The deal was announced quietly, just before the holidays, almost like the government was hoping people were too busy hanging stockings by the fireplace to notice. Flooring politicians, lawyers and investigators all over the world, the U.S. Justice Department granted a total walk to executives of the British-based bank HSBC for the largest drug-and-terrorism money-laundering case ever.
Yes, they issued a fine – $1.9 billion, or about five weeks’ [worth of HSBC] profit – but they didn’t extract so much as one dollar or one day in jail from any individual, despite a decade of stupefying abuses.
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SweetWillowman 