Cayman Islands has SHUT DOWN HSBC (revoked their license)!

[elehhhhna]

Tell me AGAIN why WE did NOTHING? Because when Cayman revokes your banking licencse, you KNOW you suck, bad...

CIMA revokes HSBC Mexico licence

Posted date: March 08, 2013In: Business| comment : 0



CIMA has shut down HSBC Mexico (Cayman) operations.

The Cayman Islands Monetary Authority has officially revoked the banking license of HSBC S.A. (Cayman Islands Branch).

In a press release dated Friday, 1 March, the authority said that since last July the said bank had been under investigation to establish whether they had breached any local laws and regulations.

“In the Decision notice of 27 February, the CIMA revoked the Category B Banking license.

Following Section 18 (1) ( i) of the Banks and Trust Companies Law (2009 Revision), CIMA concluded that HSBC was conducting business in a manner detrimental to the public interest, the interest of depositors or of the beneficiaries of any trust or other creditors and that the direction and management of its businesses has not been conducted in a fit and proper manner,” read the announcement.

http://caymannetnews.com/2013/03/08/cima-revokes-hsbc-mexico-licence/

[hobbit709]

1. i.e. They got caught and it makes us look bad.

[HiPointDem]

2. i'd suspect the caymans didn't do it on their own accord, but because of pressure from elsewhere.

i'm interested in why hsbc is being targeted specifically though.

[HiPointDem]

4. yes, but i'm pretty sure they're not unique.

[cstanleytech]

26. The DOJ, congress, senate, current and past presidents who let them happen should all be ashamed. nt

[elehhhhna]

6. certainly wasn't pressure from US

and HSBC's acknowledged guilt in laundering drug $ is the reason -

[HiPointDem]

14. and as i said, they're not unique in that respect.

[atreides1]

5. Why we did nothing?

From another thread:

"The reality is, of course, that Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence David Cohen has a few covert reason to be soft on HSBC having worked for the same law firm that HSBC’s current Chief Legal Officer Stuart Levey worked for – Miller, Cassidy, Larroca & Lewin LLP. One big happy family. What’s a little drug money laundering among colleagues? I am sure Mr. Cohen was dying to really punish HSBC regardless of the consequences to future career prospects."

That's why we do nothing, because the "regulators" who are responsible for doing the job, are more concerned with their future employment!

[elehhhhna]

7. funny, i thought we had a President and and Attorney General on staff

here in the US.

[progressoid]

9. Oh that IS funny!

[Judi Lynn]

42. What an image! Wow. Thanks. n/t

[99th_Monkey]

19. At what point will DU itself swing into full alignment with the obvious fact

that the Democratic party itself, including the WH, are really "only for show",
except that Obama can away with doing shit that Romney never could have,
like Nixon could go to China, when a Democrat wouldn't have dared.

[cheapdate]

35. "Obama can away with doing shit that Romney never could have"

I don't think so. What exactly do you imagine Romney would feel he was constrained by? Public pressure? Hand-wringing on DU? His inherent sense of right and wrong?

No, obviously all of that is ludicrous. Romney would have acted with an absolute belief in his privilege and without a shred of conscience. If you think otherwise, that unlike Barack Obama, Romney would listen to your heartfelt pleas and be moved to tears, then you have no real idea of how he thinks.

[99th_Monkey]

45. Please don't put words in my mouth

I have no love for Mr. RawMoney, that was not my point at all.

I'm proud to have voted for Obama silly. Twice.

But if you think Mittens could had eked out a win, and could go on to pass the NDAA,
launch drone wars, have kill lists, insist he could summarily assassinate American
citizens, with no trial, even on American soil, militarize the domestic police, achieve
100% saturation surveillance and wiretapping of the populous w/ a central data collection
center, etc. and do all that over the objection of a united Democratic party + the
libertarian GOP defectors, raising holy hell and stopping it in it's tracks, then we
simply disagree on that point, which is fine.

But lets be clear on what our disagreement is, rather than obscuring the conversation
with hyperbolic nonsense.

[cheapdate]

46. "...obscuring the conversation with hyperbolic nonsense."

You made some kind of argument that if Mitt Romney had been elected president that it would have been impossible for him to "get away" with "doing shit" -- which within the context of this discussion at the time, the only point of reference for "doing shit" was in regards to the oversight, regulation and enforcement of banking law.

Now you've shifted the argument to drones, wiretapping, and other matters not related to the OP -- wondering whether a hypothetical president Romney would have been presented with and then signed the 2011 NDAA? (yes); continued the wiretapping program begun by George W. Bush in his first term? (yes); continued to target enemies with drones? (yes).

Nice move. You're still wrong.

(on edit: let me get this straight. You're arguing that under a hypothetical Mitt Romney presidency, president Romney would have obviously been forced by a Democratic-Libertarian coalition to (1) order a halt to the use of armed drones (2) order a halt to all questionable NSA wiretapping activity (3) order a halt to all activity perceived as "militarizing" the police. Is that right? Is that what you're suggesting?)

[99th_Monkey]

47. Like I said, we simply disagree

I admit that my initial comment was perhaps a wee bit over-stated, just
to make the point, but there also is a significant degree of truth to it, and
I stand by it as such.

Game over. Thanks for playing.

[cheapdate]

48. Mitt Romeny would have been tougher on banks

than Obama and wouldn't have put industry insiders in regulatory and enforcement positions. Yeah, we disagree.

[KamaAina]

24. Well, we do have a Senator from Massachusetts

[Judi Lynn]

43. We can all be sure they are watching her night and day, hoping to ruin her

so they can get rid of her at the first moment possible, and if they don't ever find anything you can be sure they are sure as hell going to try to manufacture something anyway, even if it means videotaping her, then manipulating the video to misrepresent her, as they did with ACORN.

She is so far above them it must be driving them insane.

[Baitball Blogger]

8. That's pretty bad.

[The Magistrate]

10. Damn, Ma'am --- Nice To See

Who would expect a mail drop to rear upon its hind legs and act like a nation, a state with a government?

Hong Kong Shanghai Bank has been a criminal enterprise from its very beginning....

[elehhhhna]

11. Their economy is based on banking and tourism, and if they let the banks

go way crazy, they'll be hurt. Tourism doesn't pay the bills - and Cayman's hurting. Their $ is valued based on the value of the USD, and our financial meltdown has caused them pain.

It's a lovely country with mostly nice people and the best snorkelling anywhere...at least until Cuba opens to US tourism....

[JI7]

13. could the problem be when most americans and maybe others think

of cayman islands they think of corrupt wealthy types who use it to avoid taxes and get away with illegal activity instead of the beaches and a place for vacation.

[elehhhhna]

15. Lots of this activity happens in various British crown colonies (or

whatever ya call them) - Isle of Man, Bermuda, Guernsey (sp?) ... oughta be a law, huh?

Also not-British - Panama, Switzerland, (I think Switz. has been de-fanged, though). There are lots of banks on GC but the multinationals are mostly PO boxes. There are like 4,000 compnaies and banks registered to thei building:

[malaise]

30. And yet they never allowed Stanford into Montserrat

Look anything that goes on in those British islands is sanctioned from London

[elehhhhna]

49. I thought Monserrat was a French colony

or whateveryoucallit.

What is it called, anyway? You're in Jamaica, yes? & What do you know about Cayman - I know lots of Jamaican nationals work there. Hear anything interesting? Tell all!!!!

[malaise]

52. Montserrat is a British territory

It has very interesting Irish links. By the way there is an active volcano and most of the population left.
Cayman has made it very difficult for Jamaicans to work there - insisting on visas.
Their British governor forced the resignation of the Premier (one Bush) there last year supposedly over corruption. Only British corruption is allowed.

[jsr]

12. It's just the tip of the iceberg.

[MynameisBlarney]

16. This...

is a big fucking deal!

[elehhhhna]

18. not in the US media it ain't

so, it ain't

[MynameisBlarney]

21. Not yet

hopefully, it will gain steam. Maybe Rachel Maddow will jump all over this.

[freshwest]

28. If she goes with these events it will be very interesting:

Last edited Sat Mar 9, 2013, 01:27 AM - Edit history (1)

Drug money and terrorist laundering

In October 2010, the United States OCC issued a Cease and Desist Order requiring HSBC to strengthen multiple aspects of its Anti-Money Laundering (AML) program. The identified problems included a once massive backlog of over 17,000 alerts identifying suspicious activity, failure to file timely suspicious activity reports with U.S. law enforcement, failure to conduct any due diligence to assess risks to HSBC affiliates before opening correspondent accounts for them, a three year failure by HBUS from mid-2006 to mid-2009 to conduct any AML of $15 billion in bulk cash transactions from those same HSBC affiliates, poor procedures for assigning country and client risk, failure to monitor $60 trillion in annual wire transfers by customers in countries rated lower risk by HBUS, and inadequate and unqualified AML staffing, resources, and leadership. It was noted that HSBC fully cooperated with the Senate investigation.[90]

In November 2012 it was reported that HSBC had set up offshore accounts in Jersey for suspected drug-dealers and other criminals, and that HM Revenue and Customs had launched an investigation following a whistleblower leaking details of £700 million allegedly held in HSBC accounts in the Crown dependency .[91]

In December 2012, HSBC was penalized $1.9 billion (US), the largest fine under the Bank Secrecy Act, for violating four U.S. laws designed to protect the U.S. financial system.[92] HSBC had allegedly laundered at least $881 million in drugs proceeds through the U.S. financial system for international cartels, as well as processing an additional $660 million for banks in US sanctioned countries. According to the report, "The U.S. bank subsidiary [also] failed to monitor more than $670 billion in wire transfers and more than $9.4 billion in purchases of physical dollars from its Mexico unit."[92]

HSBC has also been accused of laundering money for terrorist groups.[93][94] A Feb. 2013 article in Rolling Stone magazine stated that, "In this case, the bank literally got away with murder – well, aiding and abetting it, anyway."[95]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HSBC#Drug_money_and_terrorist_laundering

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/gangster-bankers-too-big-to-jail-20130214

The Obama took actions from October 2010 through December 2012 that didn't make media headlines. It seems like it took a while for this to get reported. It's no wonder that so much money was spent to defeat him and other Democrats - some of these players who are both domestic and foreign actors - saw the writing on the wall.

The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation

The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited is a prominent bank established and based in Hong Kong since 1865 when Hong Kong was a colony of the British Empire. It is the founding member of the HSBC Group and since 1990 is now a wholly owned subsidiary of HSBC Holdings plc.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hongkong_and_Shanghai_Banking_Corporation

There is a lot of history in this institution. Who knows, this may eventually reach back in time to the Iran - Contra and the CIA - Vietnam stories and others that have been percolating through the years, although it's certain that a lot of clean money is involved, as well. That money came from somewhere - the fruits of Empire, or regular or criminal activities. Money doesn't care where it came from. What a time this is, to see these changes unfolding before our eyes.

[MynameisBlarney]

31. Damn

this is kinda scary...like the whole "people could end up disappearing and/or dying in mysterious plane and/or car crashes" kinda scary!

This is heavy fucking shit.

Fuuuuuuuuck.

I really hope there are some good and honest people left in our govt. that will protect those going after these criminals.

[freshwest]

32. Lot of that, think Steve Kangas, Barry Seal. I emboldened the figures. Enough money to kill over.

Last edited Sat Mar 9, 2013, 02:44 PM - Edit history (1)

The old saying is the oldest businesses in the world are sex, drugs and arms. It's how criminal elements make fortunes to buy up assets. Look at the history of the British in China, the Boxer Rebellion. IDK well enough to say with certainty, but some say it was about forcing the Chinese to take opium in trade, that the Empire was getting from the Near East or Middle East, some other place.

Cartels have had a strong presence in Latin America. Mexico is under their boot. There is nothing democratic about any of this but it is enormous power. Consider Iran - Contra, you have two of those there involved. Just with Seal:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_Seal

Look at all the places in the references. It's what goes on outside of government and has existed before and after them. Afghanistan and Iran and so many other countries - drugs and arms. They are in the human trafficking business, whether it be women, children, men or all for slave labor. The underbelly of all of this is horrific. But when the profits come to the first world, pirates live like kings.

We do have good and honest people who go after this... but if their names are published, they are dead. Most of us are simply not cut out for this kind of thing. I wouldn't want the job, myself.

We are living in a time of disclosure that is coming from many places. Many bad actors are being revealed. So many... so much money involved. I would not like to be holding the reins riding this dragon.

[dreamnightwind]

33. Iran-Contra bank...

Banco Nationale Del Lavorro in Italy was in the thick of Iran-Contra, and also was of interest shortly before the start of the first Iraq war.

[99th_Monkey]

17. The USA Gov't is becoming more & more a transparently criminal tool of the Wall St. titans. nt

[elehhhhna]

20. yep. hijacked.

[whistler162]

22. First Meta now HSBC oh where will it end!

[Samantha]

25. Too funny (nt)

[yellerpup]

23. Too big to charge here

But not too big in the Cayman Islands! and

[xtraxritical]

40. Maybe now that they've lost their Cayman Is. immunity E. Holder will jump their shark?

[MannyGoldstein]

27. They're worried about what happens when Senator Warren becomes President, and

has unlimited power to preemptively turn anyone, anywhere, any time, into Freedom Mist™ without judicial meddling thanks to the Bush/Obama doctrine.

The handwriting is on the wall.

[Hotler]

44. "Freedom Mist" Has a nice ring to it. n/t

[Octafish]

29. Gee. Wouldn't it be great if the U.S. Government thought corrupt banks should be shut down, too?

Not that there'd be many left open, but we could nationalize the survivors and make the banks serve the people instead of the banksters, narco kingpins, warmongers and the BFEE.

[OnyxCollie]

34. K&R. nt

[judesedit]

36. Total drug money laundering and tax evasion

[WillyT]

37. K & R !!!

[dipsydoodle]

38. Seems to have been just a gesture by the Cayman Islands.

There was no actual office there nor staff.

Had probably already become defunct as a "branch" into which funds were transferred and then transferred out prior to last year's settlements by HSBC.

[L0oniX]

39. Woops ...forgot to pay the guvna again. n/t

[adieu]

41. And this is why

in 2008, I voted for Dennis Kucinich. I felt that he had (has) the gumption to go toe-to-toe with the mega rich cartels and stop them fully. I didn't think Obama had the experience or the skills or the desire to do so. The war wasn't with the Taliban or Afghanistan or Iraq. Kucinich would have ended the war on day one with an immediate withdrawal. He would then have concentrated on destroying the uber-powerful.

That's why I voted for him.

Obama's greatest asset is his hope and change and being the first non all-white president. I think that was an important stepping stone for America. Someone had to be the Jackie Robinson and it had to be done. But keeping the Geithners and the Bernankes in place allowed the crooks to continue their dirty deeds.

[Initech]

50. HSBC has committed terrorism and treason.

If we serious about the war on terror, HSBC should be branded enemies of the state and every executive involved in committing these crimes should be arrested and have their assets seized by both the US and Mexican governments. They cannot get away with this.

[BlueStreak]

51. Just how crooked does a bank have to be to get kicked out of the Caymans?

Oh well, they can always just operate anywhere in the USA at their leisure, certain of minimal oversight.

Kenya's elections are cleaner than ours and the Cayman's banking regulation is tighter than ours.

We are officially a banana republic now.