Tweet
Holder admits some banks 'too big to jail'
Refuses to discuss HSBC but confesses failure to prosecute
WND
3/11/2013
Excerpt:
More than three months after the Justice Department administered a virtual slap on the wrist to global banking giant HSBC after a whistleblower’s report to WND of massive fraud was confirmed, Attorney General Eric Holder admitted to a Senate panel he believes some banks are too big to prosecute.
Under questioning before the Senate Judiciary Committee last Wednesday, Holder said he was not referring specifically to HSBC, because it would not be “appropriate,” but the message was clear.
Banks the size of HSBC are “too big to jail,” as a member of the Senate panel put it.
“I am concerned that the size of some of these institutions becomes so large,” the attorney general confessed, “that it does become difficult for us to prosecute them when we 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, perhaps even the world economy.
“And I think that is a function of the fact that some of these institutions have become too large,” said Holder.
In December, WND ‘s “Whistleblower of the Year,” John Cruz, called the $1.92 billion fine the U.S. government imposed on HSBC “a joke” and filed a $10 million lawsuit for “retaliation and wrongful termination.”
Significantly, the HSBC settlement with the Justice Department allowed all bank officers and directors who may have been aware of or participated in the illegal activities to be free of criminal investigation and prosecution in exchange for HSBC agreeing to pay the $1.92 billion fine.
Whistleblowers in India and London joined Cruz in charging the HSBC settlement amounts to a massive “cover up.” Avoiding criminal investigation and prosecution, they said, allows not only HSBC bank officers and directors to avoid further public scrutiny but also any government officials who may have turned a blind eye to HSBC improprieties.
At the Senate hearing last week, Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, asked Holder to explain why federal and state authorities decided not to indict HSBC after it admitted funneling cash to Mexican drug cartels, helping rogue regimes avoid sanctions and assisting Saudi banks tied to terrorism.
The senator said, “I’m concerned that we have a mentality of too-big-to-jail in the financial sector of spreading from fraud cases to terrorist financing and money laundering cases – and I cite HSBC.”
Holder replied: “The concern that you have raised is one that I, frankly, share.”
However, Holder said he was not specifically referring to HSBC, because it would not be “appropriate.”
“Again, I’m not talking about HSBC,” he said. “This is just a – a more general comment. I think it has an inhibiting influence – impact on our ability to bring resolutions that I think would be more appropriate. And I think that is something that we – you all need to – need to consider. So the concern that you raised is actually one that I share.”
Cruz has insisted to WND that it is impossible to believe HSBC laundered billions of dollars in Mexican drug cartel money, worked with terrorists through affiliate banking operations in Saudi Arabia and circumvented Obama administration banking sanctions against Iran – all activities specifically charged by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations – without the knowledge and perhaps complicity of U.S. government officials in the U.S. Treasury, the Federal Reserve, the CIA and the NSA in an era in which government officials are capable of reading the emails of ordinary citizens.
............................................
View the complete article at:
http://www.wnd.com/2013/03/holder-ad...o-big-to-jail/
Refuses to discuss HSBC but confesses failure to prosecute
WND
3/11/2013
Excerpt:
More than three months after the Justice Department administered a virtual slap on the wrist to global banking giant HSBC after a whistleblower’s report to WND of massive fraud was confirmed, Attorney General Eric Holder admitted to a Senate panel he believes some banks are too big to prosecute.
Under questioning before the Senate Judiciary Committee last Wednesday, Holder said he was not referring specifically to HSBC, because it would not be “appropriate,” but the message was clear.
Banks the size of HSBC are “too big to jail,” as a member of the Senate panel put it.
“I am concerned that the size of some of these institutions becomes so large,” the attorney general confessed, “that it does become difficult for us to prosecute them when we 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, perhaps even the world economy.
“And I think that is a function of the fact that some of these institutions have become too large,” said Holder.
In December, WND ‘s “Whistleblower of the Year,” John Cruz, called the $1.92 billion fine the U.S. government imposed on HSBC “a joke” and filed a $10 million lawsuit for “retaliation and wrongful termination.”
Significantly, the HSBC settlement with the Justice Department allowed all bank officers and directors who may have been aware of or participated in the illegal activities to be free of criminal investigation and prosecution in exchange for HSBC agreeing to pay the $1.92 billion fine.
Whistleblowers in India and London joined Cruz in charging the HSBC settlement amounts to a massive “cover up.” Avoiding criminal investigation and prosecution, they said, allows not only HSBC bank officers and directors to avoid further public scrutiny but also any government officials who may have turned a blind eye to HSBC improprieties.
At the Senate hearing last week, Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, asked Holder to explain why federal and state authorities decided not to indict HSBC after it admitted funneling cash to Mexican drug cartels, helping rogue regimes avoid sanctions and assisting Saudi banks tied to terrorism.
The senator said, “I’m concerned that we have a mentality of too-big-to-jail in the financial sector of spreading from fraud cases to terrorist financing and money laundering cases – and I cite HSBC.”
Holder replied: “The concern that you have raised is one that I, frankly, share.”
However, Holder said he was not specifically referring to HSBC, because it would not be “appropriate.”
“Again, I’m not talking about HSBC,” he said. “This is just a – a more general comment. I think it has an inhibiting influence – impact on our ability to bring resolutions that I think would be more appropriate. And I think that is something that we – you all need to – need to consider. So the concern that you raised is actually one that I share.”
Cruz has insisted to WND that it is impossible to believe HSBC laundered billions of dollars in Mexican drug cartel money, worked with terrorists through affiliate banking operations in Saudi Arabia and circumvented Obama administration banking sanctions against Iran – all activities specifically charged by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations – without the knowledge and perhaps complicity of U.S. government officials in the U.S. Treasury, the Federal Reserve, the CIA and the NSA in an era in which government officials are capable of reading the emails of ordinary citizens.
............................................
View the complete article at:
http://www.wnd.com/2013/03/holder-ad...o-big-to-jail/