Switzerland had asked for Herve Falciani, who has Italian and French citizenship, to be extradited to face charges including unauthorised obtaining of data, breach of trade secrecy, industrial espionage and violation of banking secrecy.
Falciani has acknowledged taking the data but describes himself as a whistleblower against what he calls "scandalous" practices at Swiss banks, Reuters reported.
In a ruling published today, Spain’s High Court said the charges Falciani faces in Switzerland are not considered crimes under Spanish law.
Commenting on the Spanish court’s decision, Frank Strachan, tax partner for law firm Edwin Coe, said: "Switzerland will be bitterly disappointed with this judgement. I suspect they will feel aggrieved that they have not been successful in their application to extradite Mr Falciani. Will they appeal? They might but I think the precedent has been set….Mr Falciani will not be back in Switzerland any time soon."
International Adviser reported in November 2011 that HM Revenue & Customs had started writing to 6,000 UK residents who held accounts with HSBC in Geneva, Switzerland, inviting them to disclose any tax irregularities.
The letters were issued by HMRC’s then newly established Offshore Co-ordination Unit, to ask the recipients to provide HMRC with written confirmation either that they had no tax irregularities, will be making a disclosure under the Liechtenstein Disclosure Facility or will be making a disclosure but not under the LDF.
Information on the 6,000 individuals, companies, trusts and other bodies which hold or held accounts with HSBC Geneva, was given to HMRC by France under a tax treaty in 2010.
The data was originally part of around 24,000 account details stolen by Falciani, and handed to the French authorities. The French tax authorities subsequently sifted through the details, identifying around 8,000 French residents with accounts at the Swiss bank.
HMRC warned in October 2011 that the process of contacting account holders was about to begin and added that it has also already begun criminal and serious fraud investigations into more than 500 individuals and companies holding these accounts.
At the time, HMRC’s permanent secretary for tax, Dave Hartnett, said: “This is not an amnesty. There are no special rates of penalty or interest for those who come forward voluntarily. This is an opportunity for those who have made errors in past returns to correct them."
To read about how Switzerland has adopted a simplified version of the US government’s FATCA tax legislation, click here
Or check out a country profile of Switzerland here
