Swiss black money probe: Over 100 entities under scanner

He further said that these bankers are suspected to have first convinced their clients to move their funds to non-Swiss locations like Singapore, Dubai and London before eventual transmission to India, to avoid the ever-growing glare or regulatory and intelligence agencies on funds and entities linked to Switzerland.

While jurisdictions like Mauritius and Cyprus earlier used to be preferred as such intermediary locations, these places have themselves come under scanner of Indian agencies and therefore bankers are opting for some new routes.

Refusing to disclose the name of these individuals, banks or the listed companies under scanner, a senior official said these include some really big names and those figuring in the lists of richest persons and biggest companies, but that disclosure of further details at this moment may jeopardize the probes that are still in the initial stages.

These probes come at a time when India has strongly objected to Switzerland's denial of information about account details of certain Indians at HSBC's Swiss bank branches, in whose cases "incriminating evidence of tax evasion" have been found here.

In his third letter to Switzerland in this regard, finance minister P Chidambaram said that the interpretation made by Switzerland that it cannot share information as per India's request was not in accordance with international standards.