HSBC Client Avoids Prison for Hiding Offshore Accounts

A New Jersey businessman who cooperated with prosecutors in a U.S. probe of offshore tax evasion avoided prison for conspiring with five HSBC Holdings Plc bankers to hide Indian bank accounts from authorities.

Vaibhav Dahake, 46, was sentenced to one year of probation today in federal court in Trenton, New Jersey, where he pleaded guilty in April 2011. Prosecutors said he played a vital role in helping gather information about London-based HSBC, the largest European bank by assets. The U.S. is probing whether HSBC India helped Americans hide money from the Internal Revenue Service.