Drug money and terrorist laundering
In October 2010, the United States OCC issued a Cease and Desist Order requiring HSBC to strengthen multiple aspects of its Anti-Money Laundering (AML) program. The identified problems included a once massive backlog of over 17,000 alerts identifying suspicious activity, failure to file timely suspicious activity reports with U.S. law enforcement, failure to conduct any due diligence to assess risks to HSBC affiliates before opening correspondent accounts for them, a three year failure by HBUS from mid-2006 to mid-2009 to conduct any AML of $15 billion in bulk cash transactions from those same HSBC affiliates, poor procedures for assigning country and client risk, failure to monitor $60 trillion in annual wire transfers by customers in countries rated lower risk by HBUS, and inadequate and unqualified AML staffing, resources, and leadership. It was noted that HSBC fully cooperated with the Senate investigation.[90]
In November 2012 it was reported that HSBC had set up offshore accounts in Jersey for suspected drug-dealers and other criminals, and that HM Revenue and Customs had launched an investigation following a whistleblower leaking details of £700 million allegedly held in HSBC accounts in the Crown dependency .[91]
In December 2012, HSBC was penalized $1.9 billion (US), the largest fine under the Bank Secrecy Act, for violating four U.S. laws designed to protect the U.S. financial system.[92] HSBC had allegedly laundered at least $881 million in drugs proceeds through the U.S. financial system for international cartels, as well as processing an additional $660 million for banks in US sanctioned countries. According to the report, "The U.S. bank subsidiary [also] failed to monitor more than $670 billion in wire transfers and more than $9.4 billion in purchases of physical dollars from its Mexico unit."[92]
HSBC has also been accused of laundering money for terrorist groups.[93][94] A Feb. 2013 article in Rolling Stone magazine stated that, "In this case, the bank literally got away with murder – well, aiding and abetting it, anyway."[95]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HSBC#Drug_money_and_terrorist_laundering
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/gangster-bankers-too-big-to-jail-20130214
The Obama took actions from October 2010 through December 2012 that didn't make media headlines. It seems like it took a while for this to get reported. It's no wonder that so much money was spent to defeat him and other Democrats - some of these players who are both domestic and foreign actors - saw the writing on the wall.
The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation
The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited is a prominent bank established and based in Hong Kong since 1865 when Hong Kong was a colony of the British Empire. It is the founding member of the HSBC Group and since 1990 is now a wholly owned subsidiary of HSBC Holdings plc.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hongkong_and_Shanghai_Banking_Corporation
There is a lot of history in this institution. Who knows, this may eventually reach back in time to the Iran - Contra and the CIA - Vietnam stories and others that have been percolating through the years, although it's certain that a lot of clean money is involved, as well. That money came from somewhere - the fruits of Empire, or regular or criminal activities. Money doesn't care where it came from. What a time this is, to see these changes unfolding before our eyes.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022479354#post28
More interesting replies to that.
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