Hervé Falciani leaked a cache of secret bank files that showed how HSBC’s Swiss subsidiary helped wealthy customers avoid taxes and hide millions. Photograph: Kenzo Tribouillard/AFP/Getty Images
Hervé Falciani begins surreptitiously extracting client data from inside HSBC Suisse.
Falciani is arrested in Geneva. He is bailed but flees to France with the files. HSBC reveals that data has been stolen from its Swiss arm affecting 30,000 accounts.
French authorities refuse a Swiss extradition request and launch their own investigation into the data.
French tax authorities begin informing other tax authorities around the world of the existence of the HSBC files.
Dave Hartnett, head of tax at Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs (HMRC), meets HSBC. He refuses to say what was discussed at the meeting.
HMRC receives the HSBC files.
The Financial Times reports that HSBC had asked the French courts to prevent the country’s tax authority handing files to HMRC.
The prime minister, David Cameron, meets with HSBC chairman Stephen Green “to discuss economic issues”.
Cameron meets Green a second time “to discuss economic issues”.
The government announces Green is to be appointed as trade minister. The business secretary, Vince Cable, says: “In Stephen we will be appointing a minister with a long career as a leading international banker, one of the few to emerge with credit from the recent financial crisis, and somebody who has set out a powerful philosophy for ethical business.”
Green joins the House of Lords.
Green steps down as group chairman of HSBC.
Green appointed minister of state for trade and investment.
Hartnett informs the Treasury select committee: “I think the whole nation probably knows that our department has a disc from the Swiss – from the Geneva branch of a major UK bank – with 6,000 names, all ripe for investigation.”
BBC reports property developer Michael Shanly has pleaded guilty to tax evasion worth £430,000 in connection with the HSBC Swiss list.
Green steps down as minister of state for trade and investment.
Six months after retiring from HMRC, Hartnett joins HSBC as a consultant.
French judges place HSBC under official investigation for “illicit financial and banking practices”.
Belgium charges HSBC with money laundering and fraud in connection with its Swiss arm.
Argentina charges HSBC with aiding tax evasion via its Swiss arm.
The Guardian and media organisations around the world publish revelations from the leaked files. HSBC admits wrongdoing at its Swiss arm and insists things have changed. A government spokesperson says that no minister had any knowledge of wrongdoing at HSBC prior to the HSBC files being reported in the press.
The French financial state prosecutor formally requests that HSBC’s Swiss private bank be sent to criminal trial over tax fraud allegations.