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(Adds HSBC Private Bank comment)
By Robert-Jan Bartunek and Philip Blenkinsop
BRUSSELS, Nov 17 (Reuters) - A Belgian judge has charged theSwiss private banking arm of HSBC Holdings Plc with taxfraud and money laundering, accusing the British-based bank ofoffering diamond dealers and other wealthy clients ways ofhiding cash and evading tax.
Prosecutors said on Monday the charges related to businesscarried out by a Swiss unit of HSBC for wealth managementclients, many of them from the large diamond trade in thenorthern Belgian city of Antwerp.
It said the alleged activities could have cost Belgiumhundreds of millions of euros in lost tax receipts.
The action follows the theft of personal details of HSBCprivate banking clients in Switzerland in 2010, information thathas been passed on to Belgian and French authorities.
HSBC Private Bank said it had been notified that it had beenplaced under formal investigation by a Belgian judge who, alongwith French authorities, was examining whether the Swiss unitacted appropriately on tax reporting requirements.
"Both the Belgian and French investigations have beennotified in our filings previously and we will continue tocooperate to the fullest extent possible," the bank said in astatement.
The charges come more than a year after homes of some 20clients of HSBC Private Bank (Switzerland) were searched inOctober 2013 in connection with the investigation.
A spokeswoman for the prosecutors said charges werecurrently only against the bank and certain employees and notits clients. The judge will ask several employees of HSBCPrivate Bank to appear for questioning.
"The Swiss bank is suspected of having knowingly eased andpromoted fiscal fraud by making offshore companies available tocertain privileged clients," prosecutors said in a statement.
The statement said the offshore companies were based inPanama and the Virgin Islands, with no economic activity andtheir only aim was to hide the wealth of the bank's clients. (Editing by Clara Ferreira Marques and David Holmes)
