Golden Handshake civil servant cashes in at money-launderers HSBC



Well I never – gamekeeper turns poacher!

Once Whitehall’s ‘most wined and dined civil servant’, Dave Hartnett, is joining HSBC – the bank that has just settled a $1.9bn money-laundering settlement
                                                                                       
Hartnett, made a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in 2003, retired from HM Customs and Excise in 2012 after being widely criticised for the scandal that saw millions of people being asked for back dated tax. It was alleged that his department hadn't collected PAYE underpayments correctly. He told BBC Radio Four "I'm not sure a need to apologise ...We didn't get it wrong." He later did issue an unreserved apology.

But the CB gong isn’t his first award – he already has a Golden Handshake award from UK Uncut for letting Goldman Sachs off their £20m tax bill.

As Wikipedia reports, from October 2010 onwards protesters have been blockading and protesting outside Vodafone stores following allegations of tax evasion of up to £6 billion, in a series of articles in Private Eye. These articles alleged preferential treatment of Vodafone due to personal connections between Hartnett and John Connors, Vodafone's head of tax, a former colleague at HMRC.  wikipedia.org
Hartnett will join Bill Hughes, former head of the Serious Organised Crime Agency, at HSBC leading a new committee to ensure tighter compliance with imminent global regulations.

US regulators found HSBC had moved billions of dollars in cash from its affiliate in Mexico to the USA - money that could only have involved proceeds from illegal drugs. The $1.9bn (£1.2bn) fine was the largest ever handed out to a bank.

Full report here: sky.com

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