Israel ranks sixth among countries whose citizens held accounts at the Swiss bank totaling some $120 billion. Switzerland, Britain, Venezuela, the United States, and France where the top five countries on the list of countries whose citizens held offshore bank accounts with HSBC, Britain’s largest and the world’s second largest bank.
The largest amount of money kept in the banks by a single Israeli was 1.5 billion dollars.
Documents leaked to the Internet expose more than 30,000 secret bank accounts at the Swiss branch of British bank HSBC held by about 100,000 private individuals and companies from over 200 countries. Among them are 6,222 Israelis, who held some $10 billion in such accounts.
Globes reports “The list has been dubbed ‘Swiss leaks’, and it includes accounts held by royalty, convicted cocaine dealers, businesses, and sportspeople. On the list are seventeen Israelis who held over $100 million and thousands more who held various sums”.
Among the names mentioned in the documents are Rabbi David Chananya Pinto, who heads mosdos in the USA, Argentina, Ashdod and Jerusalem. He is linked to accounts that contained $2.3 million in 2007. His wife is listed too, with $2.2 million linked to a company registered in the Virgin Islands which is reportedly a tax shelter.
Other Middle East leaders and high ranking officials included on the list of clients with secret offshore bank accounts were King Abdullah II of Jordan, Prince Bandar (who served as Saudi Arabia’s Ambassador to the US from 1983-2005), Sultan Qaboos of Oman, Egyptian politician R.M. Rachid and King Mohammed VI of Morocco.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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One Response
The headline implies some sort of anti-Semitic motive involved. In fact, the de facto abolition of Swiss banking secrecy laws has nothing to do with Jews and is not perceived by anyone as directed against Jews or Israel. It largely involves the United States and the countries of the European Union cracking down on their citizens who are evading taxes by stashing money in what used to be secret accounts. While Jews (including Israelis) are among, they are not prominently involved. Articles in the secular press don’t consider Jewish or Israeli involvement to be worth mentioning.