Elizabeth Warren senator of the State of Massachusetts, and previously a Harvard Law School professor who specializes in bankruptcy law, is persuading the US justice department to bring up criminal charges against HSBS and its executives as part of an investigation into whether or not the bank’s Swiss subsidiary helped wealthy US clients evade taxes.
Elizabeth Warren was quoted saying “come down hard” on HSBC if they conspired with tax evaders on Tuesday. A new focus is now at being looked at from a new investigation into the HSBC Switzerland. This started by a leak of massive data about five years ago that fell into the hands of the Department of justice’s tax division that was later obtained by the Guardian (news media winner of the Pulitzer Prize) and other media sources.
The information shows that HSBC Switzerland helped some clients hide some millions of undeclared assets. This of course raised millions of questions on Capitol Hill about the response from prosecutors and tax authorities.
When asked, one officer said that criminal indictments could be issued to the bank itself. The same official stated that the investigation is “very active”, but didn’t provide a margin for its completion and didn’t say which, if any bankers might face charges.
The actions of a US Senator in all of this will create scandal in Washington, where members of the Senate banking committee are preparing to choose a representative of the Federal Reserve on Tuesday. How much did regulators know about US tax evasion connected to HSBC Switzerland?
The hearing will be public but there is no set date for it yet. In my opinion Wealthy and big companies should pay the progressive tax rates as any other individual and justice should come on them hard.
http://www.theguardian.com/news/2015/feb/10/hsbc-us-prosecutors-criminal-charges-elizabeth-warren