HSBC Banker, Brothers Accused of Moving Drug Cash in Paris Trial

  • Three brothers are on trial in Paris money-laundering case
  • El Maleh family argues charges are identical to Swiss case
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A former Geneva-based HSBC Holdings Plc banker and two of his brothers are at the center of a ring that prosecutors say laundered drug money by providing wads of bills at secret meetings in Paris to dozens of well-to-do individuals seeking to spend loot they’d stashed in offshore accounts.

The allegations are part of a blockbuster French criminal case where Nessim El Maleh, formerly a director at HSBC Private Bank Suisse, and his sibling Meyer, who ran Geneva wealth-management firm GPF SA, are on trial for multiple counts of money laundering. Their older brother, Mardoché, is accused of distributing as much as 12 million euros ($14 million) between 2010 and 2012 in bags full of cash to the owners of the offshore accounts.