 have agreed upon a €300 million settlement to settle an on-going investigation in tax evasion by French authorities.){kind=link}
HSBC (LON:HSBA) have agreed upon a €300 million settlement to settle an on-going investigation in tax evasion by French authorities.
The investigation had arisen after the PNF, the national financial prosecutor’s office, claimed that its Swiss Private Bank had helped its clients evade tax.
According to a statement from the PNF, more than €1.6 billion of assets were implicated in the scheme, which was “discovered as a result of the seizure and the exploitation of computer documents found at the home in France of a former employee of HSBC in January 2009”.
The settlement will close the case against the bank, but two former directors could still face legal investigation.
HSBC said it “has publicly acknowledged historical control weakness at the Swiss Private Bank on a number of occasions and has taken firm steps to address them”.
A former IT specialist at the bank, Herve Falciani, initially released files to the French authorities.
Last week the bank also announced that it had closed down accounts linked to the South African scandal involving the Gupta family.
The bank said it had additionally forwarded its concerns up to a financial crime expert who look after its money-laundering controls.
The bank stated: “HSBC has been reviewing its exposure to the Guptas for some time, and has closed a number of accounts for associated front companies wherever we have found them.
“As we identify or are presented with new information, we will continue to investigate further and take appropriate action.”
HSBC is understood to have closed the relevant accounts back in 2014, the same year Standard Chartered announced it had terminated accounts linked to the Guptas.
This follows Philip Hammond’s request for the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to look into whether UK Banks HSBC and Standard Chartered are associated with the South Africa’s inquiry into alleged ties between the wealthy Gupta family and President Jacob Zuma.
Shares in the bank are currently down marginally, 0.67 percent as of 13.05PM (GMT).