Black money probe: Nearly 1195 Indians had accounts in HSBC, Switzerland

The Swiss Leak Project by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) has thrown open a Pandora's box by revealing information of over 1,00,000  bank accounts in HSBC. The Project scanned nearly 60,000 files to find the data that is an embarrassment to many governments across the globe - including India. 

The Indian government has said that it will reveal names of 60 individuals and companies who are charged with tax evasions. However, as per the ICIJ report, this number is only half of the total number of illegal accounts at the bank. 

A newspaper report said that nearly 1195 Indians had bank accounts in HSBC.

The report further claimed that the 1668 Indian clients had accounts in the bank. This means that many individuals or entities had multiple accounts. 

Also read: Names listed over black money same as AAP had revealed: Arvind Kejriwal

ICIJ revealed that over $100 billion was stashed in various accounts in HSBC. $4.1 billion, of which, was the money deposited by Indians. 

This means that nearly 4% of the total money at the bank was held by Indians whereas Indian clientele accounted for merely 1668 accounts off the total 1,06,000 clients. 

The Narendra Modi government recently began proceedings against individuals and entities who have stashed away money in the Geneva branch of HSBC. 

Also Read: 4 facts about Indian black money stashed in HSBC Bank, Switzerland

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley even met the finance minister of Switzerland during the World Economic Forum last month to discuss black money.