HSBC and Santander slammed in Senate money-laundering report

[seemslikeadream]

By Hugh O'Shaughnessy and Paul Lashmar
05 September 2004


Banco Santander Central Hispano, which is bidding for Abbey National, and HSBC, the UK's largest bank, have been slammed for lax money-laundering procedures in a report by a US Senate subcommittee.

The Spanish bank and the UK-based multinational stand accused of laxity in the fight against money laundering, drug trafficking, corruption and terrorism, notably in the oil-rich African state of Equatorial Guinea.

The flow of dirty money from the former Spanish colony has become a particular interest of the Senate's permanent subcommittee on investigations. It issued a fierce warning to the banks after concluding an inquiry into money laundering and corruption in the banking sector, focusing on the Washington DC-based Riggs Bank.

In one of the few occasions when Riggs seems to have properly followed US anti-money-laundering legislation, it formally asked Santander and HSBC Bank USA under section 314 of the Patriot Act to divulge the identities of the owners of two companies that kept accounts with them and that were receiving suspicious wire transfers totalling in excess of $35m (£20m). The banks refused to say who the owners were.

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http://news.independent.co.uk/business/news/story.jsp?story=558327

[seemslikeadream]

1. Riggs Affair Sparks 'Suspicious Activity' Alert on Dole

Thursday September 2, 11:49 PM EDT

WASHINGTON -- The Riggs National Bank scandal has led to unexpected fallout, including "suspicious activity reports" on former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole and former Defense Secretary Frank Carlucci, Friday's Wall Street Journal reported.

As often as once a week, Mr. Dole's assistant walks around the corner from his Pennsylvania Avenue office in Washington to a branch of Riggs Bank, where she withdraws as much as $8,000 in cash. For walking-around money, Mr. Dole keeps a wad of $100 bills in the breast pocket of his shirt. "I probably use a credit card four or five times a year," Mr. Dole confesses. "I don't even have a wallet."

Mr. Dole's affinity for cash was of no concern to anyone until recently, when federal regulators pawing through the books of scandal-tarred Riggs spotted the large withdrawals and called them to the attention of management. In short order, the bank filed "suspicious activity reports" on Mr. Dole and another prominent Washington figure, Mr. Carlucci, questioning whether the two men might have violated federal laws against money laundering.

The reports are the latest strange fallout from the Riggs affair, which has reverberated through Washington in unexpected ways since the bank got into trouble with regulators this year for overlooking signs of suspicious activity by Saudi diplomats and foreign despots. The scandal has provoked a minor diplomatic crisis for the State and Treasury departments as Riggs, which has long had a lock on the diplomatic market in Washington, starts to shed all of its embassy accounts to get out from under a regulatory cloud and sell itself to PNC Financial Services Group Inc. (PNC).


more
http://finance.myway.com/jsp/nw/nwdt_rt.jsp?section=news&news_id=dji-00094720040902&feed=dji&date=20040902&cat=INDUSTRY


Thanks Snazzy

[xchrom]

2. ah -- bob -- how the mighty have fallen.

[agingdem]

3. Carlucci?

Carlyle Group Carlucci?

[Sideways]

4. Yes

Frank is a fuckwittage deluxe. He has his nasty fingers in every dirty scandal going. Just like Poppy. Bob Dole is out of his fucking league. These are the MAJOR Assholes in the USA MAFIA. Bob will be eaten for lunch if this gets any coverage. Frank will walk as usual.

[emad]

5. HSBC? Not surprised. I sued them myself in London for a scam

on my own family home that took the London High Court nearly 10 years to unravel and pointed me in the direction of a huge property portfolio fraud perpetrated by Kevin Maxwell - son of ex-Mirror Group fraudster Robert Maxwell and UK's No1 bankrupt - went down owing #400 million.

During this lengthy litigation I got to know over 60 individuals who had bought their homes in Lodnon and environs in good faith, only to find out later that Keving Maxwell claimed they belonged to him in deal involving Midland Bank - which then became HSBC in 1999/2000 I believe.

We fought our respective law suits and some of us got together in a class action that went all the way to the House of Lords, and beat the bank on a point of law that said they cannot make anyone stand surety for a loan using the house as collateral without seperate legal advice....which Midland/HSBC had denied them.

In the course of this mind-numbing litigation a huge wasps nest of fraud was unearthed which was partially resolved throught the UK criminal courts but which ain't over yet.

HSBC's chairman Sir John Bond is a massive crook whose personal friendship with Margaret Thatcher has ensured he has remained off the hook re his collusion with Maxwell senior and Jr.

HSBC individual officers have been arrested and charged with fraud, theft, money laundering and witness harassment during the last 3 years in the UK in a series of Fraud Squad swoops.

Hope they go down along with Riggs for being the shittiest, most crooked bunch of bloodsucking bastareds since BCCI....