HSBC leaker Herve Falciani set free after being detained in Spain at the request of Switzerland
Herve Falciani leaked a cache of documents allegedly indicating that HSBC’s Swiss private banking arm helped more than 120,000 clients to hide US$222 billion from tax authorities
A Spanish judge on Thursday freed Herve Falciani, a former HSBC computer analyst detained in Madrid a day earlier at the request of Switzerland for leaking documents alleging widespread tax evasion, on bail, a judicial source said.
The judge seized Falciani’s passport and ordered the 46-year-old French-Italian national to report weekly to a court while his extradition request is considered, the source added.
“He was arrested in Madrid, in the street on the way to a conference,” a top police official said on Wednesday.
The official did not say why Falciani, a French-Italian national, was wanted by Switzerland.
A Swiss court in 2015 convicted Falciani of aggravated industrial espionage and handed him a five-year prison sentence. He did not attend his trial and has avoided Switzerland since.
Falciani leaked a cache of documents allegedly indicating that HSBC’s Swiss private banking arm helped more than 120,000 clients to hide €180.6 billion (US$222 billion) from tax authorities, sparking the so-called “Swissleaks” scandal.