Discussion for article #229964
Loretta might be the only lawyer in America who battles mobsters and drug lords and terrorists
Right. Like the way she âbattledâ HSBC? You know, the bank that laundered millions of drug and terror money?
The wrist-slap heard around the world.
Like Eric, she knows who not to mess with.
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In the ultimate show of bipartisanship yet, Mitch McConnell suggested âmaybe this is a post that can best be filled by the next Presidentâ 
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Wrist Slap? From your link.
âIn addition to forfeiting $1.256 billion as part of its deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) with the Department of Justice, HSBC has also agreed to pay $665 million in civil penalties â $500 million to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and $165 million to the Federal Reserve â for its AML program violations. The OCC penalty also satisfies a $500 million civil penalty of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). The bankâs $375 million settlement agreement with OFAC is satisfied by the forfeiture to the Department of Justice. The United Kingdomâs Financial Services Authority (FSA) is pursuing a separate action.â
HSBC was accused of failing to catch $881 million in drug proceeds that was laundered through the U.S. They were fined more than twice that.
Since a bank can only hope for a percentage profit (and not a huge percentage) on client funds that pass through it, I think Loretta kicked HSBCâs ass up and down the block.
Putting a few little fish in jail instead of hitting the bank where it livesâmoneyâwould have been a silly exercise in futility. It would be extraordinarily hard to prove criminal intent in what was basically a failure to apply scrutiny.
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Yes, a Wrist Slap.
5 weeks of profit paid the fine. For laundering money for drug dealers and terrorists, and deliberately concealing it.
U.S. Assistant Attorney Lanny Breuer was uncharacteristically candid when explaining why he refused to pursue criminal charges: âHSBC would almost certainly have lost its banking license in the U.S., the future of the institution would have been under threat and the entire banking system would have been destabilized."
5 Outrageous Revelations from Matt Taibbiâs Takedown on HSBCâs Drug Money Laundering
1 By HSBCâs December settlement, the bank had already received two cease-and-desist letters.
2 HSBC covered its tracks when helping oppressive regimes avoid sanctions
3 HSBC ran offshore branches designed specifically for money laundering
4 HSBC did direct business with âthe worst trafficking organizations imaginable.â
5 An entire HSBC department was tasked with quickly clearing suspicious behavior
They gave immunity to the execs as part of the deal. And yes, it was brought in her district, although for all I know, the case was run from Main Justice.
Read the other day that a UBS exec got aquitted for funneling money from 17,000 rich Americans into Secret bank accounts. Its disappointing that he was acquitted, but what of the 17,000 customers? It should be pretty doable to make tax evasion cases out of these cases. You donât have to get after all of them; a couple of hundred would do.
An environment where you had a few dozen plutocrats sent to prison for tax evasion would be much more receptive to democrats than one in which we appear to be in cahoots (we are, arenât we?).
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Just curious to know just who the people who want banks to be punished severely by paying a lot more than this HSBC did in fines and forfeitures think would do the job better than Lynch?
The knee jerk reaction that âshe didnât do enoughâ is precisely parallel to the E-Z criticism of Obama for ânot doing enoughâ whenever he accomplishes something good.
Who exactly is this hypothetical if not mythical prosecutor who would do a better job against Wall Street Banks? Please, give us the name of a serious, real candidate! Eliot Spitzer?? Who?
In all the kvetching and complaining about Holder and Obama not prosecuting Wall Street (something they have engaged in) I have never heard mentioned a single actual name of a preferred prosecutor to do this job.
Please tell us!!
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You are right in a sense - due to the fact that âthe banks own the placeâ, itâs unlikely that anyone willing to actually prosecute to the full extent of the law even exists, much less would ever be allowed anywhere near a position of power.
Which doesnât forgive the people giving the banks a free âget out of jailâ card when they launder drug and terror bucks. People like Holder and Lynch. Useless.
Wrist slap indeed! More like a sloppy wet kiss! To sum it up:
HSBC is the biggest bank in Europe and the Senate found that it was, top to bottom, worldwide, involved in massive laundering of Mexican drug cartel money for ten years and also the laundering of money to aid Iran in its nuclear program, as well as aiding Sudan and North Korea. And they not only laundered their money; they stripped information off of the files that would indicate that these were illegal transfers, to make it very difficult for the government to spot it.
Clear violations of the law and well documented. In fact the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency sat on this for years. No one was prosecuted or sued individually and the officers of HSBC got to keep the proceeds that resulted from these frauds.
Nice try but laughable. What they did would get them hung by the neck in other countries. And what of the victims in the aiding of the drug cartels. What would you tell them - hire a lawyer?
Sounds like a lot of money but as a percent of HSBCâs assets weâre basically talking chump change.
Holder has been a racist boobie. Looks like she will be the same.
I think youâre at the wrong site Philo.
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