By Desie Heita
WINDHOEK – A leaked document cache, published on Sunday, on the murky and secretive dealings of Swiss banking group HSBC, has revealed that Namibians stashed away more than N$44.9 million (US$3.9 million) in accounts with the bank.
Details have now emerged in an exposé that shines new light on how Swiss banking laws maintained secret bank accounts for global criminals, people with chequered reputations, traffickers, tax dodgers, politicians and celebrities between 1988 and 2007.
It is neither illegal to have a Swiss account nor do all individuals who open Swiss accounts have duplicitous intent.
However, the leaked documents provide an unprecedented glimpse inside the privileged and taciturn Swiss banking system favoured by those with bucket loads of money. They also unearthed how Swiss banking laws maintained secret bank accounts for tax dodgers and people with chequered reputations, highlighting what is potentially illegal or unethical banking oversight at HSBC in Switzerland.
The first detailed reports, based on the first released document cache, have just been published by a group of investigative journalists from 45 countries. Namibia is ranked at 166 among the countries with the largest dollar amounts in the leaked Swiss files.
According to information posted by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) “the maximum amount of money associated with a client connected to Namibia was US$1.7 million (about N$19.6 million).
Twenty HSBC clients are associated with Namibia and 20 percent of those clients have a Namibian passport or nationality.
The 24 client accounts were opened between 1978 and 2004 and linked to 15 bank accounts, according to the documents.
The leak has shattered the reputation of the HSBC bank, with a number of cash-starved European countries demanding Swiss authorities tighten banking laws that enticed many European nationals to avoid paying taxes in their home countries.
The leaked files, based on the inner workings of HSBC’s Swiss private banking arm, relate to accounts holding more than US$100 billion for 100 000 people in 203 countries. They provide a rare glimpse inside the super-secret Swiss banking system — one the public has never seen before.
With N$23 billion stashed away in HSBC accounts, South Africa is one of three African countries in a group of 44 that banked at HSBC. Angolan nationals had an estimated US$36.8 million (about N$423.94 million); Mozambicans were at US$6.5 million (N$74.88 million); Malawians had US$16 million (N$184.32 million); Zambians US$48.3 million (N$556.42 million) and Zimbabweans had US$272.2 million (about N$3.14 billion), while Botswana had US$170 000 (about N$2 million).
“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 ranging 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,” said the ICIJ.
The ICIJ’s collaborative investigation, dubbed The Swiss Leak Data, exposes how the Swiss branch of one of the world’s biggest banks, HSBC, profited from doing business with arms dealers who channelled mortar bombs to child soldiers in Africa, bag men for Third World dictators, traffickers in blood diamonds and other international outlaws.
HSBC has since acknowledged that it did have compliance issues in the past but has “taken significant steps over the past several years to implement reforms and exit clients who did not meet strict new HSBC standards, including those where we had concerns in relation to tax compliance.”
– Additional reporting by ICIJ