Former PN leadership contender Ray Bugeja says he never held a personal account with HSBC Switzerland. Photo: Darrin Zammit Lupi

Former Nationalist Party leadership contender Ray Bugeja insists he had no idea his name could crop up on the Swiss Leaks list.

Mr Bugeja was linked to an account with $629 million held by a number of hedge funds with HSBC Switzerland.

The hedge funds were managed by the investment management company Kairos, which Mr Bugeja helped set up in 1999.

But speaking to Times of Malta yesterday, Mr Bugeja said he could not remember whether the hedge funds had an account in HSBC Switzerland since third parties were involved in their administration. He denied ever holding a personal account with HSBC Switzerland.

“I genuinely do not recall what accounts the fund had because it is the fund administrator and the prime broker who take care of these processes. Kairos was the investment manager. But even if the funds had an account with HSBC Switzerland or anywhere else it would have been a custody or brokerage account and definitely not for personal use or to evade taxes.”

What I know about Swiss Leaks I got from what the papers reported

Asked why he did not feel the need to clarify matters about his connection with HSBC Switzerland before his name appeared in The Malta Independent yesterday, Mr Bugeja said he had no reason to believe the $629 million account was linked to Kairos.

Mr Bugeja, who sold his share in Kairos five years ago when he returned to Malta, said he could not make the link between what he described as “a perfectly normal business practice” and the Swiss Leaks list when it emerged in the media.

Kairos was the investment manager and its job had nothing to do with the context of tax evasion implied by Swiss Leaks, he added.

“What I know about Swiss Leaks I got from what has been reported in the papers. Kairos was regulated by the UK Financial Conduct Authority.

“The funds in question were normal hedge funds domiciled in the Cayman Islands like hundreds of investment management firms do under the control and supervision of the FCA and with the full knowledge of the tax authorities.” Mr Bugeja reiterated he never had a personal account with HSBC Swizterland and insisted he never evaded taxes.

“I have never used or felt the need to use a tax amnesty and I have nothing to hide,” he said.

The UK Financial Conduct Authority report in March 2014 showed that approximately $470 billion of hedge fund assets were managed in the UK, with 450 hedge fund management firms registered with the FCA.

The survey found that 69 per cent of funds were domiciled in the Cayman Islands.

Swiss Leaks is a list of HSBC clients who held secret accounts in the bank’s Swiss branch until 2008. The bank came under fire over business practices that encouraged clients to evade tax in their home country.

The list is in the hands of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists that has published the names in partnership with certain media outlets. The Malta Independent is the Maltese partner and details of Mr Bugeja’s link to the list were published yesterday.

The names on the list include former PN ministers Michael Falzon and Ninu Zammit, who have admitted to using the Swiss account through which they evaded taxes in Malta.

kurt.sansone@timesofmalta.com