Denials continue despite MPs hearing of HSBC tax evasion claims in 2011 (Video) 

Downing Street insists it had no warning of HSBC wrongdoing, despite revelation MPs had known about ‘disc from the Swiss’ with names of potential tax dodgers

Downing Street and the Financial Conduct Authority insisted on Tuesday they had been given no warning of any wrongdoing at HSBC’s Swiss bank before the weekend – even though executives at HMRC were raising concerns in public in 2011.

No 10 said it first knew of an admission of wrongdoing by HSBC at the weekend, even though stories of alleged tax evasion by the bank’s clients had appeared in the summer of 2011 and through 2012.

At a morning press briefing, a Downing Street government spokeswoman said HMRC had not briefed any minister on the allegations surrounding HSBC’s Swiss subsidiary. “No government minister had any knowledge that HSBC was involved in wrongdoing in regard to its Swiss banking arm,” said the spokesperson.

However, in September 2011 David Hartnett, the then head of HMRC, told MPs on the Treasury select committee: “I think the whole nation probably knows that our department has a disc from the Swiss – from the Geneva branch of a major UK bank – with 6,000 names, all ripe for investigation.”

Hartnett went on: “We have hundreds under investigation, some of them under criminal investigation, and we are about to challenge another 800. Then we will industrialise the process, challenging 1,000 at a time, with a view to having all those who need challenging challenged pretty quickly.”

Source: the guardian – Denials continue despite MPs hearing of HSBC tax evasion claims in 2011

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