Tuesday, December 11, 2012

US Fines Bank For Its Cartel Cash

A British banking corporation reached a settlement with the U.S. Treasury Department for nearly $2 billion Tuesday morning. HSBC Holdings was accused of failing to enforce money laundering rules against criminal syndicates. Among the various shadow figures the bank is accused of doing business with was Mexico's Sinaloa drug cartel. HSBC was charged with violating what’s called the Bank Secrecy Act. Under the law, banks are supposed to monitor themselves to ensure criminal syndicates are not using their systems to launder money. For example, from 2006 to 2009, bulk cash deposits totaling more than $15 billion were deposited into HSBC banks in Mexico. Hundreds of billions in wire transactions from Mexico were also allowed to go through, no questions asked...more

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