obtained the list of accounts when he worked as head of computer security at HSBC in Geneva several years ago. He told CBC/Globe journalists that all of the accounts are large because "you need at least $500,000" to open this type of account with the bank.
Falciani, now living under another identity in France, says that before taking the data he pleaded with HSBC bosses to adopt more transparent practices because he feared criminals and tax cheats were using the institution to hide money from authorities in their own countries. When his bosses refused, he began to copy the accounts secretly in 2006.
A spokeswoman for Canada's ministry of national revenue, which oversees the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), told CBC/Globe investigators that the CRA has received "a list of names of individuals who may be exploiting offshore accounts."
The CRA is assessing the names "on a case-by-case basis and will take aggressive action to recover money owed to Canadians," the spokesperson said.
It is not clear exactly how much money Canadians are holding in HSBC accounts nor is it known precisely how many individual Canadians hold the 1,785 Canadian accounts. Some may have more than one account.
HSBC said in a statement it does not condone tax evasion but it focused most of its outrage on the "criminal act" committed by Falciani in taking HSBC data and making it public.
Donald Johnston, a former Canadian treasury board minister and one-time head of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), said he thinks the total amount of money in Canadian accounts is large.
"You're obviously talking billions of dollars," Johnston said. "Frankly, I'm outraged.... Every Canadian who pays his or her taxes here in Canada should be outraged."
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