Politics and Money

[benzdealeror2]

The issue is Banks laundering drug money, and Chief Sitting Bull Warren acts surprised about it...Like she uncovered the hornets nest single handed...pathetic..

HSBC is hardly alone. Court filings show that, since 2006, more than a dozen banks have reached settlements with the Justice Department regarding violations related to money laundering. ING Bank paid a $619 million fine for altering records and secretly transferring more than $2 billion for entities trading with Iran and other nations under sanctions. American Express Bank International acknowledged that more than $55 million in drug proceeds may have been laundered through offshore shell accounts it maintained. The Justice Department has signed similar agreements, withholding prosecution in exchange for bank promises to tighten oversight, with Wachovia, Union Bank of California, Lloyds, Credit Suisse, ABN Amro Holding (now owned by Royal Bank of Scotland), Barclays and Standard Chartered. All admitted to criminal offenses; all were handed the equivalent of traffic tickets — pay a fine on your way out the door.

This has been the government’s playbook in fighting terrorism and the drug trade. For make no mistake, without the ability to “wash” billions of dollars of money from illicit sources each year and bank the untraceable profits, both of these criminal enterprises would falter.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/03/opinion/how-bankers-help-drug-traffickers-and-terrorists.html?_r=0