Spain 's National Court on Tuesday granted conditional freedom to a former HSBC bank employee who is wanted by Switzerland for stealing confidential information on thousands of customers with Swiss accounts . The court ordered Herve Falciani 's release on the prosecutor 's recommendation , which argues that Falciani was co - operating with authorities in several European countries in investigations on tax , money - laundering , corruption and terrorism financing . The prosecutor noted Falciani has been detained for some time and that his extradition case could drag on . He was ordered to hand over his passport , not to leave Spain and to appear before police every three days . He was also told to establish a residence in Spain and to inform authorities if he moved house . Falciani , a French - Italian citizen , has been jailed provisionally since being arrested July 1 in Barcelona on a Swiss warrant . He had previously fled Switzerland to France . The data he allegedly stole about 24,000 customers of HSBC 's Swiss subsidiary potentially exposed many people to prosecution by tax authorities in their home countries . Falciani , who obtained the information between late 2006 and early 2007 when he worked in the bank 's information technology development unit , passed the list to French authorities . France 's former Finance Minister Christine Lagarde , now head of the International Monetary Fund , later relayed the list to many European Union countries and the United States . France said there were up to 130,000 names involved . ;