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Leaked Details of HSBC Accounts Draw Ire from Officials
By Kira Zalan, Colby Adams and Irene Madongo
printLondon-based HSBC Holdings Plc could find itself paying more to rectify past compliance problems following disclosures this week about the bank's services for clients with criminal ties, according to analysts. On Sunday, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and a raft of newspapers said that HSBC's private banking arm in Switzerland knowingly maintained accounts for thousands of wealthy individuals possibly committing tax evasion, including clients linked to arms traffickers, terrorist groups and drug cartels. The reports cited internal documents leaked by Herve Falciani, a former IT employee who worked for the bank in Switzerland and downloaded the data in...
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