Is breach of criminal law justified in whistleblowing? What if the whistleblower’s revelations lead to other criminal activity? While these questions may appear to relate to Edward Snowden, they are equally applicable to a Monocan named Hervé Falciani. His story was told in an article in the New Yorker magazine entitled, “The Bank Robber” reported by Patrick Radden Keefe. Falciani was the person who worked at the bank HSBC and stole the list of persons who banked there, including those who did so to engage in tax evasion.
Falciani was arrested in France, who after reviewing the files on his computer, declined to extradite him to Switzerland, where he was tried in absentia and convicted of aggravated industrial espionage and sentenced to five years in prison. The French see him as something different, as one French prosecutor said “I would characterize him as a bit messianic.” Indeed several countries have opened investigations into their own citizens tax evasion issues; including Germany, Great Britain, Russia, Argentina, Sweden, Belgium, Spain, India, and the United States.
