HSBC client admits to using Indian account to evade taxes

A New Jersey client of HSBC Holdings pleaded guilty to evading taxes on $1.2 million in income and using an account in India to hide some money.

Sameer Gupta, 33, who co-owns a wholesale adult araphernalia business in New York, entered his plea yesterday in a federal court in Newark, New Jersey, according to a statement by US Attorney Paul Fishman.

Gupta, of Edison, New Jersey, admitted that from 2006 to 2009, he diverted receipts from the business, JS Marketers, and used a false invoicing scheme to cheat the Internal Revenue Service, court records show.

Gupta admitted that he diverted receipts into 17 bank accounts, including six at HSBC India.

Gupta faces as many as five years in prison. He agreed to pay back taxes and penalties, as well as a $259,045 penalty for failing to file Reports of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts, or FBARs. His attorney, Kevin Marino, didn't immediately return a call seeking comment. HSBC's Geneva-based private bank is one of at least 11 Swiss firms under investigation by US prosecutors investigating offshore tax evasion. HSBC's Swiss unit gave lists of employees to aid the US probe, a spokesman said in April.

Since 2009, at least 84 people have been charged with tax crimes by the US, including two dozen offshore bankers, lawyers and advisers.

Several HSBC clients were charged. More than 38,000 Americans avoided prosecution by entering an IRS amnesty programme in which they paid back taxes and penalties while disclosing the banks and bankers who helped them hide offshore accounts.

In December, London-based HSBC, Europe's largest bank, agreed to pay $1.92 billion to settle US probes of money laundering in the biggest such accord ever.

The case is US v Gupta, US District Court, District of New Jersey (Newark).