Calls for probe against HSBC Swiss unit after tax evation revelations

Politicians in Switzerland called Feb. 9 for an investigation into HSBC's Swiss unit, at the centre of a vast scandal over clients' tax evasion, money laundering and financing of terrorist groups.
      
Opening an investigation "would be the least that could be done," former Swiss foreign minister Micheline Calmy-Rey told the RTS public broadcaster.

So far, the Swiss judiciary has only opened a probe against Herve Falciani, the IT worker who in 2007 stole the HSBC files at the heart of the scandal and passed them on to French authorities.
     
The so-called 'SwissLeaks' cache of secret files, published over the weekend, claim the bank helped clients in more than 200 countries evade taxes on accounts containing $119 billion (104 billion euros).

The files, analysed by reporters in the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), showed that British banking giant HSBC provided accounts to international criminals, corrupt businessmen, politicians and celebrities.
      
"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," ICIJ reported.
      
The files list a range of former and current politicians from Britain, Russia, India and a range of African countries, Saudi, Bahraini, Jordanian and Moroccan royalty, and the late Australian press magnate Kerry Packer.
      
The revelations are likely to stoke calls for a crackdown on sophisticated tax avoidance by the wealthy and by multinational companies, a key political issue in Britain and Europe.

3,105 Turks have accounts

According to documents, around 3,105 Turks had off...