How One Of The World's Biggest Banks Became 'Too Big To Jail'

How One Of The World's Biggest Banks Became 'Too Big To Jail'
FILE This is a Monday, Feb. 27, 2012 file photo of the logo is seen on a branch of HSBC bank in London. HSBC avoided a legal battle that could further savage its reputation and undermine confidence in the global banking system by agreeing Tuesday Dec. 11, 2012 to pay $1.9 billion to settle a U.S. money-laundering probe. Europe's largest bank by market value will pay the biggest penalty ever imposed on a bank after facing accusations it transferred funds through the U.S. from Mexican drug cartels and on behalf of nations such as Iran that are under international sanctions. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, File)
FILE This is a Monday, Feb. 27, 2012 file photo of the logo is seen on a branch of HSBC bank in London. HSBC avoided a legal battle that could further savage its reputation and undermine confidence in the global banking system by agreeing Tuesday Dec. 11, 2012 to pay $1.9 billion to settle a U.S. money-laundering probe. Europe's largest bank by market value will pay the biggest penalty ever imposed on a bank after facing accusations it transferred funds through the U.S. from Mexican drug cartels and on behalf of nations such as Iran that are under international sanctions. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, File)

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' 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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