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HSBC banker sues Yahoo! over imposter's identityBy Amanda Lee, TODAY | Posted: 15 August 2012 0742 hrs

SINGAPORE: A managing director at HSBC Holdings' private banking arm, Mr Sandeep Sharma, has asked the High Court to order Yahoo! Asia Pacific to release details of a user who he claimed not only impersonated him but also defamed him.
Between July 5 and 10, HSBC exchanged several emails with Yahoo! requesting information about the user, according to court documents.

Mr Sharma, 44, had been alerted on July 5 by the contact centre for the HSBC group in Singapore which received an email from a netizen over a post by an "unknown person" claiming to be Mr Sharma.

In the post, made in response to an article published on Yahoo!, the user, under the moniker "Sandeep", said Mr Sharma preferred hiring foreign talents as he finds "locals highly incompetent" and included his mobile phone number, according to court documents.

"Sandeep" made at least three posts on Yahoo!'s websites, reported Bloomberg.

Mr Sharma, who filed the lawsuit on August 8 and made a police report last month, said in court documents he is "aware" that the "issue of foreign talents is a touchy one". It was cited in the lawsuit that Yahoo! said in an email to HSBC it could not reveal data related to its users unless there was a court or police order.

Mr Sharma also said he neither owned a Yahoo! account nor posted the message which is not only "false and offensive but also malicious and defamatory" towards him.

He highlighted in court papers that he is the only managing director in HSBC Private Bank named "Sandeep Sharma", and the mobile number posted was his current number. Noting that he "do(es) not share or agree with the views of the author of the inflammatory posts", which were made in July, Mr Sharma said it intended to portray him as an "arrogant, bigoted, obnoxious and narrow-minded person" who is "prejudiced against Singaporeans in general".

Mr Sharma, who moved to Singapore in October 2007 and became a Permanent Resident the following year, said he has worked and continues to work with people of "all nationalities and races" in HSBC - which he joined as head of Global South Asian Diaspora in March 2010 - and in his previous employment.

When he hires staff, he looks for qualities such as integrity and competence, and nationality "is not a determinative factor", said Mr Sharma, according to court papers.

He also said that he "certainly (does) not agree" that Singaporeans are "less competent than foreigners".

Court papers showed that, due to the posts, at least one person has written to the bank saying he will not be a client.

When contacted by TODAY, a Yahoo! spokesperson declined to comment as the matter is before the courts.

- TODAY