HSBC’s Swiss subsidiary is being pursued by French magistrates who suspect it of large-scale tax fraud
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A Paris court has found the heiress of the Nina Ricci perfume and fashion business guilty of tax fraud in a high-profile trial prompted by leaked lists of people who used the services of HSBC bank in Switzerland.
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Arlette Ricci, 73-year-old granddaughter of Nina Ricci, was sentenced to three years in jail with one year suspended and ordered to pay a fine of €1 million (CHF1.04 million) in a verdict read out by a judge at a criminal court on Monday.
Ricci was tried on charges that she hid more than $22 million (CHF22.4 million) from the French tax authorities using accounts and offshore entities based in Panama.
HSBC’s Swiss subsidiary is itself being pursued by French magistrates who suspect it of large-scale tax fraud. HSBC Holdings Plc was ordered last week to post a bail bond of €1 billion to cover possible fines, a move it said was legally groundless.
In an affair dubbed “Swissleaks”, HSBC’s Swiss private bank unit is being pursued along with scores of wealthy individuals whose names were among some 3,000 leaked to French authorities by a former HSBC employee, Hervé Falciani.
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The unsavoury activities of HSBC, UBS and others, brought into the public domain by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, were the exception rather than the rule, the Swiss banking lobby group insists. After a series of reforms which are still ongoing, the Swiss financial sector has already evolved beyond recognition from the days of…
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A total of 12 secret accounts worldwide were identified, containing around €100 million (SFr124 million) at the end of 2010, according to the Mediapart news website. The accounts were housed in six financial institutions – including Switzerland’s UBS, Julius Bär, Hyposwiss and Banque cantonale Vaudoise. Others are held at Baring Brothers and the Singapore branch…
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French Labour Minister Eric Woerth, who has led a high-profile clampdown on tax evasion against Switzerland, has been linked to the bitter inheritance suit involving L’Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt, who is suspected of tax dodging. The affair began when Françoise Bettencourt-Meyer, the estranged only daughter of 87-year-old Liliane, filed a complaint against celebrity photographer Francois-Marie…
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