Some of Italy's top fashion tycoons and VIPs were among the 700 people named on Wednesday in a probe into suspected tax evasion from Italy to Swiss bank accounts.

Among them were luxury clothing brands designers Valentino, Renato Balestra, Giuseppe Lancetti, jewelry businessman Gianni Bulgari and Roman stylist Sandro Ferrone. Other well-known VIPs, artists, movie-makers, actresses, aristocrats and local entrepreneurs are also being probed, local media reported.

Even the wife of former Renault team boss Flavio Briatore was on the list, together with Rome's leading retailers association Confcommercio president and the boss of one of Italy's top space and defense firms, Telespazio.

The list with the names of the tax dodgers was first given to the French authorities by a former HSBC bank employee who worked in Switzerland. A total of over 5,000 Italian citizens and 133 firms were mentioned in the file, with total amounts of more than five billion euros as deposits, all of which were said to be saved in the Swiss branch of the HSBC bank.

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