U.S. sides with HSBC to block release of money laundering report

The U.S. government asked a federal appeals court on Thursday to block the release of a report detailing how HSBC Holdings Plc (HSBA.L) is working to improve its money laundering controls after the British bank was fined $1.92 billion. 

In a brief filed with the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the U.S. Department of Justice sought to overturn an order issued earlier this year by U.S. District Judge John Gleeson to make public a report by the bank's outside monitor.

"Public disclosure of the monitor's report, even in redacted form, would hinder the monitor's ability to supervise HSBC," the government's court filing said, adding that bank employees would be less likely to cooperate with the monitor if they knew their interactions could be released. 

 HSBC concurred with the court's finding. "HSBC also argues that the Monitor's report should remain confidential, as have the Monitor, the UK Financial Conduct Authority, the US Federal Reserve and other HSBC regulators," HSBC said in a statement. "The effectiveness of the monitorship is dependent on confidentiality."

DYI Comments:  Oh! Please! What nonsense "Public disclosure of the monitor's report, even in redacted form, would hinder the monitor's ability to supervise HSBC,"  Here we go again! Bank managers break all kind of laws and everyone walks, so much so, they are now concerned if the poor dears feelings are hurt.  Our American government desperately hungry for revenues has become part of the criminal class by scraping off a portion of ill gotten gains.  To keep the game going "NO ONE GOES TO PRISON!'

Any wonder why the British people rejected the EU?  It is my opinion there was massive voter fraud yet the vote to leave the EU won.  Most likely - my opinion - the referendum to leave somewhere along the lines of of 7 to 3!  Moving across the pond - back here in the good old USA everyday folks have become so despondent they have thrown their hands up in complete despair.

After eight years of sub atomic low interest rates and "what ever it takes" mentality including pushing short term rates to zero(negative in Europe) massive repeated QE, has done nothing more than create an environment of malinvestment that has "jacked up" financial engineering and massive private/public debt creation here AND among ALL 1st world countries!

Why was this done?  So that bankers in New York and London - by stealing from the common man of both countries - would never have to face the music:  They made bad speculation/investments - along with fraud - they are bankrupt!  

Too big to fail - then too big to exist!  It's time to bust up the top 25 banks into 5,000 to 7,500 new banks AND bring back the Glass - Steagall act separating investment banks from commercial banks.

The U.S. is now governed by a system; if you are high level politically connected, CEO of major corporations, bankers, and now unfortunately many police officers(not all) commit crimes - they are exempt from prosecution.  If this is not checked it will filter down to lower levels of our society once low enough the rule of law will cease and be replaced by the rule of the jungle!  Anarchy/civil war/civil disobedience(riots) will become the mainstay of American society if this criminal movement is not stopped.

The first lower level of criminal behavior - only in its infancy and thank God - our police departments.  Confiscation laws - written immorally - are seizing suspects cash and property WITHOUT due process of law.  Cash or prepaid debit cards are seized during traffic stops - stating this money is part of the drug trade - NO ARREST - sending the individual(s) on their marry way is becoming common.  Anyone who doesn't believe the police would "skim off the top" money for themselves is a damn fool.  Also the act itself is nothing more than grand theft!  No matter how guilty we believe this person(s) is - everyone has their day in court.

        

How Police Officers Seize Cash From Innocent Americans

On February 17, 2014, a 24-year-old college student named Charles Clarke checked a bag at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport and parked himself in a chair near the boarding gate. Having just visited relatives, he was in high spirits, and eager to return to his home in Florida. But Clarke’s day took an unexpected turn.  

Two uniformed men -- an airport police detective and a local Drug Enforcement Administration officer -- approached by Clarke and corralled him into a fluorescent backroom. His checked bag sat on a table. One of the men turned to him and grunted, “This smells like marijuana.” An extensive search ensued, which yielded no trace of drugs in Clarke’s luggage. But buried between t-shirts, in the young man’s bag, the officers discovered something of greater interest: $11,000 in cash. 

The cash, earned through five years of hard work at fast-food restaurants and retail outlets, represented Clarke’s life savings -- money he intended to use for tuition fees. But the officers didn’t buy his story. Based solely on the fact that his bag “smelled like weed,” they claimed that the $11,000 was related to drug trafficking and seized it. 

***

Under the umbrella of “civil forfeiture,” officers of the law confiscate millions of dollars in cash from thousands of individuals like Charles Clarke every year. In doing so, they need no proof that the money is obtained through illegal means. They do not need to file a criminal charge. The law flips the American justice system upside down: the burden of proving innocence is on the “suspect” -- and if he or she can’t do that, the property is fair game for officers to take.

In a 2014 investigation, The Washington Post identified 61,998 cash seizures made by federal, state, and local authorities on highways over the past decade, totalling in excess of $2.5 billion. 

$2.5 billion! 

The vast majority of the seizures were of relatively small amounts (50% were under $8,800), and due to the high costs of legal counsel, only 1 in 6 cases were challenged. 

Upon analyzing 400 of these cases more closely, The Post  found that those pulled over were predominantly Black, Hispanic, or members of another minority group. 

As The Post writes, a “thriving subculture of road officers...now competes to see who can seize the most cash and contraband.” Some officers are so good at sniffing out cash that they make a living as consultants, traveling to different agencies and “coaching” them on the best approaches to utilizing civil forfeiture. One of these men, Joe David, who runs a “stop-and-seizure” firm called Desert Snow, single-handedly brought in $427 million over a five-year period -- 25% of which his firm was permitted to keep. Eddie Ingram, an Alabama-based deputy, purports to have brought in $11 million over a similar span.

Unfortunately, authorities don’t just use civil forfeiture on traffic stops. Until recently, the IRS and Department of Justice also seized property due to violations of an arcane “structuring” law. Federal law requires that individuals report bank transactions over $10,000; if large amounts less than that are deposited in separate chunks, the government assumes the account holder is trying to intentionally evade the law. 

Terry Dehko, the owner of a small supermarket in Fraser, Michigan, learned this the hard way. After making several consecutive deposits between $5-8,000 in cash, the government “cleared out” his bank account -- more than $35,000 -- without offering any warning or explanation.

DYI Continues:  The list has become endless as bankers are fined - repeatedly - politically connected such as Hillary's email and their slush fund foundation - CEO's committing securities and other fraudulent activities - legalizing immoral seizure laws corrupting our police departments.  Yet no one goes to prison.  If not stopped withing 20 to 30 years America will end up being a second world rated country along the likes of Brazil or Argentina!

DYI