#SWISSLEAKS:

African media reports, a compilation

(February 10, 2015)

Swiss Leaks, a collaborative investigation, exposes how the Swiss branch of HSBC, one of the world’s biggest banks, profited from doing business with tax dodgers and criminals around the world.

Dubbed the “biggest bank leak in history,” the latest allegations against HSBC shows the bank’s willingness to conduct large cash transactions, the secretive diamond world and so-called “housewives.”

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) based in Washington DC, worked with about 140 reporters in 45 countries to analyze 60,000 leaked files, some of which provide explicit details of how HSBC was aware of wrongdoing by some clients. The total value held in the bank accounts exceeds US$100 billion. After learning of ICIJ’s investigation, HSBC acknowledged that it was “accountable for past compliance and control failures.”

Key Findings

HSBC Private Bank (Suisse) continued to offer services to clients who had been unfavorably named by the United Nations, in court documents and in the media as connected to arms trafficking, blood diamonds and bribery.

HSBC served those close to discredited regimes such as that of former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, former Tunisian president Ben Ali and current Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad.

Clients who held HSBC bank accounts in Switzerland include former and current politicians from Britain, Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, Kenya, Romania, India, Liechtenstein, Mexico, Lebanon, Tunisia, DR Congo, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Paraguay, Djibouti, Senegal, Philippines and Algeria.

The bank repeatedly reassured clients that it would not disclose details of accounts to national authorities, even if evidence suggested that the accounts were undeclared to tax authorities in the client’s home country. Bank employees also discussed with clients a range of measures that would ultimately allow clients to avoid paying taxes in their home countries. This included holding

accounts in the name of offshore companies to avoid the European Savings Directive, a 2005 Europe-wide rule aimed at tackling tax evasion through the exchange of bank information.

In GHANA, Joy FM reports a member of parliament, Dr. Mark Assibey-Yeboah has challenged the the country’s Attorney General to go after Ghanaians indicted in the global leaked report for illegally stashing millions of taxable money in Swiss banks. Read full story here.

The maximum amount of money associated with a client connected to Ghana was $34.9M.

In UGANDA, the New Vision, a leading private daily reports in a story headlined “Ugandans hold sh256b in Swiss accounts” that 57 individuals associated with the country were holding US89.m in the Swiss branch of the British banking giant, HSBC.

The amount, according to the newspaper, is three and a half times what Uganda expects in general budget support from donors this financial year. It is eight times the total money earned on the Uganda Securities Exchange in 2012. One of the 57 individuals holds as much as US$8.8 million

The Daily Monitor also of Uganda reports that out of the 57 HSBC clients “associated” with Uganda, seven “have a Ugandan passport or nationality.”

The maximum amount of money associated with a client connected to Uganda was $8.8M.

In KENYA, the Business Daily, Daily Nation and the Star report that 238 Kenyans are on the list of those with Swiss bank accounts. In total, Kenyans are holding US$559.8 million in a single Swiss-bank. The amount is equivalent to what Kenya has budgeted for infrastructure projects such as roads, airports and ports in the year 2014/2015. The maximum amount of money associated with a client connected to Kenya was US$35.8 million.

Among those named is Machakos Senator Johnstone Muthama who is identified among Kenyans who either have or previously operated accounts with HSBC. On Muthama, HSBC files recorded his name in connection with the client account “ROCKLAND96”, which was set up in 1996 and closed in 2000.

The Standard newspaper also reports that The Kenyan accounts have placed the country in the top 100 of the 203 countries on the list, at position 58. Muthama is mentioned among a host of famous names in business and the arts, although the list also includes a female arms dealer once accused of selling weapons that fueled the fighting in Burundi.

In SOUTH AFRICA, an editorial in the country’s Business Daily observes that “the HSBC revelations mesh neatly with a report on illicit financial flows out of African countries compiled by an African Union panel chaired by former president Thabo Mbeki, which estimated recently that the continent loses US$50bn a year through illegal transfers of funds obtained through corruption, bribery, tax evasion, organised crime and smuggling operations.

The leaked documents, which were stolen by an HSBC whistleblower and handed over to the French government in return for protection from Swiss reprisals, reveal that hundreds of South Africans — including Fana Hlongwane, the man who vociferously denies having distributed hundreds of millions of rand in arms deal bribes to crooked politicians on behalf of arms suppliers — had as much as R23bn stashed in HSBC’s Swiss bank.

The maximum amount of money associated with a client connected to South Africa was US$164.3 million.

In NIGERIA, This Day reports in a story headlined “Leaked files link Abdulsalami Abubakar, Chris garba to US$182 million Halliburton bribery scandal”, that new records obtained by the Paris-based Le Monde newspaper and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists have unveiled more details on the US$182 million Halliburton bribery scandal in the country that indicted several top government official, in the Nigeria who received the bribes, but for which no Nigerian was ever sent to jail. Shockingly, states the report, the records have unearthed new Nigerian names never previously linked to the Halliburton scandal for which the US oil service giant was indicted by the US Securities and Exchange Commission and US Justice Department, and was compelled to pay fines running into hundreds of millions of dollars.

The maximum amount of money associated with a client connected to Nigeria was US$45.4 million.

And in TANZANIA, The Citizen reports today that 99 Tanzanians wired US$114 million to HSBC Bank in Switzerland within a span of just one year, data leaked by a whistle blower shows.

According to the data which has been independently verified by the International Consortium for Investigative Journalists, these Tanzanians together operated 286 bank accounts.

The Citizen also reports that there are legitimate uses for Swiss bank accounts and trusts, and therefore cannot directly suggest that any persons, companies or other entities included in the Swiss Leaks dossier have broken the law or otherwise acted improperly. However, the Tanzanian laws want any individual or local company that wants to operate a foreign bank account to seek an approval from the Bank of Tanzania.

The leaked data shows that the maximum amount of money associated with a client connected to Tanzania is US$20.8 million. The stolen data covered a period between 1988 and 2007, whereby the US$114 million figure was wired from Tanzania in 2006/7.

The maximum amount of money associated with a client connected to Tanzania was US$20.8 million.