Occupy Wall Street: Valentine’s Day Action Points to HSBC as Criminal Bank
Unindicted Bank Admitted To Money-
Laundering for Drug Cartels
We Demand Justice for Executive Criminals
& An End to “Too Big to Jail”!
Valentine’s Day Rally On Steps of
New York Public Library, Main Branch, Fifth Avenue.
Opposite HSBC New York headquarters
– Thu. Feb. 14, High Noon.
http://www.alternativebanking.nycga.net – #OWSaltbanking
http://www.facebook.com/events/145450915614113
Unindicted Bank Admitted To Money-
Laundering for Drug Cartels
We Demand Justice for Executive Criminals
& An End to “Too Big to Jail”!
Valentine’s Day Rally On Steps of
New York Public Library, Main Branch, Fifth Avenue.
Opposite HSBC New York headquarters
– Thu. Feb. 14, High Noon.
http://www.alternativebanking.nycga.net – #OWSaltbanking
http://www.facebook.com/events/145450915614113
NEW YORK CITY – “Occupy Wall Street - Alternative Banking” is calling on all local, state and federal criminal and financial authorities to pursue prosecutions of executives at HSBC responsible for the bank’s admitted record of laundering money for drug cartels and alleged terrorists.
OWS Alternative Banking is issuing the call this Thursday at noon across the street from HSBC’s New York headquarters, at a rally on the steps of the New York Public Library, Main Branch.
We will also introduce samples of our proposed new advertising campaign for “the world’s local bank” that more aptly fit HSBC’s true character as “the world’s criminal bank.” (See jpg attachments.)
This kicks off a campaign to confront HSBC and demand justice. The campaign will continue on March 4th, when HSBC is expected to issue its annual report for 2012.
In a recent settlement with the US Department of Justice, HSBC admitted to laundering billions of dollars for Mexican and Colombian drug cartels over many years. HSBC also admitted violating US sanctions regimes on Iran and on entities that the US government designates as “terrorist.”
Under the deal with DOJ, HSBC was forced to pay a $1.9 billion institutional penalty, which represents only six weeks worth of HSBC’s 2011 profits. The Justice Department agreed not to prosecute bank officials and other persons responsible for the admitted extreme criminal conduct. All executive salaries and bonuses will be paid in full – some on deferred schedules. US financial authorities also declined to pull the criminal bank’s license to operate in the US.
Reportedly, authorities feared that jailing any of the megabank’s executives or shutting down its operations would cause its collapse and set off other bank collapses. This highlights the continuing systemic danger of “Too Big To Fail,” which also means “Too Big To Jail.” Thus OWS Alternative Banking is also calling on authorities finally to break up the big banks that dominate financial markets and can act with such impunity thanks to their sheer size.
Contact:
Cathy O'Neil
Facilitator, Alternative Banking working group of OWS
cathy.oneil@gmail.com
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Additional context:
Occupy Wall Street Valentine’s Day Action Draws Attention to HSBC
OWS Alternative Banking Group points out that not to prosecute the HSBC executives responsible for money laundering to the full extent of the law diminishes the law and sends the wrong message. It creates an incentive for other banks to engage in the same criminal conduct.
Banks are being told that if they are big enough, they can commit any institutional crime without fear that personal punishments will follow, and in the confidence that institutional penalties will be minor in comparison to the profits made by breaking the law.
What message does this send to the American people, and to the world? “The war on drugs” and “the war on terror” rage on as centerpieces of US global policy.
In the United States, hundreds of thousands of people, predominantly people of color, have been imprisoned for drug offenses, often minor ones. This has destroyed the futures of countless young people and contributed to the biggest prison-industrial complex in the world.
In Mexico and Colombia, the US government supports “drug wars” in which literally thousands of people are murdered, often by the military personnel of those nations acting as death squads. In Pakistan, Yemen and other nations, US military drones bomb targeted persons – often killing their families or neighbors – on suspicion of “terrorism,” without trial or appeal.
In the US, executives at Islamic charities accused of funneling money to organizations designated as terrorist have received multiple life sentences. How is this different from HSBC’s conduct in helping to maintain the finances of drug cartels and alleged terrorists? Money laundering is absolutely essential to the business of the illegal drug trade. Furthermore, money launderers make the fattest profits out of all participants in the illegal drug trade.
Why are the banker-criminals getting a free pass? Why do we allow a two-tier justice system, with harsh punishments for minor drug offenders and rewards and impunity for the biggest offenders of all?
Therefore OWS Alternative Banking is asking for fair prosecution of the HSBC criminals and for ethical practices and staffing to replace the blatant abuse of customer money and good will. HSBC’s license to operate in the United States must be pulled.
The further message is to break up the big banks. They can no longer be considered too big too fail and allowed to commit blatant crimes of fraud and money laundering at US taxpayers’ expense.
Given the United Nations estimate of $400 billion in drug money laundered annually, it is nearly impossible that this enormous volume of dirty cash does not in large part go through the other big Wall Street and City of London banks.
“IT IS A DARK DAY FOR THE RULE OF LAW.” – New York Times, 12/11/2012
“Apparently non-violent demonstration against corrupt banking is subject to more criminal scrutiny than actual corrupt banking.” – Village Voice, 12/26/2012
See http://alternativebanking.nycga.net/201 ... t-at-noon/
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Proposed New Ad Campaign for HSBC – OWS Alternative Banking
These and more available at alternativebanking.nycga.net
These and more available at alternativebanking.nycga.net
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Cathy O'Neil wrote:
http://alternativebanking.nycga.net/201 ... t-at-noon/
[see original for many embedded links]
Occupy HSBC: Valentine’s Day protest at noon
Posted on February 11, 2013 by Cathy O'Neil
Crossposted from mathbabe.org. Opinions that of Cathy O’Neil.
Protest with #OWS Alternative Banking Group
I’m writing to invite you to a protest against mega-bank HSBC at noon on Valentine’s Day (Thursday) starting on the steps of the New York Public Library at 42nd and 5th. Details are here but it’s the big green box on the map on the Fifth Avenue side:
Why are we protesting?
Like you, I’m sure, I’d like nothing more than to stop worrying about shit that goes on in our country’s banks.
We have better things to do with out time than to get annoyed over enormous bonuses being given to idiots for their repeated failures. We’re frankly exhausted from the outrage.
I mean, the average person doesn’t have a job where they get an $11 million bonus instead of a $22 million dollar bonus when they royally screw up. Outside the surreal realm of international banking, the normal response to screw-ups on that level is to get fired.
You might expect a company that has been caught criminally screwing minorities out of fair contracts might be at risk of being closed down, but in this day and age you’d know that big banks, or TIBACO (too interconnected, big, and complex to oversee) institutions, as we in Alt Banking like to call them, are immune to such action.
There’s a clear evolving standard of treatment in the banking sector when it comes to criminal activity:
* the powers that be (SEC, DOJ, etc.) make a huge production over the severity of the fine,
* which is large in dollar amounts but
* usually represents about 10% of the overall profit the given banks made during their exploit.
* Nobody ever goes to jail, and
* the shareholders pay the fine, not the perpetrators.
* The perps get somewhat diminished bonuses. At worst.
The bottomline: we have an entire class of citizens that are immune to the laws because they are considered too important to our financial stability.
But why HSBC?
HSBC is a perfect example of this. An outrageous example.
HSBC didn’t get a bailout in 2008 like many other banks, even though they were ranked #2 in subprime mortgage lending. But that’s not because they didn’t lose money – in fact they lost $6 billion but somehow kept afloat.
And now we know why.
Namely, they were money-laundering, earning asstons by facilitating drugs and terrorism. This was blood money, make no mistake, and it went directly into the pockets of HSBC bankers in the form of bonuses.
When this years-long criminal mafia activity was discovered, nothing much happened beyond a fine, as per usual. Well, to be honest, they were fined $1.9 billion dollars, which is a lot of money, but is only 5 weeks of earnings for the mammoth institution – depending on the way you look at it, HSBC is the 2nd largest bank in the world.
Too big to jail
And that’s when “Too big to fail” became “Too big to jail.” Even the New York Times was outraged. From their editorial page:
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. They also have not charged any top HSBC banker in the case, though it boggles the mind that a bank could launder money as HSBC did without anyone in a position of authority making culpable decisions.
Clearly, the government has bought into the notion that too big to fail is too big to jail. When prosecutors choose not to prosecute to the full extent of the law in a case as egregious as this, the law itself is diminished. The deterrence that comes from the threat of criminal prosecution is weakened, if not lost.
National Threat
You may recall that there was an extensive FBI investigation of OWS before Zuccotti Park was even occupied.
As the Village Voice said, “apparently non-violent demonstration against corrupt banking is subject to more criminal scrutiny than actual corrupt banking.”
Question for you: which is the bigger national security threat back then, OWS or HSBC?
We demand
HSBC needs its license revoked, and there need to be prosecutions. Those who are guilty need to be punished or else we have an official invitation to criminal acts by bankers. We simply can’t live in a country which rewards this kind of behavior.
Mind you, this isn’t just about HSBC. This is about all the megabanks. Citi or BoA are exempt from prosecution, too. Our message needs to be “break up the megabanks”.
I’ll end with what Matt Taibbi had to say about the HSBC settlement:
On the other hand, if you are an important person, and you work for a big international bank, you won’t be prosecuted even if you launder nine billion dollars. Even if you actively collude with the people at the very top of the international narcotics trade, your punishment will be far smaller than that of the person at the very bottom of the world drug pyramid. You will be treated with more deference and sympathy than a junkie passing out on a subway car in Manhattan (using two seats of a subway car is a common prosecutable offense in this city). An international drug trafficker is a criminal and usually a murderer; the drug addict walking the street is one of his victims. But thanks to Breuer, we’re now in the business, officially, of jailing the victims and enabling the criminals.
Join us on Valentine’s Day at noon on the steps of the New York Public Library and help us Occupy HSBC. Please redistribute widely!
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