List of Alleged Diamond Tax Evaders Leaked to Antwerp Press

(IDEX Online News) – Almost two years after an HSBC employee handed to French authorities a list of tens of thousands of HSBC's private banking clients, ricochets from the affair are hitting Antwerp's diamond community. The list allegedly contains information revealing massive tax evasions.

In 2009, HSBC  IT employee Herve Falciani handed to French tax authorities a list of accounts stolen from HSBC Private Bank in Geneva between 2006 and 2007, starting a series of global investigations about the source of the money held in the accounts.

At least 24,000 clients - and according to some reports as many as 80,000 - are on the list. These clients are from 180 countries, and France apparently informed Indian, Belgian, German and Canadian tax authorities about their listed citizens. Leaks from the ensuing investigation claim that some 700 Indian citizens are among those that held accounts at the Geneva branch. Some of them are reportedly leading diamond traders.

This past weekend, the Belgian daily De Tijd named a couple of diamond traders and hinted at some more, claiming that some 170 of Antwerp's diamond traders are on the list. According to the report, the traders jointly held $1 billion at the Geneva bank and are currently being investigated for suspected of tax evasion

Antwerp's diamond community reacted with shock that the list was leaked to a newspaper and the breach of confidentiality. The Antwerp World Diamond Centre (AWDC) called this "a clear violation of basic rights."

AWDC stated that it is not involved "whatsoever in this file," stressing that it is assisting the authorities conducting the investigations and will continue to do so in the future. "AWDC has continuously been working towards a clean and transparent worldwide diamond trade," it stated.