Yesterday, March 7 2013, Middle Class Senator Elizabeth Warren grilled US Treasury officials in congress as to why they refused to push the Justice Department to prosecute the bankers of HSBC North America, who knowingly laundered over $800 million for the drug cartels of Colombia and Mexico.
The Treasury Department warned the bankers to stop the criminal acts, the bankers continued, the US Treasury Department then leveled a $1.6 billion dollar fine against the bank, which it paid. No criminal charges have been filed even though there’s sufficient evidence to level that massive of a fine and the bank was willing to pay it.
In the hearing, Warren asked “HSBC paid a fine, but no one individual went to trial, no individual was banned from banking, and there was no hearing to consider shutting down HSBC’s activities here in the United States,” Warren said. “So, what I’d like is, you’re the experts on money laundering. I’d like an opinion: What does it take — how many billions do you have to launder for drug lords and how many economic sanctions do you have to violate — before someone will consider shutting down a financial institution like this?”
Treasury officials refused to answer the question. Apparently, Warren is the only person in the senate or the US House of Representatives that thinks it should be jail time for big time US senate and house campaign contributors that launder drug cartel money. There are plenty of reasons the government will pay tens of thousands of dollars to convict somebody caught smoking marijuana and not prosecuting money launderers.
HSBC donated lots of money during this last election cycle to plenty of congressmen and congresswomen, as well as senators. The company is primarily an investment bank, but also does some commercial banking. The entire HSBC North American Holding is worth over $320 billion as of September 2012. In other words, a ton of the 1 percent have invested with and through this company.
HSBC’s stock price hovers around $55 per share, already down from nearly $100 five years ago. If criminal charges are brought against the bankers, if they faced prison time, the stock prices would plummet. And if the government considered closing the bank for its crimes, the 1 percent that have invested in the bank would lose their investments because the death of the company means the current $55 a share would drop to $0.
Doing such a thing would set a bad example for the rest of the investment community. Perks offered by those folks might dry up if they get angry at government officials for doing something as idiotic as making rich criminals responsible for their actions. The 1 percent pays their government sufficient money every year to make sure their investments continue to gain value, even when this is at the expense of the 99 percent, which is more often the case than not. Prosecuting drug money laundering bankers would not be in harmony with the interests of the 1 percent. So don’t expect Obama’s justice department to do anything about drug money laundering bankers even though there’s enough evidence to level a $1.6 billion fine.
The economic drama unfolding for the last thirty-two years continues. The game played against the middle class continues to be rigged against them. If you’re rich enough, and you donated enough money to Obama, both major political parties, and other government officials, you can probably murder a middle class person in broad daylight, post the video of the criminal act on Youtube, and the US Justice Department will say there’s not enough evidence to prosecute you.
Check out the video below.
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