An employee for the Swiss bank HSBC in Geneva stole data from thousands of secret bank accounts and handed the information to French tax-fraud investigators, the daily Le Parisien reported Wednesday. This alleged data theft may have been the source for the list of 3,000 owners of secret Swiss bank accounts that French Budget Minister Eric Woerth said in August were being investigated for tax fraud.
The former HSBC employee, whom Le Parisien named Antoine, was a manager in the bank's computer services department and currently lives in France under a false identity. The accounts cracked by Antoine reportedly include those of a well-known French comedian and several politicians, a source close to the investigation told Le Parisien. Some accounts were listed under codes that suggested they belonged to intelligence services. Other accounts belonged to Colombian nationals and "Chinese authorities," the source said.
In a first reaction, HSBC confirmed that data had been stolen, but said it involved "not more than 10 clients" and that the "data are old and not sensitive." In August, Woerth said he had obtained a list of 3,000 French citizens who held secret accounts in Swiss banks worth some 3 billion euros (4.42 billion dollars).
At the time, Swiss authorities accused him of having obtained the information illegally. But he claimed that it was given to him voluntarily by Swiss banks in France. The 38-year-old Antoine reportedly came to France on his own at the beginning of 2009 and immediately contacted French tax authorities. Swiss authorities had demanded that he be returned to face charges, but France rejected the request, sending instead a transcript of his testimony.
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