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The Argentina headquarters of British bank HSBC has been raided by tax officers after revelations that the multinational institution carried out thousands of illegal transactions at its local branches. HSBC now faces money laundering and tax evasion charges. Its operations in Argentina are also being closely screened.

Yet another huge money laundering scandal hits British multinational banking group HSBC, this time in Argentina. The Federal tax office has uncovered scores of bogus transactions involving illegal assets and has filed a lawsuit against HSBC.

Local political leaders are now criticizing the government for failure to prevent money laundering, which, according to the Financial Action Task Force, is spreading across the country. Argentina's tax authority, AFIP, raided the HSBC Argentina headquarters in downtown Buenos Aires and its main offices across the city, but couldn't find all the documents it needed. The bank claims the documents were destroyed in a fire back in February but officials are investigating the claim. Opposition leaders hope the probe on HSBC is just the first step in a much wider investigation into the operations of the British financial group in Argentina. This is not the first time HSBC comes under a criminal investigation as it has been recently hit by a host of scandals internationally. The huge police raid at its Argentina headquarters is certainly another blow to its now poor reputation. Only in Latin America, the British bank is now facing several lawsuits on money laundering related to drug trafficking in Mexico and Colombia.