BUENOS AIRES: HSBC’s actions threatened the stability of the Argentine government, Ricardo Echegaray said.
“HSBC built a platform to help clients evade tax,” said Mr Echegary in a press briefing at London’s Argentine embassy.
HSBC said it had “been cooperating fully with Argentine regulators, including AFIP (the tax authority”).
It also said it was working with the Argentine judiciary, since the allegations were first made public last year, and it would continue to do so.
Mr Echegaray said British tax authorities had asked for details about Argentina’s case against HSBC.
“Without tax collection, there is no government, there is no public policy, there is no State, that is to say there is no country,” said Mr Echegaray.
Last November, Argentina accused HSBC of helping more than 4,000 clients evade taxes, but HSBC denied the charges, saying it respected Argentine law.
Nonetheless, Argentina filed a criminal complaint against HSBC for tax evasion and illegal tax association, which could carry prison sentences of up to 10 years.
As part of his briefing, Mr Echegaray further revealed that on 8 March, at the request of the Argentine tax authority, police raided HSBC’s Argentine branch in search of documents.
As part of that raid, Argentine authorities found documents indicating that most of the paperwork associated with the accounts were stored a firm called “Iron Mountain”, which had been the subject of arson in February 2014.
Mr Echegaray also said that Argentine tax authorities had requested information from the tax administrations in the Virgin Islands, Uruguay and Bermuda, and that a new committee in Argentina’s Congress had been set up to investigate whether other banks had used similar strategies to that of HSBC.
