CARACAS, Feb 25 (Reuters) - Venezuela will ask British bankHSBC Holdings PLC for a list of state officials whohave accounts in its Swiss subsidiary, a prosecutor said onWednesday, following media reports that Venezuelans were amongthe bank's leading clients.
Venezuela and its citizens had some $14.8 billion in assetsin HSBC's Swiss private banking arm in 2007, the third-largestfor any country, according to data obtained by the InternationalConsortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).
"We are requesting that this Swiss bank HSBC, as I believeit's called, (provide) information about Venezuelan publicofficials that have accounts with this bank," prosecutor LuisaOrtega said in a televised interview.
She said the request was not a result of media reports butrather part of an investigation by state prosecutors.
Europe's biggest bank has admitted to failings in complianceand controls in its Swiss private bank after media reports thatit helped wealthy clients conceal millions of dollars in assetsin a period up to 2007.
Venezuela's state-run Banco del Tesoro in 2007 opened anaccount with HSBC and deposited as much as $11.9 billion,according to a report by journalists working with ICIJ. Bancodel Tesoro at the time was run by Rodolfo Marco, who is nowfinance minister.
Marco said in a recent newspaper interview that the accountswere never secret and that there was nothing illegal aboutVenezuela's government storing money in Switzerland.
(Reporting by Brian Ellsworth; Editing by Tom Brown)