Financial Transparency Coalition

Reuters Financial Blogger Felix Salmon today defended the decision by the United States to not prosecute individuals at HSBC for money laundering violations.

HSBC Bank USA N.A. and HSBC Bank Holdings plc, its parent company, agreed to forfeiture and penalties of a little more than $1.9 billion dollars for systemic and willful violations of U.S. anti-money laundering and foreign sanctions laws. This penalty is making headlines in the press as the largest fine ever imposed on a bank, but we note that not one person is being prosecuted in this case. $1.9 billion may sounds like a lot, but does the penalty fit the crime? We have decided that you should be able to make an informed judgment about that...

In late November of this year, authorities found the body of Maria, a woman in her early 20s, outside an armored van along a mountainous road in northwestern Mexico. In February, Maria Susana Flores Gámez won the 2012 Woman of Sinaloa beauty pageant. She also became involved with the Sinaloa drug Cartel. Maria died in a shootout between the gang and the police in those mountains with a gun in her hand. She was riddled with bullets because someone had used her body as a human shield. Maria was the fourth known beauty queen to get involved with Mexican drug...

This is shocking, if not surprising. How no one at HSBC will go to jail.