HSBC

  • The Timeline
  • Current Affairs
  • Financial Crimes
  • “In August 2014, Argentine tax agents raided HSBC’s offices in Buenos Aires. The Buenos Aires Herald has reported that Argentine tax chief Ricardo Echegaray has accused HSBC of “rolling out a fraud-enabling platform” as “a maneuver to hide bank account information from tax collectors.” ICIJ
  • The Swiss Leaks- HSBC‘s Private Swiss Bank accounts revealed many crimes. 2005 Swiss implementation of the  European Savings Directive, or ESD on individuals, not applicable to corporations.  ICIJ
    • “Rachid Mohamed Rachid, the former Egyptian trade minister who fled Cairo in February 2011 amid the uprising against Hosni Mubarak. Rachid, who is listed as having power of attorney over an account worth $31 million, was convicted in absentia for alleged profiteering and squandering public funds.”ICIJ
    • “Frantz Merceron, the alleged bagman for the late former Haitian President Jean Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier, who was accused of having looted up to $900 million before fleeing his country”ICIJ
    • “Rami Makhlouf, whose cousin and close associate, Syrian President Bashar al Assad, over the past three years has helped cause the deaths of tens of thousands of his citizens in the country’s civil war.” ICIJ
    • “Vladimir Antonov, the former owner of an English soccer club, Portsmouth FC, who faces trial in Lithuania over an alleged €500 million bank fraud”ICIJ Sports Crimes
    • “Keith Humphreys, a director of the English Premier League soccer club Stoke City FC, is described telling his HSBC manager that one of his family’s Swiss accounts was “not declared” to the U.K. tax authorities. The files state it held more than $450,000 at the time. The account, he said, “was established in line with financial advice that he was given at the time” and disclosed to British tax authorities in 2011, with a settlement of £147,165.”ICIJ
    • “John Cashell, who would later to be convicted of a tax fraud in his native country: “His pre-occupation is with the risk of disclosure to the Irish authorities.” ICIJ
    • “Margulan Seisembayev, a Kazakh banker accused by the Alliance Bank of looting its assets” ICIJ
    • “Tancred Tabone, the former head of the Malta state oil company Enemalta, who is facing prosecution for allegedly demanding bribes.”ICIJ. European Energy
    • “Li Xiaolin, the daughter of former Chinese Premier Li Peng, famous for his role in the Tiananmen Square massacre”ICIJ
    • “Joseph Fok, a judge on Hong Kong’s highest court, and Prince and Princess Michael of Kent, the beloved cousin of Queen Elizabeth II of England and his wife…Cantium Services Limited. A representative for the couple said the account “never received nor held any funds” and was closed in 2009.”ICIJ
    • King Mohammed VI of Morocco
    • Crown prince of Bahrain Prince Salman bin Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa 
    • “financier and philanthropist S. Donald Sussman, whose account predated his marriage to Democratic Congresswoman Chellie Pingree of Maine…A representative of Sussman said the account was not his, adding that he had made a passive investment in a technology venture fund.“ICIJ
    • “Les Wexner, who in 2012 donated $250,000 to a super PAC supporting former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney” ICIJ. Victoria’s Secret, The Limited, etc. billionaire benefactor to convicted pedophile sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein
    • Dan Gertler-1997 Israeli Diamond Dealer went to Congo, busted for a secret deal between Glencore (Marc Rich, 1974; Glencore/Gertler partnership 2007) and Congolese friend, President Joseph Kabila, who paid $20 million to give Gertler and Glencore diamond rights in exchange for Israeli arms and training by Israeli military officials. The rights were grossly undervalued by $1.3 billion in the 2013 Africa Progress Report. Concordia Marketing Group Inc., a British Virgin Islands firm with Beny Steinmetz’s brother Daniel. Magnitsky Act Sanctions. HSBC Swiss Leaks
    • Beny Steinmetz– Diamonds–Israel‘s richest family with business in Angola, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, and a Guinea lawsuit. Nephew Raz invests with Kushner in Trump Bay Street Jersey City, paid Rudy Giuliani large sums before his 2007 presidential run from the Steinmetz’s Sage Capital Growth VC firm. Congolese Diamond Dealer, Israeli Dan Gertler  & Beny’s brother Daniel are beneficial owners of Concordia Marketing Group Inc., a British Virgin Islands firm. Pentler Holdings bribed following a Soros & UK probe. HSBC Swiss Leaks – Pentler Pacific Ltd
    • Richard Caring- British business tycoon-“In one transaction, the British business tycoon Richard Caring, accompanied by security, was depicted in September 2005 collecting more than five million Swiss francs in cash.” November 2005 “Caring funded a champagne and caviar extravaganza at Catherine the Great’s Winter Palace in St Petersburg, Russia, flying in 450 guests to be entertained by Sir Elton John and Tina Turner and addressed by Bill Clinton. The event raised more than £11 million for a children’s charity.”
    • Frank Giustra-Canadian- “is the only person listed in an HSBC account holding more than $10 million in 2006/2007, although his role in the account is not specified. The New York Times reported in 2008 that Giustra donated to the Clinton Foundation shortly after Bill Clinton accompanied Giustra on a trip to Kazakhstan in 2005. When they landed, Nursultan A. Nazarbayev, who has served for decades as Kazakhstan’s president, met his two visitors over a sumptuous midnight banquet. The Times reported that Clinton made a public declaration of support for Nazarbayev that was at odds with the stance of the U.S. government and of Clinton’s wife, then-Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, who had criticized Kazakhstan’s record on human rights. Two days later, corporate records showed, Giustra’s company won the right to buy into three state-owned uranium projects in Kazakhstan. A representative for Giustra disputed the New York Times story and said that Giustra is “in full compliance and disclosure regarding any and all bank accounts.” A spokesman for the Clinton Foundation told The Guardian it “has strong donor integrity and transparency practices that go well beyond what is required of U.S. charities, including the full disclosure of all of our donors.”

Money Laundering –Diamonds  are  great  vehicles  for  money  laundering  because  they  are  high  value  in  a  small  space  and  can  be  painted  black  to  devalue  them  at  customs.  Watch The Dubious Friends of Donald Trump: King  of  Diamonds about Lev Leviev. “Diamonds have a long history of being linked to conflict and violence,” said Michael Gibb of the international human rights group Global Witness. “The ease with which diamonds can be converted into tools of war, when not sourced responsibly, is astonishing.” ICIJ

  • The UN’s anti-conflict diamond effort is the Kimberley Process, cofounder Ian Smillie.

The Panama Papers- Offshore shell corps. exposed by whistelblower revealed international oligarch-level crime rings in April 2016.

  • Arms Trafficking
  • Angolagate aka Mitterrand-Pasqua Affair -40+ Indicted. International political arms scandal between French President Mitterand’s son Jean-Christophe Mitterand (JCM) and met a relative of French arms company Thomson CSF in Scottsdale named Pierre Falcone. JCM contracted La Compagnie Générale des Eaux in May 1992. Falcone organized a prepaid oil deal with Angola, and became the supervisor to supply food, medicine, and the troops with arms from Slovakia. Angola bought $47 uSD of arms from Slovakian arms company ZTS_OZOS on November 7, 1993, followed by fighter aircraft and tanks up to $633m USD by April 1994. JCM & Falcone were arrested in December 2000.
    • Shailesh Vithlani, “an alleged middleman who arranged for the British arms company BAE to secretly pay $12 million into an unspecified Swiss bank account in return for the Tanzanian government buying an overpriced military radar system. HSBC staff advised him on investing in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania..”The Guardian reported in 2007 that Vithlani, who is listed as a beneficial owner of one account, who could not be reached for comment, told The Guardian in 2007 that he did not pay money from Switzerland to officials in Tanzania.”ICIJ 
    • “Fana Hlongwane, a South African political adviser and businessman.  The U.K. Serious Fraud Office said in statements submitted to South African prosecutors in 2008 that Hlongwane received money from BAE through a disguised chain of offshore intermediaries in order to promote arms deals…In a 2014 affidavit made to an ongoing inquiry into the arms contracts, Hlongwane denied “any evidence implicating myself and/or my Companies in any corruption or wrongdoing.” Hlongwane is listed as the beneficial owner of an account, Leynier Finance SA, that contained $888,000. Two other accounts that held $12 million at one point in 2006/2007 do not specify his exact role.”ICIJ 
    • Wang Chia-Hsing, the son of the alleged middleman in an infamous Taiwan arms deal, Andrew Wang Chuan-pu...a fugitive wanted in Taiwan over his alleged role in the murder of Taiwanese Navy Capt. Yin Ching-feng [December 1993] and a series of kickback and corruption scandals implicating Taiwan, France and China…Wang Chia-Hsing, who is described as an interior decorator and shown with an upmarket London address…A representative for Wang Chia-Hsing said he has “paid all proper taxes due and has not acted in any way improperly or unlawfully.”ICIJ 
  • Military Industrial Complex
    • Elias Murr, “president of the board of Interpol’s Foundation for a Safer World, an organization aimed at fighting terrorism and organized crime. Murr, who was a prominent businessman before entering politics, was interior minister of Lebanon in 2004 when an HSBC account owned by him was held through a company called Callorford Investments Limited. By 2006-2007, the account would contain $42 million. A spokesman for Murr said his client’s wealth and that of his family is public knowledge, and his family has held accounts in Switzerland since before he was born.” HSBC Swiss accounts
  • Natural Resources

Banking Giant HSBC Sheltered Murky Cash Linked to Dictators and Arms Dealers ICIJ A team of journalists from 45 countries has unearthed secret bank accounts maintained for criminals, traffickers, tax dodgers, politicians and celebrities.