HSBC would be endorsing a policy of international piracy if it does not repair the damage it caused to Argentina’s finances, head of the AFIP tax bureau Rircardo Echegaray has warned.
In statements to the state-run news agency Télam, Echegaray today urged the HSBC to held responsibility for the “damage it caused to all Argentineans.”
According to the AFIP chief, the British bank should say whether it “endorses or endorsed the conduct of HSBC executives in Argentina and Geneva.”
“If it does not endorse it, it should take the measures it has to take, such as providing no further platforms for tax evasion.”
“Doors are open for them to repair the damage they made to the Argentine fiscal accounts,” Echegaray insisted.
“For the HSBC to not be considered a bank that carried out maneuvers of international piracy, the minimum it has to do is to repair the damage it caused to Argentine finances,” the official stated.
The Beraja gate
In today’s comments to the press, the head of the AFIP office also referred to the tax situation of Rubén Beraja, the former president of the Banco Mayo and of the Delegation of Israeli Argentine Associations (DAIA).
Echegaray said Beraja showed up connected to the account owned by Miguel Abadi, the main dodger in the scandal that broke out when the office commanded by Echegaray accused the HSBC of aiding more than 4,000 clients to evade taxes by stashing their money in secret Swiss bank accounts back in November.
“We are requesting judicial authorities to investigate the case of the cleaning out of the Banco Mayo because we found the connection that exists between the Gems firm, of Mr. Abadi taking the funds through the HSBC, with the embezzlement that was committed in the Banco Mayo.”
“Beraja is connected with the account of Abadi as his representative,” Echegaray explained adding that “all these elements will be taken to the Justice to investigate” the Banco Mayo situation.
When official inaugrating this year’s pariamentary session, on March 1, President Cristina Fernámdez de Kirchner referred to Miguel Beraja.
“21 years have past and we have not one condemned, not one (person) in jail for AMIA (…) I can go (…) to the front of the AMIA to also tell them that a former president of DAIA, Rubén Beraja, (…) is accused for having betrayed his religion and the nation,” Ms. Kirchner said when addressing the bombing of the AMIA Jewish community center that took place in 1994 and left 85 people killed, referring to the trial for the cover-up of the attack that will start this Autumn, which has Beraja among the defendants.
Source: Buenos Aires Herald