The Globe and Mail reports in its Saturday, Nov. 28, edition that a Swiss court has convicted in absentia a former employee with international bank HSBC Holdings for economic espionage and sentenced him to five years in prison. An Associated Press dispatch to The Globe reports that Herve Falciani, 43, was on trial for leaking bank information that led to a worldwide wave of tax evasion probes against prominent clients with accounts in Switzerland. Mr. Falciani was head of computer security at HSBC's private banking arm in Geneva. The leaked documents showed the bank helped hide the equivalent of $255-billion of clients' money. Mr. Falciani began copying the records to his personal computer in 2006, and later fled when he was confronted by his employer. Mr. Falciani, seen by some as a crucial whistleblower, had refused to travel from his native France to appear before the Swiss Federal Tribunal in Bellinzona in proceedings that began in October. France does not extradite its own citizens and Mr. Falciani appears unlikely to serve the sentence. French newspaper Le Monde has said Mr. Falciani's leak identified more than 106,000 clients.