Dec.10, 2009

Swiss authorities have opened a criminal inquiry after allegations that a former HSBC employee gave stolen data concerning client accounts at the bank’s Geneva branch to French tax authorities.

The whistleblower has also sparked a money-laundering investigation in France and a diplomatic tussle between Paris and Berne over the latest breach in Swiss banking secrecy.

Eric Woerth, the French Budget Minister, faced claims that he had compiled a list of 3,000 French people suspected of holding Swiss bank accounts to avoid paying tax in France. Mr Woerth said that he had not paid for the information, but pointedly failed to deny that he had used it.

Le Parisien newspaper said that the files contained details of thousands of clients of HSBC Private Bank in Geneva. The bank sought to downplay the controversy and said that “potentially fewer than ten people” were involved. It did, however, confirm that a former employee in its IT department had stolen data.

The bank said that it had lodged a formal claim for theft with the Swiss police, prompting a full-scale criminal inquiry.

The whistleblower is described as 38-year-old man with dual French and Italian nationality, who has been placed under police protection in southern France. He is said to have hacked into HSBC’s client database after foiling its security system and copying details of the accounts.

Patrick Rizzo, the man’s lawyer, said that the man had been given a false identity and a new passport by the French authorities. Mr Rizzo described the Franco-Italian as an idealist who wanted to use transparency to fight financial crime, and added that he was collaborating with detectives in deciphering the documents.

However, a policeman said that the whistleblower had made himself indispensable by coding the computer files using a system of his own invention.

Le Parisien said that Eric de Montgolfier, the state prosecutor in Nice, had opened a preliminary investigation into claims that some French HSBC clients had been involved in money laundering.

The inquiry has fuelled tension between France and Switzerland, with Paris refusing a request by Berne to hand over the suspect.

Instead, a French prosecutor questioned the whistleblower on behalf of the Swiss authorities and sent a copy of his answers to Berne.

Disclosure of the case sparked embarrassment in Paris after government claims in August that it held a list of 3,000 tax evaders with Swiss accounts containing assets worth about €3 billion (￡2.7 billion).

Christine Lagarde, the French Finance Minister, said that she had asked Mr Woerth whether he had bought the stolen files from the whistleblower. “He told me: ‘We don’t pay,’ ” she said.

Despite the promise of an amnesty for tax exiles who bring their money back into France, only a few hundred people have done so.

Last year, a former employee of LGT bank in Liechtenstein sold details of thousand of bank accounts to the German authorities for €4.2 million.