I'm surprised he's not dead....
"Swiss bank whistleblower is in demand" by Doreen Carvajal and Raphael Minder | New York Times, August 09, 2013
PARIS — Hervé Falciani is a professed whistleblower — the Edward Snowden of banking — who has been hunted by Swiss investigators, jailed by Spaniards and claims to have been kidnapped by Israeli Mossad agents eager for a glimpse of the client data he stole while working for a major financial institution in Geneva.
“I am weak and alone,” Falciani said, as three round-the-clock bodyguards provided by the French government looked on with hard stares. The protection was needed, he insisted, because he faces constant risk as the sole key to decipher the encrypted data — five CD-ROMs with a list of nearly 130,000 account holders that may be the biggest leak in the world of Swiss banking.
But as he settled into a bistro for a two-hour lunch, Falciani, a former computer technician who has been on the run since 2008, seemed oddly relaxed for a fugitive. And why not?
He is in high demand these days, having cast himself as a crusader against the murky world of Swiss banking and money laundering.
That $eems to be the kind of thing that $tre$$es one out.
Once dismissed by many European authorities, he and other whistleblowers are now being courted as the region’s governments struggle to fill their coffers and to stem a populist uprising against tax evasion and corruption.
Oh, all of a $udden whistleblowing leakers are good!
“It’s an economic war,” said Falciani, “In Switzerland, the banks are so organized that they are able to circumvent new rules and laws to continue to enable tax evasion.”
In other words, nothing has changed five years after the world economy melted down.
Critics, not least at his former employer HSBC, dismiss him as a manipulator more dazzled by money than high ideals.
Oh, his critic is the drug-money laundering HSBC?
The data he has leaked — some say sold — since 2008 has wreaked havoc in the banking world, as well as among the moneyed and political classes of Europe.
This guy better be careful when he travels.
Falciani’s data formed the basis for the now famous “Lagarde list” that has roiled Greek politics with its revelations of oligarchs and politicians who avoided taxes by stashing millions in Switzerland.
Taxes are only something you little people pay. Hell, the wealthy collect tax loot in the form of subsidies.
His data are also credited with helping Spain collect $345 million in taxes and identify 650 tax evaders, including the president of Banco Santander.
In 2012, Falciani passed his information to US authorities. They, in turn, used the data to pursue an inquiry into whether HSBC flouted controls on money laundering, eventually forcing a $1.92 billion settlement with the bank in December.
Too big to jail.
Since his release from jail this year after a Spanish judge denied a Swiss extradition request, Falciani, who is married and has a young daughter, has resurfaced in France. French authorities offered protection in exchange for Falciani giving testimony to prosecutors investigating if HSBC helped French clients dodge taxes.
“My main objective is to help authorities develop a defense,” Falciani said.
HSBC dismisses Falciani’s information as flawed, insisting that the small sample the bank has seen is filled with errors.
Yeah, HSBC always hues precisely to the law.
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