The former HSBC employee who is wanted by Switzerland on suspicion of stealing confidential banking information, claims US officials warned him he was in danger and advised him to go to Spain

Herve Falciani, the former HSBC employee who is wanted by
Swiss authorities on suspicion of stealing confidential banking information now
being used by international financial investigators, claims US officials warned
him he was in danger and advised him to go to Spain, media reports said.

The man was arrested last July after he left France by sea and tried to enter Spain through the northeastern port of Barcelona.
In December, Spain’s
National Court
released him after authorities said Falciani was cooperating with investigators
from several European countries in probes into tax evasion, money-laundering
and terrorism financing.

He is now fighting extradition to Switzerland, where he is accused of
stealing information between 2006 and 2007 related to at least 24,000 customers
with private accounts with the Swiss division of HSBC, a report by Associated Press said.

The story highlights how the Swiss banking industry, once
renowned for its secrecy laws, has come under pressure from governments trying
to find any way to hunt down tax evaders using the Alpine state as a place to
hold undeclared money. However, in its defence, Switzerland is still fighting to
prevent former bank employees from divulging client affairs – a serious
criminal offence under Swiss law.

In an interview published in El Pais newspaper, the man said he was cooperating with US Justice
Department officials when he was told to head for Spain.

“They told me that from that moment my life was at risk,”
Falciani reportedly said. “They told me the only safe place in Europe was Spain.”

The paper quotes Falciani as saying that US authorities advised him on what day to travel - 1 July. “They even knew which
judge would be on duty when I arrived,” he said.

Falciani also is accused of breaching banking secrecy,
including allegedly releasing a list of names of HSBC private customers to
French officials in 2008, the year he fled Switzerland
for France.

France’s
former finance minister, Christine Lagarde, now head of the International
Monetary Fund, passed the list on to the US and several European Union
countries, thereby exposing many of the bank’s clients to prosecution for tax
evasion.