Spain arrests whistleblower in HSBC tax evasion scandal

MADRID — Spanish police say a former HSBC technology employee convicted for leaking data on a tax evasion scandal has been arrested in Madrid on an arrest warrant issued by Switzerland.

French national Herve Falciani was sentenced in late 2015 to five years in prison for economic espionage. The Swiss court also convicted him for illegally obtaining data, breach of business confidentiality and of bank secrecy.

For many, though, Falciani is a crucial whistleblower whose more than 100,000 records on prominent clients of the Swiss subsidiary of HSBC sparked a global wave of tax evasion probes.

He has been living in Spain and co-operated with Spanish authorities in some of the probes.

His arrest Wednesday comes as Spain seeks the extradition from Switzerland of a Catalan politician considered key in the Spanish region’s independence bid.