Argentina Charges HSBC Bank for Assisting Residents With Tax Evasion: Bank Allegedly Put Money in Swiss Accounts

Argentina's tax agency charged the London based HSBC bank in federal court on Thursday with helping more than 4,000 Argentines evade taxes by placing their money in secret Swiss accounts.

Ricardo Echegaray, the head of the country's AFIP tax agency, stated that Argentine citizens evaded about $3 billion in taxes, which were handled by intermediaries through a network of offshore accounts.

According to The Associated Press, Echegaray alleged that a number of those accounts in Geneva are owned by HSBC Argentina's president and other bank executives.

"There's no doubt that the AFIP will keep cracking down on tax havens because our objective is to collect taxes and to avoid harming those who have less," he said.

AFIP clams it received the information about the tax evasion from France, where HSBC -- which has also been charged in Belgium with organized fiscal fraud -- was placed under formal investigation last week for possibly aiding tax evasion.

HSBC rejected the allegations in an emailed statement asserting that the financial institution has "rigorous risk and compliance standards in place to detect and deter unlawful activity," adding that HSBC does "strictly enforce these high standards in co-operation with governments around the world.”

This month, according to The Financial Times, Argentina accused Procter & Gamble of tax fraud and said it had suspended the U.S. company’s operations in the South American country. The socialist government has even started using drones to catch wealthy tax evaders who have not declared mansions or swimming pools.

After defaulting on its debt during its 2001-2002 financial crisis, Argentina has been kept from global credit markets.

Officials have subsequently tried to keep dollars in the country for the Central Bank to use in order to pay off government debts, while the bank's reserves have continued to plunge.

Currency controls make it about impossible for Argentines to legally trade pesos for dollars, and many citizens have resorted to black market money changers in order to obtain dollars in an attempt to protect themselves from their country's high inflation rates.