HSBC Private Bank (Suisse) has helped criminals, corrupt politicians, front men of Third World dictators, sanctionned individuals, and tax evaders to hide billions of dollars. Some of these individuals are connected to arms trafficking, blood diamonds, discredited regimes, and large scale bribery scandals, secret leaked documents published by the collaborative investigation, led by an independent journalism unit, International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) in collaboration with Le Monde, and distributed to several news media around the World.
On the list of the clients who held HSBC bank accounts in Switzerland are former and current politicians from Algeria, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Rwanda, Senegal, Zimbabwe, Britain, Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, Kenya, Romania, India, Liechtenstein, Mexico, Lebanon, Tunisia, Paraguay, the Philippines. The ICIJ said details of more than 100,000 clients had been obtained from more than 200 countries, and have more than $100 billions in HSBC accounts.
To sift through the mountain of leaked documents, around 60,000 files, ICIJ enlisted more than 140 journalists from 45 countries, including reporters from Le Monde, BBC, The Guardian, CBS 60 Minutes, Süddeutsche Zeitung and tens of other media organizations. A 37-year-old computer security specialist, Hervé Falciani, stole data in 2007 and gave it to the French government.
"Friends — let's say partners — gave me these data. I'm not the only person in banking system that wants to raise alarm," Falciani told CBS 60 Minutes on Sunday February 8, 2015.
Corrupt and dictators front men from the following African countries stashed millions:
South Africa: $2 billions
Morocco: $1.6 billions
Eryhtrea: $669.6 millions
Zimbabwe: $272.2M
Nigeria: $266.6M
Côte d’Ivoire $190.5M
Senegal: $188.6M
DR Congo: $179.8M
Rep. of the Congo: $166.5M
Madagascar: $146.3M
Mauritius: $141M
Sudan: $131M
Chad: $120.7M
Tanzania: $114M
Mali: $106.4M
Uganda: $89.3M
Ghana: $89M
Zambia: $48.3M
Angola: $36.8M
Sierra Leone: $33M
Burundi: $30.2M
Cameroon: $22.9M
Malawi: $16.1M
Somalia: $15.5M
CAR: $13.8M
Mauritania: $12M
Réunion: $10.3M
Ethiopia: $10M
Benin: $6.6M
Mozambique: $6.5M
Gabon: $6.1M
Togo: $5.6M
Djibouti: $3.9M
Namibia: $3.9M
Guinea: $2.5M
Rwanda: $2.1M
Cape Verde: $2M
Equatorial Guinea: $1M
Botswana: $1.7K
Swaziland: $0
Niger: $0
Lesotho: $0
