Between 2001 and 2008, systems engineer Hervé Falciani worked for HSBC’s Swiss subsidiary and reorganized its database in 2006. He later said the bank’s data practices enabled clients to conceal taxable assets and that superiors rejected a proposed system change. Over roughly two years, he copied information concerning more than 130,000 clients suspected by authorities of tax evasion or money laundering. In 2008, he provided the material to French authorities, producing the “Falciani list,” also called the “Lagarde list” after then-French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde shared relevant information with governments.
The disclosure triggered international investigations and a diplomatic dispute between France and Switzerland. France opened proceedings against alleged tax offenders after its prosecutor, Eric de Montgolfier, examined the seized data; HSBC was indicted in France for money laundering in November 2014. Switzerland indicted Falciani in absentia on 11 December 2014 for data theft, aggravated financial espionage, and violations of banking and commercial secrecy, and its federal court sentenced him to five years in November 2015. Spain twice rejected extradition, including in 2018, while its Audiencia Nacional said his cooperation had revealed severely irregular activity and appeared inconsistent with a purely profit-driven motive. HSBC disputed that he was a whistleblower and alleged he tried to sell the data.
