The head of the Financial Information Office (UIF) José Sbatella has blasted the HSBC bank during a meeting together with the Bicameral Congress Committee in charge of studying money laundering and capital flight crimes.
“The HSBC is traditionally used for criminal purposes. Its main client target is people who want to get money out of the country illegally,” Sbatella said.
HSBC is under investigation for allegedly being responsible of capital flight operations using 4040 Argentine accounts in Switzerland. UIF officials said they have detected problems with HSBC’s operations that are stereotypical of money laundering maneuvers.
They added the bank has three monetary sanctions pending payment, and that it has been warned several times on its deficiencies but it did not solve them.
Source: Buenos Aires Herald