BORN FREE: Someone asked me
yesterday why no one was even indicted when US Assistant Attorney
General Lanny Breuer signed off on a $1.9 billion settlement with
British banking giant HSBC for systematically laundering gazillions
of dollars of international drug cartel money.
We'd told her we'd heard some
mumbo-jumbo about how the people who worked apparently claimed they
didn't see- or didn't want to see- anything out of the ordinary as
they processed specially-made boxes of cash precisely the size of the
opening in the tellers' windows.
Matt Taibbi goes
into some depth today comparing the disparity between the
punishment of the kingpins and the guy who gets jacked up and caught
with a joint in his pocket (guess which one goes to jail).
But he answers the question in question
by quoting the NY Times:
"Federal and state authorities
have
chosen not to indict HSBC, the London-based bank, on charges of
vast and prolonged money laundering, for fear that criminal
prosecution would topple the bank and, in the process, endanger the
financial system. "
That's right- it's because they're TOO
BIG TO JAIL.
Maybe that's why, unlike
some, I'm not really all that thrilled sometimes when I wake up
in the morning and Barack Obama is president.
2 comments:
I am thrilled Barack
who's Sane Obama is President! With the choices given I am elated.
Plan A -- $1.9 billion fine
Plan B -- big sloppy wet kiss from Sir Mittens of La Jolla.
I'll go with Barney Frank -- The Dems aren't perfect but the GOP is nuts.
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