In a report released on Sunday, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, an organization based in Washington, along with the newspaper Le Monde in France, The Guardian in Britain, the BBC’s “Panorama” program and CBS News’ “60 Minutes,” said that secret documents revealed that bank employees had reassured clients that HSBC would not disclose details of their accounts to tax authorities in their home countries and discussed options to avoid paying taxes on those assets.
The report, based on account information that dated to 2007, said those clients included politicians, actors, rock stars and individuals with ties to arms dealers and dealers of so-called blood diamonds, which are mined in war zones and sold in violation of international bans.
In a lengthy response, HSBC said that the lender’s Swiss operations “have undergone a radical transformation” in recent years and that tax reporting obligations in the past had fallen to individuals, rather than to their banking institutions.
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