Wooooooow Government Declines To Press Criminal Charges Against HSBC Bank Following Admission Of Money Laundering To Drug Cartels Think the alleged U.S. “war on drugs” applies just as much to corrupt corporations that make millions as it does to everyday piff-puffers? Well, you might want to think again. A recent settlement to the tune of $1.9 million between the U.S. Assistant Attorney General and big ballin’ financial giant HSBC has more than a few fans of that ooooo-wee giving the government a mean side-eye. via Rolling Stone If you’ve ever been arrested on a drug charge, if you’ve ever spent even a day in jail for having a stem of marijuana in your pocket or “drug paraphernalia” in your gym bag, Assistant Attorney General and longtime Bill Clinton pal Lanny Breuer has a message for you: Bite me. Breuer this week signed off on a settlement deal with the British banking giant HSBC that is the ultimate insult to every ordinary person who’s ever had his life altered by a narcotics charge. Despite the fact that HSBC admitted to laundering billions of dollars for Colombian and Mexican drug cartels (among others) and violating a host of important banking laws (from the Bank Secrecy Act to the Trading With the Enemy Act), Breuer and his Justice Department elected not to pursue criminal prosecutions of the bank, opting instead for a “record” financial settlement of $1.9 billion, which as one analyst noted is about five weeks of income for the bank. The banks’ laundering transactions were so brazen that the NSA probably could have spotted them from space. Breuer admitted that drug dealers would sometimes come to HSBC’s Mexican branches and “deposit hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, in a single day, into a single account, using boxes designed to fit the precise dimensions of the teller windows.” This is a shady azz situation if we’ve ever heard of it. People get popped and sent to drop the soap everyday for wayyyyy less than what this money-hungry company managed to pull off AND admit to….and they barely get a slap on the wrist?? That’s that isht we don’t like!
