(Adds details from the court's investigation)
MADRID, June 3 (Reuters) - The Spanish High Court said onFriday said it was investigating 40 cases of possible taxevasion following leaks of sensitive information from HSBC's Swiss private bank.
Earlier police acting on the orders of the court visitedlocal bank Santander's Madrid headquarters to seek documents related to a number of accounts as part of the probe,the court and police said.
The Spanish investigation is one of many undertaken by national tax authorities as a result of the leak in 2008 ofextensive client data belonging to HSBC's private bank by HerveFalciani, a former IT employee at the bank.
The Spanish court on Friday said all 40 of the people andfamilies under investigation had been on Falciani's list.
Falciani, a French citizen, has said he is a whistleblowertrying to help governments track down citizens who used Swissaccounts to evade tax. France, Austria, Belgium and Argentinahave also launched their own investigations.
Santander said the authorities had asked it for informationrelated to the movement of funds between banks and wascollaborating with the investigation. An HSBC spokeswoman inLondon declined to comment.
Last year Falciani was sentenced by a Swiss court in hisabsence to five years in prison for aggravated industrialespionage.
However, he may not serve time in Switzerland since he livesin France and there are no legal proceedings against him there. (Reporting By Maria Vega Paul and Sonya Dowsett; Editing byGreg Mahlich)