While exposing HSBC’s financial ties to international arms dealers, the data also led to charges against high profile tax evaders including Arlette Ricci, the heir to France’s Nina Ricci perfume empire, and Emilio Botín, the late chairman of Spain’s Santander bank. Instead of extraditing Falciani or filing charges against him, the French government opened a criminal investigation into HSBC for their complicity in aggravated money laundering and financial fraud. “HSBC has always maintained that Falciani systematically stole clients’ information in order to sell it for his own personal financial gain,” HSBC stated in support of the court’s decision.