Four diamond dealers who allegedly held undeclared accounts in the Swiss arm of HSBC have been arrested in Israel as part of an investigation into tax evasion, it was revealed yesterday.
The four Israeli men are accused of holding close to 100 million shekels ($26.6 million) at the bank that was not reported to the Israel Tax Authority.
A Tel Aviv court later agreed to release them after posting bail. All four have denied the allegations.
Israel’s tax authority had been working since February 2015 to obtain a list of Israelis with accounts at HSBC Switzerland. In August, it said that French authorities handed over a list of more than 8,000 Israeli customers.
Early last year, HSBC acknowledged “past compliance and control failures” that may have allowed some customers to evade taxes.