Matt Taibbi: You Can Go to Prison for Pot, While Big Banks Get Away With Laundering Drug Cartel Cash

[marmar]

Democracy Now! / By Matt Taibbi, Amy Goodman, Juan Gonzalez

Matt Taibbi: You Can Go to Prison for Pot, While Big Banks Get Away With Laundering Drug Cartel Cash
The banking giant HSBC has escaped indictment for laundering billions of dollars for Mexican drug cartels and groups linked to al-Qaeda.

December 13, 2012 |


The banking giant HSBC has escaped indictment for laundering billions of dollars for Mexican drug cartels and groups linked to al-Qaeda. Despite evidence of wrongdoing, the U.S. Department of Justice has allowed the bank to avoid prosecution and pay a $1.9 billion fine. No top HSBC officials will face charges, either. We’re joined by Rolling Stone contributing editor Matt Taibbi, author of "Griftopia: A Story of Bankers, Politicians, and the Most Audacious Power Grab in American History." "You can do real time in jail in America for all kinds of ridiculous offenses," Taibbi says. "Here we have a bank that laundered $800 million of drug money, and they can’t find a way to put anybody in jail for that. That sends an incredible message, not just to the financial sector but to everybody. It’s an obvious, clear double standard, where one set of people gets to break the rules as much as they want and another set of people can’t break any rules at all without going to jail."

Amy Goodman: For more on the latest bank scandals, we’re joined by Taibbi. Now, how did Forbes put it, Matt? "What’s a bank got to do to get into some real trouble around here?"

MATT TAIBBI: Exactly, exactly. And what’s amazing about that is that’s Forbessaying that. I mean, universally, the reaction, even in—among the financial press, which is normally very bank-friendly and gives all these guys the benefit of the doubt, the reaction is, is "What do you have to do to get a criminal indictment?" What HSBC has now admitted to is, more or less, the worst behavior that a bank can possibly be guilty of. You know, they violated the Trading with the Enemy Act, the Bank Secrecy Act. And we’re talking about massive amounts of money. It was $9 billion that they failed to supervise properly. These crimes were so obvious that apparently the cartels in Mexico specifically designed boxes to put cash in so that they would fit through the windows of HSBC teller windows. So, it was so out in the open, these crimes, and there’s going to be no criminal prosecution whatsoever, which is incredible. .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/matt-taibbi-you-can-go-prison-pot-while-big-banks-get-away-laundering-drug-cartel-cash

[spanone]

1. ...don't forget, they can launder money for terrorists too!

[teddy51]

2. Isn't that special huh? We obviously have two laws for the same offense in this country.

It all depends on the amount of money one has. This is so fucked up on so many levels.

[whatchamacallit]

3. Ball-less, lickspittle DOJ

[Poll_Blind]

4. Excellent piece! Taibbi's summation of the rationale of the Obama administration in regards to...

...why these banks are essentially getting a pass is...thought provoking. It's also disgusting.

PB

[arcane1]

9. Disclaimer: I work for a bank who did this very same thing, though on a smaller scale

It took place not long before I was hired there in 2007. They had to pay a small fine, and were under a year-long "cease and desist" order, during which they had to prove to the government that they now have controls in place to make sure it Never Happened Again. They met the terms of the order, and everything was A-OK from then on.

Imagine if I had been busted for making $300 from a sale of crack, and my only penalty was to pay a $150 fine and spend a year showing the government that I have done a better job of managing my household budget, and no longer need that crack money!

This is a problem that goes back much further than Obama, and involves the very laws themselves.

PS: I love Matt Taibbi

[Poll_Blind]

22. Oh I hear ya. You know, in the case you describe...that doesn't anger me too much, but...

...shit on the scale, and dealing with the people, which are involved in the story. It's just sickening.

PB

[arcane1]

23. Yep, and the activities of HSBC affect many other banks too...

and so on down the line.

[arcane1]

5. And yet, we are expected to believe that corporations are "people"

[upi402]

6. k/r

And not only did they sell out to drug dealers, they sold out cheap. You'll hear bragging this week by the Obama administration that they wrested a record penalty from HSBC, but it's a joke. Some of the penalties involved will literally make you laugh out loud. This is from Breuer's announcement:

As a result of the government's investigation, HSBC has . . . "clawed back" deferred compensation bonuses given to some of its most senior U.S. anti-money laundering and compliance officers, and agreed to partially defer bonus compensation for its most senior officials during the five-year period of the deferred prosecution agreement.

Wow. So the executives who spent a decade laundering billions of dollars will have to partially defer their bonuses during the five-year deferred prosecution agreement? Are you fucking kidding me? That's the punishment?

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/outrageous-hsbc-settlement-proves-the-drug-war-is-a-joke-20121213#ixzz2EzK2ruOw
Follow us: @rollingstone on Twitter | RollingStone on Facebook

[sabrina 1]

20. Do people arrested for possession of marijuana ever get 'deferred prosecutions'?

This is sickening. The whole WOT and WOD is total sham. I'm beginning to think it was all a giant scheme to make massive amounts of money and to control the populations of the world.

Because there is no other explanation for this. It is a joke.

[ArcticFox]

35. Agree

[midnight]

7. They violated trading with the enemy act, and nothing happened?

[sabrina 1]

30. Yes, nothing happened. But Bradley Manning is in jail, and Julian Assange who was the first to

expose the corruption revealed by a Whistle-blower in Iceland, which led to the prosecution and arrest of and imprisonment of THEIR crooked Banksters and politicians who enabled them, is being persecuted also.

The world is upside down.

Our Congress seems to exist to protect corrupt, criminal Bankers. No matter what they do, it doesn't matter, they will be protected by our Government. But those who try to expose them? THEY are the ones being punished. And after seeing what happened to Assange (right after he announced he had info on another crooked bank) and Manning and anyone else who exposes them, is enough to send a message to everyone else, 'keep your mouth shut'.

[midnight]

37. So we're lucky to have people like Matt explain to us the truth of our justice system...

That's the only good I can see of this nonsense....

[DirkGently]

8. Matt's apparently just going to keep point this out

...until someone pays attention.

[Occulus]

21. ....or until he gets killed for it.

Sorry to put it so baldly. But there it is.

[DirkGently]

36. Stay out of light aircraft, Matt.

[KoKo]

10. Hell YEAH! AND IT STILL GOES ON! n/t

[Initech]

11. Just goes to show you who the real criminals in society are.

[SoapBox]

12. Kicked

& rec

[donnasgirl]

13. And you do not go to jail

For stealing peoples retirements(hostess) but yet get a bonus

[WillyT]

14. K & R !!!

[MrMickeysMom]

15. Life sentence for holding boyfriend's little bag of coke, ZERO for financial terrorism HSBC

Any catch the story of that on TYT tonight? The woman at age 27, who had never done any crime gets this.

We get the DOJ's double talk about the implications if HSBC is charged. Meanwhile, their fine, which is about 4 days pay, and we're good here with this...

THEY DIDN'T EVEN take a big fat fine before calling it a day!

[mckara]

16. Max Keiser Told Matt Taibbi This Story

and it goes much deeper.

[femrap]

17. Love those

2. And I HATE CORPORATIONS...ESPECIALLY THE BANKSTERS.

Something is gonna give soon....Karma kicks and it kills.

[jtuck004]

18. K&R. n/t

[russspeakeasy]

19. I hope he keeps talking about it until more than DU is

paying attention to it.

[triplepoint]

24. Too Big To Jail

Money talks...and truly appears to make the World go around.....In for a penny, in for a pound! Laundering USD$15B in "bulk cash transfers," netting USD$50B+ in the first half of this year, and ONLY paying a USD$1.9B fine, and nobody goes to prison. Not bad...Sure looks like crime pays to me...IN BIG BUCKAZOID RETURNS! Take the money and R-U-N there HSBC!
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Our politicians are little more than money launderers in the trafficking of power and policy -- fewer than six degrees of separation from the spirit and tactics of Tony Soprano.
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This looks and sounds like BCCI or the Nugan Hand Bank...It's déjà vu all over again.
.
Nugan Hand Bank
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nugan_Hand_Bank

BCCI
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_of_Credit_and_Commerce_International

[Whovian]

25. K&R. Needs as much exposure as possible.

[mountain grammy]

26. Matt Taibbi is, now and forever, Man of the Year!

Someday, the world will change for the better because of him.

[WCGreen]

27. Wouldn't it be interesting if the Cartel took revenge on the bankers....

[DaniDubois]

28. And it doesn't stop there - Mexican Drug Cartel Laundered Money Through BofA, FBI Alleges

The Huffington Post | By Alexander Eichler

A federal probe into Los Zetas, a Mexican drug cartel, claims that the group has been laundering money through accounts at BofA, according to a recent report in The Wall Street Journal.

An FBI affidavit filed in Texas last month says that the Mexican drug cartel has been reportedly funneling cash through a Texas-based racehorse business with BofA accounts. The U.S. government has described Los Zetas in the past as "the most technologically advanced, sophisticated and dangerous cartel operating in Mexico." Tremor Enterprises LLC, the horse business, was for its part allegedly run by Jose Trevino Morales, a U.S. citizen with two brothers in Los Zetas.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/09/los-zetas-laundered-money-bank-america_n_1658943.html

[liberal_at_heart]

29. kick

[DeSwiss]

31. K&R

[center]
[/center]

[marmar]

33. Love that cartoon !!!

nt

[Zax2me]

32. What about these Corp fucks? dodging 2 billion in taxes -

Google avoided paying $2 billion in taxes last year by moving money to Bermuda
http://www.androidauthority.com/google-bermuda-taxes-138160

[Odin2005]

34. The WoD is about creating a new slave class of inmates in private prisons.

[blackspade]

38. The rich and powerfull get off scott free again.

[socialist_n_TN]

39. This is the ultimate and end result of capitalism.......

Until we get rid of the system, this is what we will have.

[Fire Walk With Me]

40. Hooray for double standards.

[Warren DeMontague]

41. You can buy as many semi automatic weapons as you want, but smoke a joint and go to prison.

Yay!