The many twists of the 'Lagarde List'

If anything is showing the Lagarde List of tax evaders is that some Southern European states, especially Greece but also Spain, have corrupt political and judiciary systems that protect the wealthy oligarchs even at the expense of the state itself. Switzerland in turn is left as the unfriendly neighbor who does dirty business in your backyard, helping the mafiosi.

A very good article on the matter has been published today at Antifascist Calling:

Greek Journalist Acquitted for Blowing Tax Fraud Whistle. Widespread Corruption Linked to Private HSBC Accounts

Earlier this month, Greek investigative journalist Kostas Vaxevanis was acquitted by an Athens court of charges that he breached data privacy laws with the publication of a list of tax cheats and money launderers.

Vaxevanis, who publishes the investigative news magazine Hot Doc, faced two years in prison and a €30,000 ($38,000) fine over that publication's outing of 2,000 Greeks who hold secret banks accounts at HSBC's private banking arm in Switzerland.

Known as the "Lagarde List," data on high-profile offenders had been transferred to Greek authorities by Christine Lagarde, the former French Finance Minister and current head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), where it languished for two years.

While the Greek people are forced into abject poverty under an "austerity" regime designed to enrich their corporate masters, a criminal class of political overseers backed by brutal police and rampaging neo-Nazis, billions of euros were shielded as successive "left" and "right" governments failed to act.

... continue reading at Antifascist Calling (must read, really).

Let's not forget that the original whistleblower, French and Italian citizen Hervé Falciani, is kept under arrest in Spain, where his revelations affected the money laundering machine of the biggest Spanish mafioso respectable investor clan: the Botín family (Banco Santander), who lost some €200 million as result (peanuts for them but still offended).