Matt Taibbi: After Laundering $800 Million in Drug Money, How Did HSBC Execs Avoid Jail?

DemocracyNow.org - The banking giant HSBC has escaped indictment for laundering billions of dollars for Mexican drug cartels and groups linked to al-Qaeda. Despite evidence of wrongdoing, the U.S. Department of Justice has allowed the bank to avoid prosecution and pay a $1.9 billion fine. No top HSBC officials will face charges, either. We're joined by Rolling Stone Contributing Editor Matt Taibbi, author of "Griftopia: A Story of Bankers, Politicians, and the Most Audacious Power Grab in American History." "You can do real time in jail in America for all kinds of ridiculous offenses," Taibbi says. "Here we have a bank that laundered $800 million dollars of drug money and they can't find a way to put anybody in jail for that? That sends an incredible message, not just to the financial sector, but to everybody. It's an obvious, clear double standard where one set of people gets to break the rules as much as they want and another set of people can't break any rules at all without going to jail."

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• Category

  News & Politics

[Fielding Mellish]

Nobody likes sending their friends to prison.

[mispistoleros]

"Groups linked to Al Qaeda"....that would be the CIA, which is why no one goes to prison

[pretorious700]

lol, "Trading with the enemy" act

The government is the real enemy.

[pretorious700]

Loretta Lynch sure puts on a good political dog and pony show. I see a future in politics.

[Teemancan]

Here goes that 'profoundly sorry' crap again. Pay the slap on the wrist fine and continue laundering.....

[Fadhel Abbas]

They are (HSBC) accustomed to money laundering.

[blackbolt75]

Where is the justice? There is no democracy. If the little guy gets caught doing this they would throw the book at him.

[CHRIS B.]

it effects you too, dumbass.

[CHRIS B.]

its shit like this that makes me so cynical and hopeless that anything change in this fucking country. Its just beyond disgusting and criminal.

[Greg Tamaki]

Democracy is dead. Officially kaput.

[Martin Linquist]

wow...

[Alicia Banks]

false flags are real ruses

hobama is the new hitler!

and his nazis just gave him 4 more years to slay us all!

cc ndaa/ fema camps/dhs ammo/ndaa/rex 84 etc!

hobama is a ruthless bankster and a racist global warmonger!

cc hobamacare pharma corp casinos/ndaa/jp morgan's ebt cards/goldman sachs as prez/wwiii/africom/gitmo in benghazi libya/africom/civil war ii etc!

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