HSBC whistleblower Falciani reveals how Swiss authorities tried to negotiate his silence

Hervé Falciani, the HSBC employee who exposed the existence of tens of thousands of tax evading accounts held at the bank in Geneva, is back in France where he will this week give evidence in closed session to MPs who are helping draw up a new law on tax fraud. In an interview with Mediapart, below, Falciani says the Swiss authorities, who want to question him over breaching banking secrecy, tried to buy his silence early last year with the offer of a non-custodial sentence. After that attempt failed, the former IT man was arrested in Spain in July 2012 pending possible extradition to Switzerland. On May 8th the Spanish courts refused the extradition request.