Two HSBC Holdings Plc employees are at the heart of an investigation into the leak of Swiss confidential client data that landed up in the hands of the French tax authorities, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

Herve Falciani and Georgina Mikhael both deny doing anything illegal; Falciani admitted having possession of copies of thousands of wealthy clients of HSBC’s Swiss private banking arm, but said neither he nor Mikhael asked for money when they contacted French, German and British authorities over the list, the newspaper said.

Falciani told the Journal “I am not a Robin Hood, I’m not a mercenary. I acted like a citizen.”

French tax authorities said they hadn’t paid for the data and it ended up in their hands after police raided Falciani’s home in the south of France at the request of the Swiss; copies were sent to Switzerland but French tax authorities are now investigating those people whose names appear on it, the WSJ reported.

Both are being investigated by the Swiss over breaking banking secrecy laws, which they deny, the Journal said.

(Source: Bloomberg News)