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HSBC accused of helping rich dodge £1.9bn in taxes

Bank allegedly funnelled cash for 4,000 Argentinians through Swiss accounts

TAX agency AFIP head Ricardo Echegaray accused British transnational bank HSBC on Thursday of helping more than 4,000 rich Argentinians to dodge taxes through secret Swiss accounts.

Mr Echegaray said that Argentinian citizens had evaded about $3 billion (£1.9bn) in taxes handled by intermediaries through a network of offshore accounts.

He alleged that some of the accounts in Geneva are owned by HSBC Argentina's president and other bank executives.

"There's no doubt that AFIP will keep cracking down on tax havens because our objective is to collect taxes and to avoid harming those who have less," said Mr Echegaray.

The tax agency said that its information had come from France, where HSBC was placed under formal investigation last week for possibly aiding tax evasion.

HSBC has also been charged in Belgium with organised fiscal fraud.

The banking giant said that it respects Argentinian laws and has done nothing wrong.

"HSBC Argentina emphatically rejects its participation in any illegal association, including any organisation that allows capital flight aimed at evading taxes," it declared.

"HSBC Argentina wants to clarify that it doesn't have an account in HSBC Switzerland."

The government has denounced several foreign companies in its fight to curb capital flight, recently accusing Procter & Gamble of tax fraud and announcing suspension of operations for the household goods giant.

Argentina has been excluded from global credit markets since defaulting on its debt during its 2001-2002 financial crisis.

Officials have been trying to keep dollars in the country for the central bank to use to pay off government debts.

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