HSBC victim of data theft

Update 21:15 (last paragraph) Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The French authorities have responded favourably to Switzerland’s demand to return the data stolen by a former employee of HSBC Private Bank in Geneva, reportedly amounting to 130,000 client names. French Ministry of Justice officials confirmed that the stolen laptop was to be returned “very quickly”.

The encrypted client data, taken from the bank by former IT employee Hervé Falciani, was turned over to the French public prosecutor’s office in Nice, where investigations were opened into French clients of the bank suspected of money-laundering. Switzerland had asked the French authorities for judicial assistance earlier this year when Falciani was found to have stolen the data and moved to France. As part of the cross-border cooperation, Swiss authorities supplied the French with the means to decipher the data on the laptop.

When French authorities began to use the bank data to investigate French citizens, Switzerland asked for the data to be returned and suspended ratification 16 December of a new double-taxation treaty between the two countries. In addtion, French authorities said the return of the data to Switzerland would not change the on-going operation against suspected French tax evaders, Reuters reports.

Background: GenevaLunch

Links to other sites: 20Minutes, Le Temps, NZZ (Ger)

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