The French government is being shaken by revelations by Claire Thibout, a former accountant to Liliane Bettencourt, heiress to the L’Oréal fortune, that the ruling UMP party may have benefitted from cash donations to President Nicholas Sarkozy’s campaign in 2007. These allegations have now been partially retracted. Bettencourt is France’s richest woman.
Previously, it was revealed that the wife of Works Minister Eric Woerth had been advising Bettencourt on financial matters. Some of the €15 billion fortune found its way to Switzerland and may not have been properly declared. Eric Woerth is both works minister and treasurer of the UMP.
Woerth, formerly the budget minister in Sarkozy’s government, made chasing French tax evaders a priority and is key to the government’s pensions reform which is attempting to raise the retirement age from 60 to 62 in an effort to reduce the French government’s recurrent budget deficit. He has been backed by Sarkozy, though two junior ministers were ousted this past weekend for ostentatious use of taxpayers’ money.
Links to other sites: BBC, Le Monde, Libération, Wall Street Journal
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) -The latest twist in the increasingly tangled tale of client data stolen from HSBC in Geneva comes from the thief himself, formerly known as Hervé Falciani. The former HSBC computer system employee who now lives under a new identity in the south of France told French journalists from Nice Matin that in August 2008 he was kidnapped by two men in a van in Geneva’s Champel district. The men were of unclear Middle Eastern origin, perhaps Israeli, says Falciani, who accuses his Lebanese girlfriend at the time of being part of a plot to discredit him.
The Lebanese link has surfaced following accusations by Switzerland that Falciani was trying to sell the names and other information about bank clients, which he acknowledges he stole, to several governments, notably Lebanon.
Hans-Rudolf Merz
Update 18:00 Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – France says it did not break any French laws in accepting stolen data from a Swiss branch of HSBC, and right-wing politicians in Paris called for Switzerland to be put onto an OECD black list of tax havens if the Swiss refuse to ratify a pending treaty with France over the theft. Switzerland says that France, in failing to provide judicial assistance in the matter, is not respecting the terms or spirit of the treaty.
The Swiss government late Wednesday 16 December said it intends to suspend the ratification of the new double taxation treaty with France. The news followed comments to the media by France’s budget minister, Eric Woerth, that he plans to start judicial proceedings based on information stolen from the Geneva branch of HSBC.
Swiss President Hans-Rudolf Merz says that he is asking the Swiss commission in charge of the ratification process, scheduled to meet in February, to hold off until the circumstances surrounding the theft, which took place in Switzerland, are clearer. The French citizen who stole the data has come forward publicly, and he is now being given a new identity in the south of France.
At issue for the Swiss: France has not responded to Switzrland’s repeated requests for judicial assistance, and no information has been provided about the stolen data. The theft, which started in July 2008 by an IT employee at the bank, is illegal under Swiss law. “In a state of law, this type of theft is unacceptable,” Merz told media Wednesday.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevLunch) – The French justice minister, Michèle Alliot-Marie, confirmed Thursday 10 December that Switzerland has asked for administrative assistance in the case of data theft from HSBC Bank in Geneva, and that French authorities would answer it, reports Swiss-German newspaper NZZ. A former employee of the British bank’s private banking arm has provided French authorities with client details, several media sources report. The former IT specialist, variously described as a dual French-Italian or French-Swiss national, has been given a new identity and is living under protection in the south of France.
Paris, France (Le Temps, Fre) – Switzerland and France Friday signed a new tax treaty that could go into effect as early as January 2010, which for the first time promises the French more help in catching tax evaders.
