HSBC Money Laundering - Protected by TBTF
HSBC, an international megabank, was caught funneling billions of dollars around the globe for drug cartels. They did this for years. And the US Department of Justice has decided to prosecute no one.
The court records show that the cartels would sometimes “deposit hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, in a single day, into a single account” and that “senior bank officials were complicit in the illegal activity.”
So why didn’t the DOJ prosecute anyone? According to the Guardian,
“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.”
In other words, the bank is too big to prosecute. These complicit bankers avoided jail because they belong to a bank that can’t go under without endangering the entire economy.
And that, in short, is why “too big to fail” is horrible.
Source for the quotes.
HSBC Money Laundering - Both Sides Agree: Prosecute!
HSBC Money Laundering - A Symbol of Injustice
Aaron Swartz committed suicide under the pressure of facing a long prison sentence for downloading academic articles. The HSBC story broke a month before Aaron’s death, and the two events highlight the injustice of the “justice” system. We have a system that allows bankers at TBTF banks to go free and prosecutes individuals.
Lawrence Lessig of Rootstrikers wrote an amazing eulogy for Aaron that contained this powerful sentence conveying the injustice of the system.
