A recent
article in The Wall Street Journal
talks about the Justice Department’s decision to not pursue charges against
HSBC for allegations made in 2012. HSBC is a major bank in the UK that admitted
to neglecting to spot proceeds from drug trafficking in Mexico and also did not
flag transactions by countries under economic sanctions. Rather than being
prosecuted, the bank was allowed to admit guilt, improve its controls, and make
a few other minor changes. Both Republican and Democrat lawmakers view the
decision as a slap in the wrist for a company that admitted to engaging in
extreme illegal activity. While former Attorney General Eric Holder says his
remarks were misinterpreted (see below), the fact that HSBC is no longer being prosecuted
lends credence to the idea that the government seems incapable of handling corruption
within some of the world’s largest corporations.
See
this previous
post for a further discussion on companies being too big to fail.
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