global bankers= legalized crime

Somali pirates and piracy, pretty quiet this year we’re told. Wish we could say the same about the world of big banks. From the gory headlines week after week, the world of big banking can look like a pirates’ jamboree. LIBOR rate rigging. Mexican money laundering. London whaling.

Ponzi schemes and crooked deals and straight up theft and fraud. It’s too much. It’s appalling. Giant HSBC in the hot seat now for moving billions in drug lord money. Some days it feels like there are Somali pirates in the world’s banking wheelhouse.

Dodd Frank is not NEARLY enough to contain these criminals. .

He essentially called for the return of the Glass-Steagall Act, which imposed banking reforms that split banks from other financial institutions such as insurance companies.
"I'm suggesting that they be broken up so that the taxpayer will never be at risk, the depositors won't be at risk, the leverage of the banks will be something reasonable, and the investment banks can do trading, they're not subject to a Volker rule (the Volcker rule explained), they can make some mistakes, but they'll have everything that clears with each other every single night so they can be market-to-market," Weill said.

HSBC has confirmed it is to pay US authorities $1.9bn (£1.2bn) in a settlement over money laundering, the largest paid in such a case. The UK-based bank was alleged to have helped launder money belonging to drug cartels and nations under US sanctions. Earlier this year HSBC admitted having poor money laundering controls following a US Senate investigation. Last month it announced it had set aside $1.5bn to cover the costs of any settlement or fines. "We accept responsibility for our past mistakes," said HSBC group chief executive Stuart Gulliver. "We have said we are profoundly sorry for them, and we do so again."

The bank said it had spent $290m on improving its systems to prevent money laundering and clawed back some bonuses paid to senior executives in the past. The news followed the announcement of a similar but much smaller settlement with UK-based Standard Chartered bank, which will pay $300m in fines for violating US sanctions. The cases are seen as part of a crackdown on money laundering and sanctions violations being led by federal government agencies and New York state authorities. Money laundering is the process of disguising the proceeds of crime so that the money cannot be linked to the wrongdoing.


Senate criticism

The settlement had been widely expected following a report by the US Senate, published earlier this year, that was heavily critical of HSBC's money laundering controls. The report suggested HSBC accounts in Mexico and the US were being used by drug barons to launder money. It cited examples including the transfer of $7bn between HSBC's Mexican and US subsidiaries between 2007 and 2008, made despite Mexico's reputation as a centre for drug smuggling. It also said HSBC regularly circumvented restrictions on dealings with Iran, North Korea, and other states subject to US sanctions. HSBC admitted its money laundering controls were not strong enough following the Senate report.

On Tuesday, the London-based multinational announced it had appointed a former US official to work as its head of financial crime compliance - a new position. Bob Werner was previously the head of the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) - the agency responsible for enforcing the US sanctions on countries including Iran. He will be responsible for beefing up HSBC's anti-money laundering and sanctions compliance systems. It is unclear what impact the case will have on HSBC's business. The bank is the biggest in Europe by market capitalisation, and made pre-tax profits of $12.7bn for the first six months of 2012.

BBC News - HSBC to pay $1.9bn in US money laundering settlement

Lefties have to know that all this "out-sourcing" stuff is political smoke and mirror B.S. The left used the term "global economy" for years to keep the US from being independent of foreign oil and now the hypocrite SOB's turn on a dime and whine about a guy who legally did what the federal government has been doing for decades. When do you hear the left calling for former democrat governor Jon Corzine's head for losing a billion dollars of customer assets? When do you hear the left talking about Clinton pardoning the most notorious corporate criminal who was on the FBI 10 most wanted list in exchange for a couple of bucks donated to his "library"? Maybe there is a faction of ignorant radical left wingers who actually believe that capitalism is evil or maybe the entire left is nothing but a bunch of hypocrites.