The banks were “too big to fail”. Now it seems the bankers are “too big to jail”.
That can be the only conclusion from the pussyfooting reaction to the allegations of systematic tax evasion by some of the richest people in the country.
Tax evasion is the illegal one. It is not tax mitigation, like having an ISA. It is not tax avoidance, which is legally outsmarting the authorities. It is not even tax abuse, which is stepping over the line between what is legal and illegal, what is reasonable and unreasonable.
Tax evasion is criminal full stop. It is the systematic hiding of taxable wealth, usually in offshore tax havens or in highly dubious investment vehicles.
A former computer specialist from the Swiss operation of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (or Honkers and Shankers as they used to be called) leaked files to the European authorities.
These files contained dynamite comprehensive detail on how HSBC actively promoted schemes to their richest clients to hide taxable wealth. The evidence is that the bank helped clients in more than 200 countries not pay taxes on accounts containing $119 billion.
Herve Falciani, the IT worker turned whistleblower, copied the files in 2007 and passed them to French authorities, who passed them on to Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) as far back as 2010.Read more from Alex Salmond every Monday in The CourierFrance got to grips with the scandal, instituted prosecutions and crucially, gave Falciani himself protection from the Swiss authorities, who wanted to prosecute Falciani instead of cleaning up their bankers. The French authorities then set about getting the French people their euros back.
In the UK, however, virtually nothing happened. HMRC didn’t even bother to tell anyone (except government ministers) as they did next to nothing to really deal with the scandal.
HMRC, an organisation which seems to delight in the pursuit of small businesspeople to destruction and gives ordinary people tax nightmares, has collected a relative pittance from the outstanding funds. No one has gone to jail. Indeed, there is only one prosecution under way.
We only know about any of this because the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) obtained the files via French newspaper Le Monde and shared them with more than 45 other media organisations worldwide.
According to the ICIJ, the documents show HSBC opened Swiss accounts for international criminals, businessmen, politicians and celebrities.
However, Falciani himself says that media reports on the documents’ contents were based on just a fraction of the files he gave to the French state.
“This is only the tip of the iceberg,” he told Le Parisien newspaper.
There is much more to this emerging scandal than whether Tory donors are worse than Labour donors in being up to no good.
Now that Ed Miliband has named the Tories, the weekend papers retaliated by naming the Labour backers engaged in these offshore antics.
Conclusion to date? They are as both as bad as each other.
Is it not the most extraordinary coincidence that so many Westminster party donors end up in the Palace of Westminster appointed by the same people to whom they gave the cash.
There is even more to it than the appalling record of HMRC. In the international league table of tax inspectors they are heading for relegation. Apparently, even the Spanish authorities have launched an inquisition which has gathered in many times the relatively paltry sums recovered by HMRC.
The biggest issue of all is why no action has been taken against HSBC. The allegation is that they actively promoted schemes to allow their rich clients to hide their taxable wealth.
However, instead of holding the bank to account, David Cameron made Lord Green, the boss of HSBC, a Government Trade Minister! I suppose that made contact easier with the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
The position is actually quite simple.
Forget HSBC’S grovelling apologies a full eight years after the event. There are allegations of a conspiracy to break the law. It is the police who should, therefore, investigate.
They should interview the top executives of HSBC, past and present, under caution and ask them the classic questions “What did they know and when did they know it”.
If they have proper answers well and good. If they don’t, then the law should take its course.
And once the rozzers have felt the collar of these chancers, then all of a sudden their behaviour will be transformed.
No one is above the law and no one too big to jail.