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HSBC Banking Leak Shows Tax Avoidance, Dealings With Criminals
An anonymous reader writes: Data in a massive cache of leaked secret bank account files lift the lid on questionable practices at a subsidiary of one of the world's biggest financial institutions. HSBC's Swiss banking arm did the following: Routinely allowed clients to withdraw bricks of cash, often in foreign currencies of little use in Switzerland; Aggressively marketed schemes likely to enable wealthy clients to avoid European taxes; Colluded with some clients to conceal undeclared "black" accounts from their domestic tax authorities; and provided accounts to international criminals, corrupt businessmen and other high-risk individuals. For its part, HSBC admits that it is liable for past transgressions but claims its practices have changed.
So shady characters were using Swiss bank accounts? Really?
In other news some of the users of the pirate bay were found to be distributing copyrighted material. Also the sun found to be yellow.
HSBC Banking Leak Shows Tax Avoidance, Dealings With Criminals
In other words, just another day of business as usual...
Avoiding is not illegal. Evading is illegal. Avoiding paying road tolls is when you take surface streets so you don't have to pay tolls on the highway. Evading paying tolls is when you take the highway put don't put any money in the till when you get to the toll booth.
If the bank is helping clients to avoid paying taxes, then the bank is to be congratulated for providing good sound business advice to their clients and enabling them to take advantage of tax situations set up on purpose by various taxing districts in order to lure business to their jurisdiction. If they are helping clients to evade taxes, then they need to be thrown in jail along with their clients.
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
Bank of America, Citi and Deutsche Bank have all been implicated in laundering funds.
http://www.ibtimes.com/citi-de...
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So revoke their banking licence and freeze all funds. Make everyone claim funds against a full disclosure.
Not to defend Ross Ulbricht, but given what's coming to light, does anybody really doubt that HSBC enabled more drug trafficking than a dozen Silk Roads? And that's not even counting things like the arms trade and tax evasion.
Steal ten thousand dollars and you go to jail for decades. Steal ten billion and you get a slap on the wrist and an engraved invitation to the next campaign fundraising dinner.
It's only illegal if you get caught. Even if you DO get caught, remember that rich people don't go to jail.
Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.
HSBC was FOUNDED on the ORIGINAL Silk Road. That heroin highway that ran through the Far East and extended tendrils through Hong Kong, Shanghai (hence the name) and London, Paris, Berlin and Rome.
Political debates have me rolling my eyes so much I think I got optical whiplash. I should sue. - Foamy The Squirrel
Of course not. Because they're essentially protected by the corporate veil.
So they can do all sorts of malfeasance, and HSBC will say "ooops, sorry", and possibly pay some fines. If they get sacked, they'll still keep their huge bonuses and severance.
The problem with corporations is it more or less encourages people to break the law, since they end up bearing no legal responsibility.
Rich bankers do prison time for ripping people off? Don't make me laugh.
Not a single one of the assholes who ripped off the world leading up to 2008 was charged with anything, despite essentially running an enormous Ponzi scheme to foist off bad debt to other people and make it look like it was AAA rated debt. It was theft, writ large, but not ONE of them was charged.
Because those people advise the government of financial matters.
Being a banker is practically a license to commit fraud on a massive scale, with no personal liability.
Being a banker on a large scale probably means some of the politicians who are supposed to be fixing this probably have an account with you and will give you a wink.
Because the politicians are just as corrupt as the bankers. All of these millionaire politicians are hiding their money in offshore accounts, right along with the drug cartels.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
> problem with corporations is it more or less encourages people to break the law, since they end up bearing no legal responsibility.
I know to the guy on the street this seems irrelevant, but this is a major, major issue. It also is backed up by one of the worst pieces of doublethink that you have to believe in corporate culture.
CEO pay is through the roof, and in the US it's always "justified" by the amount of responsibility a CEO supposedly has in a company. However, every time there is a huge case of corporate malfeasance the CEO always claims that he/she had no knowledge of the lawbreaking. So which one is it: does the CEO take responsibility for the company or not?
The best example I know of this in modern life is Rick Scott. He was the CEO of a company that perpetrated the largest fraud in Medicare history. However (at least in the minds of the pro-corporate masses) he didn't even get a scratch on his reputation, let alone get indited for anything. It takes too many mental gymnastics for me to believe that his company's Medicare fraud did not personally enrich him.
To me this seems to be one of the worst societal problems we have to deal with right now. However no one even talks about it.
yes, and diamorphine, too.
Back when opium dens were to be found next door to the Old Bailey and off the reception atria of every barrister in London. Often in the same building, too - occasionally you'd even find a room full of very young girls (or boys, if that was your poison). It all came in on the East India Company Docks. Where CANARY WHARF now stands.
Funny, that.
Political debates have me rolling my eyes so much I think I got optical whiplash. I should sue. - Foamy The Squirrel
Many people go so far as to consider taxation theft, and avoidance patriotic.
IOW, many people are self-centred twats.
BTW, I live in a country with one of the highest rates of taxation on the planet (Sweden), and my taxes actually *decreased* a couple of years ago--in the same year that I received a bonus that should otherwise have resulted in me paying about 10% *more*.
So much for your entertaining little theory Which is, as I said, entertaining, but not even worthy of modding down.
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
People should always be trying to avoid taxes. Blindly paying whatever taxes are assessed is foolish and will always lead to the levying of more and more taxes because due to greed and human nature. Governments are incapable of ever lowering taxes in any real or meaningful way. The only way to avoid runaway taxation is perpetual tax avoidance. Many people go so far as to consider taxation theft, and avoidance patriotic.
As I get older, it becomes easier to understand why most revolutions start with hanging a bunch of the rich and powerful from lampposts.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it