Source: The Canadian Press

CBC News and the Globe and Mail say the Canadian government has obtained a list of nearly 1,800 offshore bank accounts belonging to Canadians that turned up during an international probe into possible tax evasion.

The accounts at HSBC Private Bank in Geneva are part of a larger list of about 80,000 accounts that a former bank IT security specialist passed on to French investigators, the joint CBC News/Globe and Mail investigation suggests.

Herve Falciani, the whistleblower, claimed he was worried that criminals and tax cheats were using the bank to hide money and began copying private account information in 2006 after his bosses refused to become more transparent about their banking practices.

A spokeswoman for the Ministry of National Revenue says the Canada Revenue Agency has a list of individuals who may be exploiting offshore accounts, is assessing the names on a case-by-case basis and will take “aggressive action to recover money owed to Canadians.”

HSBC, which has not been accused of any wrongdoing, says it “in no way condones tax evasion and is co-operating with authorities while protecting the rights of our clients to confidentiality.”

It is not clear exactly how much money Canadians are holding in the HSBC accounts, nor is it known how many individual Canadians hold the 1,785 Canadian accounts.

HSBC says the bank and its clients are the victims of a criminal act — a theft by a former employee that involves about 15,000 existing clients worldwide.

CBC and the Globe say Falciani was fired by HSBC after being accused of trying to sell the account information to foreign governments.

Swiss authorities confronted him about that allegation and brought him in for a day of interrogation. They asked him to return the next day, but he never did. Instead, Falciani fled to France.

The CRA tells CBC and the Globe it has been in touch with the French authorities but wouldn’t provide details.

There were 8,000 accounts on the list that belonged to French citizens, and only two accounts had been declared for tax purposes. France gave its citizens a chance to pay up without facing penalty and half a billion euros were returned.