LANKANS IN SWISS BANK ‘TAKEOVER’! -out of 92, 88 client accounts were opened between 1974 and 2006 during UNP and Chandrika Period
Posted on February 13th, 2015
Sri Lanka News
Sri Lanka is ranked #112 among the countries with the largest dollar amounts in the leaked Swiss files.
Largest deposit $ 10.7 million :
92 clients are associated with Sri Lanka. 18% have a Sri Lankan passport or nationality.
How much is this for Sri Lanka?
Sri Lanka’s GDP per capita was $1.6K in 2007. The top 10% held 32.94% of income in 2007. (Source: World Bank)
Ninety-two Sri Lankan citizens hold a total of $58.3 million in 129 Swiss bank accounts, according to data released by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and leaked by an HSBC whistleblower.
The maximum amount of money associated with a client connected to Sri Lanka was $10.7 million while the island is ranked #112 among the countries with the largest dollar amounts in the leaked Swiss files. According to Swiss Leaks, 88 client accounts were opened between 1974 and 2006 and linked to 129 bank accounts. Of the 92 total clients 18 percent have a Sri Lankan passport or nationality.
ICIJ notes that each client could be linked to more than one country and that there are more than 19,000 clients not associated with any country. It’s not illegal to have accounts in banks in Switzerland, a country known for its banking secrecy, but it raises questions about the transparency of public funds, particularly at a time when Sri Lanka is probing massive frauds and corruption during the previous regime and attempting to locate hidden wealth.
“There are legitimate uses for Swiss bank accounts and trusts. We do not intend to suggest or imply that any persons, companies or other entities included in the ICIJ Swiss Leaks interactive application have broken the law or otherwise acted improperly,” the group said.
The Swiss Leaks project is based on a trove of almost 60,000 leaked files that provide details on over 100,000 HSBC clients and their bank accounts.
The files which are the basis for the Swiss Leaks articles and the interactive application are based on data secreted away by Hervé Falciani, a former HSBC employee-turned-whistleblower. He turned the data over to the French government in 2008 and its tax authority launched an investigation. The French newspaper Le Monde obtained a version of the tax authority data, which covers accounts of more than 100,000 clients (individuals and legal entities) from more than 200 countries. The newspaper shared it with ICIJ with the agreement that it would assemble a global team of journalists to explore the data and produce this reporting project. The data comes from three types of internal bank files from different time periods. One reflects clients and their associated private accounts at the Swiss branch of the bank mostly from 1988 to 2007.
Another is a snapshot of the maximum amounts in the client accounts during 2006 and 2007. The third is of notes on clients and conversations with them made by bank employees during 2005. The files show the accounts to hold more than $100 billion in total, from $12.6 billion held in the name of governmental institutions from the oil rich nation of Venezuela under the late former leader Hugh Chávez, to amounts recorded as zero. The confidential files also provide a wealth of other detail, such as secretive offshore companies linked to some accounts.
The Swiss government on its part said these names are from “stolen data” – an assertion that might make it difficult for countries to get details on these accounts without any additional evidence.
However, it said the country is “strongly committed” to fight against the black money menace following change in its policy a few years ago.
“The published information is based on the known list with stolen data of the years 2007 and earlier,” a government spokesperson said from Berne. Amid this global expose revealing tax dodging through accounts in its Swiss bank, British major HSBC on its part has admitted to past lapses even as it claimed that rigorous control are now in place to curb illicit fund flows. Asserting that it has taken significant steps over the past years, HSBC said its Swiss private bank has witnessed almost 70 per cent decline in its client base since 2007.
Details of more than 1,00,000 account holders around the world, including over 1,000 from India, have been revealed through a joint investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).
“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,” HSBC said in an email statement.
February 13th, 2015 at 1:29 am
92 total clients 18 percent have a Sri Lankan passport or nationality.
This is very confusing. If only 18% have Sri Lankan passports 82% have foreign passports. If they have foreign passports how do you know they are Sri Lankans. If they are foreign passport holders then they are not Sri Lankans and there millions of Sri Lankan born people living US, Europe, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand.
So the statement is wrong.
February 13th, 2015 at 2:26 am
Namaste: Indians rank pretty high in the list with more than 4 billion dollars. These Indians are I am sure mostly from its colonies like South Africa, Ceylon, Fiji, Guyana Kenya etc. British also ranks high and I am sure there are lots of Indians in that lot too not to mention USA and other eastern countries with wealthy Indians. If there are any Sinhalese they would not have anything worth talking about. Jai Hind
February 13th, 2015 at 7:16 am
NMY
Usually these dual passport holders declare themselves as foreign passport holders.
February 13th, 2015 at 9:03 am
The Sri Lankan Tax authorities should take a close look on the named SL accountholders as to how they amassed the wealth that could be many times the average incomes of Sri Lankans. Also just a word on the boasts of the Swiss on their ‘neutrality and Humanitarian work’ of the Red Cross Head quartered there. It could be also the biggest laundry for dirty money in the World! It serves the Swiss fine for their banks to be swimming in blood money of the world’s warlords and them mop up the bloodshed by sending their Red Cress – excellent work by the Swiss !! – S de Silva – London
February 13th, 2015 at 10:34 pm
If these details have been leaked previoulsy why they are not published now. This secrecy helps the jahapalanaya to continue with their lies.
February 13th, 2015 at 10:51 pm
The exact wording was “92 clients are associated with Sri Lanka. 18% have a Sri Lankan passport or nationality.”
Sri Lankan citizens have Sri Lankan passports, and have Sri Lankan Nationality.
Sri Lankan dual citizens of another country also have Sri Lankan Nationality, but may, or may not, acquire a Sri Lankan passport.
Therefore, both SL citizens, and Sri Lankan dual citizens FALL INTO the 18% category.
The 82% who do not, but are “associated with” Sri Lanka, must necessarily be NON-CITIZENS.
Therefore, they must be Sri Lankans who have emigrated to other countries and have become Citizens of those countries ONLY, giving up their Sri Lankan citizenship. They could also be non-citizen children of Sri Lankan parents. They NEITHER citizens, nor Dual Citizens, of Sri Lanka, but they, or their people, ORIGINATED in Sri Lanka, and are therefore, “associated with” Sri Lanka.
Does that cover ALL OF THE POSSIBILITIES? What do you think?
February 13th, 2015 at 11:29 pm
I have the SL list, but all of them are dummy companies and holding companies are hidden… You only got the guy who registered the acct.