'Over the last year, federal investigators found that one of the world's largest banks, HSBC, spent years committing serious crimes, involving money laundering for terrorists; "facilitat[ing] money laundering by Mexican drug cartels"; and "mov[ing] tainted money for Saudi banks tied to terrorist groups". Those investigations uncovered substantial evidence "that senior bank officials were complicit in the illegal activity." As but one example, "an HSBC executive at one point argued that the bank should continue working with the Saudi Al Rajhi bank, which has supported Al Qaeda."
Needless to say, these are the kinds of crimes for which ordinary and powerless people are prosecuted and imprisoned with the greatest aggression possible. If you're Muslim and your conduct gets anywhere near helping a terrorist group, even by accident, you're going to prison for a long, long time. In fact, powerless, obscure, low-level employees are routinely sentenced to long prison terms for engaging in relatively petty money laundering schemes, unrelated to terrorism, and on a scale that is a tiny fraction of what HSBC and its senior officials are alleged to have done.'
But nobody from HSBCwill be facing criminal charges, let alone going to jail.
'"Announcing the record fine at a press conference in New York, assistant attorney general Lanny Breuer said that despite HSBC"s 'blatant failure' to implement anti-money laundering controls and its wilful flouting of US sanctions, the consequences of a criminal prosecution would have been dire.
"Had the US authorities decided to press criminal charges, HSBC would almost certainly have lost its banking licence in the US, the future of the institution would have been under threat and the entire banking system would have been destabilised.'
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HSBC, too big to jail, is the new poster child for US two-tiered justice system
DOJ officials unblinkingly insist that the banking giant is too powerful and important to subject to the rule of law
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Wtf???
This means the big banks won and have taken over.
I find it hard to agree with the assistant Attorney General that they could find no one to prosecute in this case and that everyone just thought they were doing their job.The transgressions here are so massive that there had to be a conspiracy to violate US law. I believe this is another situation of the powerful getting away with with massive criminal behavior. You can bet that if a small business had done what HSBC did, a perpetrator would have been found.
Where’s Jack McCoy when you need him?
(This is why I prefer fictional versions of our world.)
I can recall a few instances where the ep ends with Jack McCoy drowning his sorrows at the bar because of that Long Hard Chat he had with DA Schiff over what they were or weren’t going to prosecute, or over how the Feds took over the case, and then cut a deal.
If the Rule of Law no longer applies to them…
Seems to me we had this national discussion, oh, a century ago. And a pretty bloody discussion it was, too.