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A comment on Outrageous HSBC Settlement Proves the Drug War is a Joke. Parent comment

Re: Outrageous HSBC Settlement Proves the Drug War is a Joke by justincormack on Monday December 23, 2013 @10:38AM (#6954753)
Starting in the first para http://www.justice.gov/opa/documents/hsbc/dpa-attachment-a.p..., the DOJ says they have violated the Bank Secrecy Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_Secrecy_Act which has punishments including imprisonment.
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Re: Outrageous HSBC Settlement Proves the Drug War is a Joke by cynicalkane on Monday December 23, 2013 @11:00AM (#6954877)
The Bank Secrecy act encapsulates hundreds of pages of law and regulations. Which part are you talking about?

You can't just link a law and say "it says somewhere here someone can go to prison for some reason, so I'm sure that bank executives should go to prison." The Wikipedia article's blurb about prison does not seem to cover HSBC's conduct, but it's also hopelessly vague.

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Re: Outrageous HSBC Settlement Proves the Drug War is a Joke by mattdeboard on Monday December 23, 2013 @11:26AM (#6955021)
The DOJ themselves said HSBC is in violation, therefore the point is made without the need for us lay readers to know the exact part.
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Re: Outrageous HSBC Settlement Proves the Drug War is a Joke by cynicalkane on Monday December 23, 2013 @01:05PM (#6955569)
???

The Bank Secrecy Act carries with it an enormous amount of different regulations and different laws and different penalties. The exact part is what you need to make your "point". If you can't produce it, no point has been made.

The DOJ hasn't bothered to produce any reason to throw executives in jail, and I bet you can't either. Blithe self-righteousness is not a reason. A vague reference to a multi-hundred-page set of laws and regulations is not a reason.

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Re: Outrageous HSBC Settlement Proves the Drug War is a Joke by moocowduckquack on Monday December 23, 2013 @05:30PM (#6956972)
The DOJ hasn't bothered to produce any reason to throw executives in jail

New York State Penal Law Sections 175.05 and 175.10

edit - 175.10, which HSBC have admitted guilt to, is a class E felony in NY, which apparently has sentencing guidelines of up to four years in prison with a minimum of one year.

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Re: Outrageous HSBC Settlement Proves the Drug War is a Joke by mattdeboard on Monday December 23, 2013 @01:42PM (#6955794)
Ok, thanks for participating in our conversation
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Re: Outrageous HSBC Settlement Proves the Drug War is a Joke by tsotha on Monday December 23, 2013 @02:47PM (#6956151)
That could be real or it could be posturing. That's why we have a court system - to hash these kinds of things out.

It's not at all uncommon for prosecutors to say things like that and then not file charges because they know they can't get a conviction.

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Re: Outrageous HSBC Settlement Proves the Drug War is a Joke by justincormack on Monday December 23, 2013 @01:33PM (#6955735)
I am busy right now coding to go through in detail, but here [1] is an example of someone who was imprisoned under the BSA for "conspiring to fail to file currency transaction reports and failing to have effective AML and compliance programs", which certainly applies to HSBC.

[1] http://compliance.saiglobal.com/community/news/item/4420-che...

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