LONDON: George Osborne, a British finance minister said the matter should be left for tax officials to investigate by defending his government’s response to the scandal engulfing London based HSBC.
Osborne said allegations that London based HSBC’s Swiss division helped clients in more than 200 countries dodge taxes on accounts containing 180 billion euros ($204 billion) were very serious, but that he should not be directing the prosecutions.
He further said there are very serious allegations, there are allegations around tax evasion, which is illegal.
HSBC will announce its full-year results on Monday, and British MPs are due to grill group chairman Douglas Flint at a Treasury Committee hearing on Wednesday.
Osborne noted political non interference in legal issues that has been one of the bulwarks of freedom in this country for hundreds of years.
But he also expressed his wish to see more prosecutions, and said that new international data sharing schemes would make the fight against tax evasion easier.
The claims in the “SwissLeaks” case emerged after a whistle-blower took files from Europe’s biggest bank and passed them to French authorities.
Top officials of HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) of British tax agency are also due to give evidence about their response to the leaks.
