X Files

Ten clients and US$8.8 million (MOP70.2 million) related to Macau may be affected by the Swiss Leaks scandal, according to data revealed by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). This episode involves the Swiss banking arm of HSBC and how it allegedly helped wealthy customers dodge taxes and conceal millions of dollars of assets. Macau ranks 155 out of 203 jurisdictions in relation to the amount of money kept in the HSBC Swiss branch. As for the number of clients, the Special Administrative Region places in 153rd position with 10 clients, which would account for 32 accounts opened between 1973 and 2002. The maximum amount of money associated with a client linked to Macau was US$2.5 million (MOP20 million). However, of the 10 clients of the HSBC Swiss branch living in Macau only two are SAR passport holders. As for Hong Kong, the Chinese administrative region occupied 36th position with US$1.8 billion (MOP14.4 billion) in terms of amount deposited in the Swiss HSBC bank. Concerning the number of clients, it ranks 24 with 984 clients and a total of 1,498 bank accounts opened from 1969 to 2006. From these, only 89 clients are Hong Kong passport holders, including the permanent judge of the Court of Final Appeal Joseph Paul Fok and his wife. Their bank account was closed in 2002. Mainland China ranks 61 in money terms with US$517 million (MOP4.1 billion) and occupies 56th position with 246 clients (664 bank accounts opened from 1969 to 2006), with 69 being Mainland China passport holders. Li Xiaolin, daughter of former PRC Premier Li Peng, haswith five bank accounts under the name of Metralco Overseas S.A., a Panama-registered company dissolved in 2012, which held US$2.48 million (MOP19.8 million). Not surprisingly, the list is topped by Switzerland both In terms of client numbers (11,235) and in the amount of money in the accounts (US$31.2 billion / MOP249.1 billion). In total, the documents account for more than US$100 billion (MOP798.6 billion) from 106,000 clients from 203 countries. The list of people related to the Swiss HSBC bank includes such names as the kings of Jordan, Abdullah II, and Morocco, Mohammed VI, as well as the Spanish banker Emilio Botín, who passed away last year and controlled Santander Bank. Australian media tycoon Kerry Packer, who died in 2005 and was the father of Melco Crown Entertainment Limited’s Co-chairman James Packer, is also mentioned. The data published yesterday is based on documents secreted away by former HSBC employee Hervé Falciani, who turned them over to the French Government in 2008. While most clients and account data cover 1988 to 2007, amounts are related to 2006 to 2007. ‘We acknowledge that the compliance culture and standards of due diligence in HSBC’s Swiss private bank, as well as the industry in general, were significantly lower than they are today’, the bank said. HSBC also admitted that it was accountable for past control failure but that it has fundamentally changed since then. ICIJ stresses that the fact that a person or company is mentioned in the leaked documents does not imply that they have broken any law or acted improperly.