Viorel Hrebenciuc – on the list Romanians who hid money in Switzerland

Viorel Hrebenciuc is one of the Swiss branch of HSBC bank customers, where Romanians have accounts amounting to more than USD 1.3 billion. He shared the account with businessman Robert Deutsch, key figure in the Megapower deal, following which the Romanian state has lost more than USD 11 million, according RISE Project, gandul.info reports. In 2006, when the account was closed, it still had USD 90,000. Megapower file was investigated by Victor Ponta, back when working as a prosecutor, the same source informs.

219 individuals and companies from Romania or with links to our country have deposited more than USD 1.3 billion in the above mentioned bank during 1974 to 2007, and among them are former or current politicians. The largest bank account from a Romanian amounts to more than USD 800 million.

According RISE Project, former PSD deputy Viorel Hrebenciuc, arrested along with his son Andrei in the illegal forest retrocession file, had a banking profile with the Swiss subsidiary of HSBC, with the two bank accounts. To these accounts his wife, Letitia, and their son, Andrei Hrebenciuc have had access.

To the same accounts had also access businessman Robert Deutsch, involved in the Megapower deal, after which the Romanian state has lost more than USD 11 million.

The accounts were opened in 1996 and were closed in 2006, when they still counted for USD 90,000. These accounts are not mentioned in Hrebenciuc’s wealth statements, RISE Project further inform, quoted by gandul.info. RISE Project is an organization affiliated to the network of journalists who carried out the SwissLeaks international investigation.

The Megapower file had been investigated by Victor Ponta, back when he was a prosecutor. In this case Ponta had not indicted Robert Deutsch, a businessman born in Timisoara, representative for Romania of Megapower Corporation from California.

A new investigation exposes an HSBC’s Swiss private banking arm of helping royalty, criminals, terrorists, drug dealers, and even music stars such as Tina Turner and David Bowie to conceal their identities to dodge taxes, rt.com informs.

The Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), which obtained the documents from French paper Le Monde, found over 100,000 account holders in 200 countries listed in the data leak.

The documents shed light on the bank’s practice of courting rich depositors in exchange for protection from taxes from 2005 until 2007.

Some 220 customers of HSBC Switzerland, with total accounts of USD 1.3 billion, are related to Romania, while 11 persons have Romanian citizenship or passport, according to a report incriminating the banking institution that helped traffickers and criminal organizations to keep secret deposits and identity, Mediafax reports.