Too Big To Jail: Why The Government Isn't Prosecuting HSBC
We're tough on crime in Granny's diaper at the airport. It's the actual crimes -- the ginormous ones -- that the government, through the so-called Justice Department, lets slide.
Matt Taibbi writes in Rolling Stone:
The bank literally got away with murder - well, aiding and abetting it, anyway.For at least half a decade, the storied British colonial banking power helped to wash hundreds of millions of dollars for drug mobs, including Mexico's Sinaloa drug cartel, suspected in tens of thousands of murders just in the past 10 years - people so totally evil, jokes former New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, that "they make the guys on Wall Street look good." The bank also moved money for organizations linked to Al Qaeda and Hezbollah, and for Russian gangsters; helped countries like Iran, the Sudan and North Korea evade sanctions; and, in between helping murderers and terrorists and rogue states, aided countless common tax cheats in hiding their cash.
"They violated every goddamn law in the book," says Jack Blum, an attorney and former Senate investigator who headed a major bribery investigation against Lockheed in the 1970s that led to the passage of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. "They took every imaginable form of illegal and illicit business."
That nobody from the bank went to jail or paid a dollar in individual fines is nothing new in this era of financial crisis. What is different about this settlement is that the Justice Department, for the first time, admitted why it decided to go soft on this particular kind of criminal. It was worried that anything more than a wrist slap for HSBC might undermine the world economy. "Had the U.S. authorities decided to press criminal charges," said Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer at a press conference to announce the settlement, "HSBC 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."
It was the dawn of a new era. In the years just after 9/11, even being breathed on by a suspected terrorist could land you in extralegal detention for the rest of your life. But now, when you're Too Big to Jail, you can cop to laundering terrorist cash and violating the Trading With the Enemy Act, and not only will you not be prosecuted for it, but the government will go out of its way to make sure you won't lose your license. Some on the Hill put it to me this way: OK, fine, no jail time, but they can't even pull their charter? Are you kidding?
More on the Sinaloa Cartel from John J. Walters in reason:
...The Sinaloa Cartel (is) a brutal drug-trafficking operation headquartered in Western Mexico that rakes in about $3 billion each year. The influence of the cartel is so toxic that it is blamed for rising homicide rates in Chicago--and it could easily be blamed for significant violence elsewhere. The Sinaloa Cartel operates in 17 states in Mexico and in cities across North America, especially along the border.
It is impossible to know how many people have died at the hands of the Sinaloa Cartel, but as one of Mexico's major cartels, it is certain that they have claimed their fair share of the 50,000 victims since 2006 in Mexico alone.
Wait...am I understanding this correctly? you think the current DoJ under Eric Holder should be prosecuting someone for doing business with the Sinola Cartel?
The same DoJ that walked guns into the hands of that same cartel? Give me a moment. I want to savor this sweet, sweet irony. Ummm, tasty!
Hint: it's the same government that watched John Corzine lose a $1 billion or so of his clients money in ways they never signed off on, but tell us that no crimes were committed. Only mistakes were made.
As Aaron Swartz found out, the rule of law is dead in this country. The rule of men is in full effect, and prosecutors can and will abuse you for their amusement. Or career advancement.
I R A Darth Aggie at February 15, 2013 6:31 AM
HSBC is, IIRC, incorporated in Monaco. European countries laugh at us when the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act comes up, becuase it substantially ties the hands of American companies in world markets. European companies have been known to hire their own investigators to look into violations of the FCPA, and share their findings with the Justice Department, because it's a quick and easy way to get rid of American competition.
Cousin Dave at February 15, 2013 6:33 AM
the only reason to not prosecute a bank under anti-terror and anti-gang/ criminal organization laws is if that information can be used to hamper or destroy said group. If it is not being used to that end, prosecute away.
spqr2008 at February 15, 2013 7:13 AM
Amy Alkon
https://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2013/02/too-big-to-jail.html#comment-3605693">comment from spqr2008Remember, this is the "Justice" Department.
Amy Alkon
at February 15, 2013 7:26 AM
Matt Taibbi's a socialist who wants to regulate free enterprise out of business. Libertarians believe his scribblings at their peril.
Get with the program, Amy.
Andre Friedmann at February 15, 2013 7:31 AM
Amy Alkon
https://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2013/02/too-big-to-jail.html#comment-3605708">comment from Andre FriedmannMatt Taibbi's a socialist who wants to regulate free enterprise out of business. Libertarians believe his scribblings at their peril. Get with the program, Amy.
This is a really common and really disappointing thing people do now -- lazily attacking somebody's politics instead of the substance of their piece.
This is small-mindedness in action.
Feel free to dispute anything and everything in the piece with supported arguments.
Amy Alkon
at February 15, 2013 8:00 AM
Remember, this is the "Justice" DepartmentFor a few decades now, this hasn't been a government of the people, by the people, for the people. Like cancer, this is going to come to a point that's past saving.
Stinky the Clown at February 15, 2013 6:14 PM
I now believe, thoroughly, there’s no justice, there’s just us considering the performance of Holder and Obama.
I still write my politicians letting them know my likes and dislikes. I hope that there is a way out but am steadily trying to build up my resources, both long and short term.
Jim P. at February 15, 2013 8:40 PM
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