WASHINGTON, March 10 (UPI) — Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said she would like to know why more money-laundering bankers do not spend time in jail.
“If you’re caught with an ounce of cocaine, chances are good you’re going to jail. If it happens repeatedly, you may go to jail for the rest of your life,” Warren said at a Senate Banking Committee hearing.
“But evidently, if you launder nearly $1 billion for drug cartels and violate our international sanctions, your company pays a fine and you go home and sleep in your own bed,” Warren said.
The comment was made in reference to HSBC, which paid $1.92 billion in fines for money laundering on behalf of drug cartels and terrorists organizations, the Los Angeles Times reported Friday.
The bank admitted it had shuffled money around for illegal organizations but nobody went to jail.
The bank “did it over and over and over again across a period of years. And they were caught doing it, warned not to do it and kept right on doing it and evidently making a profit doing it,” Warren said.
“How many billions of dollars do you have to launder for drug lords and how many economic sanctions do you have to violate before someone will consider shutting down a financial institution like this?” she asked.
Her comments came a few days after Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. said bank regulators “are hit with indications that if you do prosecute, if you do bring a criminal charge, it will have a negative impact on the national economy.”
Copyright 2013 United Press International, Inc. (UPI).
I wonder what happened to the 1.9 billion that HSBC paid in fines… This is just another reason why I belong to a local credit union. Imagine what would happen to them if they had done this and got caught. Oh please, threaten me some more with a negative impact on the economy.
I think we should start cutting off and throwing in jail the thousands that are lying and steeling from the entitlement programs. The same as the bankers this is money out of my pocket and the coffers for the people that really need it . Unfortunately to the far right democrats this is ok due to such a twisted attitude that they are due a good life paid for by those who work when too many are just to lazy to earn their own way. 2012 welfare fraud statistics were between 9 and 13.5 billion. Stealing is just that at any level. Also excellent response Katie. Drug addiction knows no division in economic class.
How about all the federal workers that owe billions in back taxes.
I want to know why Senators are not in jail.
The drug war is a war on the poor silly.