LONDON EVENING STANDARD: Wealthy Brits are among 24,000 clients of HSBC's Swiss private bank who had their details stolen by an employee and given to the French authorities, the bank admitted today.
The theft, which took place three years ago, could give tax authorities around the world access to data about their citizens who have tried to evade tax using Swiss accounts.
The bank admitted today that about 15,000 current clients and 9,000 who had accounts before 2006 had been affected.
HM Revenue & Customs today said it was aware of the case and while declining to comment on whether it would pay money to get hold of the data added: “We would not rule anything out and are constantly gathering information.”
The UK taxman paid a reported £100,000 for similar data stolen by an employee of a Liechtenstein bank two years ago.
The HSBC employee, who worked in the bank's IT department, has already “sold” some of the data to French authorities in return for police protection and to prevent him being returned to the Swiss authorities who want to prosecute him. >>> Nick Goodway | Thursday, March 11, 2010
