Posted January 20, 2015 10:04 PM ET; Last updated February 23, 2015 9:23 PM ET
HSBC was charged in 2012 with helping drug dealers launder money and with illegally completing transactions for clients in Iran, Libya, Syria and other countries under U.S. economic sanctions. Vitter said he has been in touch with a whistleblower who is a former HSBC employee.
The bank entered into a settlement agreement for $1.26 billion and paid another $665 million in penalties. Vitter concedes that the fine was "significant," but suggests criminal penalties were in order.
"If Loretta Lynch and DOJ swept under the rug serious money laundering scheme involving Mexican drug cartels and terrorist organizations, we need to know a heck of a lot more about it," Vitter said. "This is especially true since American citizens may be completely unaware that their identities -- including names and social security numbers -- were compromised in this fraud. A simple monetary fine is the equivalent of a slap on the wrist, and would cast serious doubt on Ms. Lynch's capacity to serve as our top law enforcement official."
David Vitter raises questions about attorney general nominee's handling of money laundering case in New York
NOLA.com | Times-Picayune on February 12, 2015 at 11:46 PM, updated February 13, 2015 at 9:12 AM
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[From article]
The Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday conducted a two-hour session with HSBC whistleblower John Cruz in its investigation of attorney general nominee Loretta Lynch’s role in the Obama administration’s decision not to prosecute the banking giant for laundering funds for Mexican drug cartels and Middle Eastern terrorists, WND sources have confirmed.
[. . .]
Lynch, acting then in her capacity as the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, engaged in a Department of Justice cover-up. Obama’s attorney general nominee allowed HSBC to enter into a “deferred prosecution” settlement in which the bank agreed to pay a $1.9 billion fine and admit “willful criminal conduct” in exchange for dropping criminal investigations and prosecutions of HSBC directors or employees.
[. . .]
Cruz argued that a $1.9 billion fine of an international bank the size of Hong Kong Shanghai Bank, the official name of HSBC, amounted to no more than “a few days operating profit.” He described it as “a cost of doing business” once HSBC had decided to launder money for international criminals.
[. . .]
Cruz was able to document a complex criminal scheme that involved wiring billions of dollars of money for Mexican drug cartels and Middle Eastern terrorists thorough thousands of bogus accounts created through identity theft. The scheme used the names and Social Security numbers of hundreds of unsuspecting current and former customers. It allegedly had the active participation of regional bank managers, branch managers and employees, as well as bank compliance officials at hundreds of HSBC locations throughout the nation. The money ultimately was wired by the bank to undisclosed bank accounts internationally.
[. . .]
Cruz explained that he no longer trusts even federal law enforcement to do their job investigating and prosecuting HSBC employees who may be involved in illegal bank transactions, as he alleges.
“It’s a circle,” Cruz explained. “I turn over the information to law enforcement, and law enforcement turns around and gives the information right back to the bank for the bank to conduct their own internal investigation.”
Cruz says he was fired by HSBC for bringing forth his charges.
“This is how the bank and employees in the bank make money,” he argued, explaining why he was fired instead of being given awards for meritorious service disclosing the suspicious activities. “It’s a lot easier to make money off fraudulent transactions than it is to make money off legal transactions.”
[. . .]
“The whole system is designed to be a culture of fraud to make it look like it’s a legal system. But it’s not.”
Cruz explained that after many repeated efforts, he gave up on the idea that HSBC senior management or bank security would pursue his allegations to investigate and stop the wrongdoing.
“My conclusion was that HSBC wasn’t going to do anything about this account, because HSBC management from the branch level, to senior bank security, to executive senior management was involved in the illegal activity I found,” he said.
[. . .]
“HSBC is a criminal organization,” he stressed. “It is a culture of crime.”
In 2011, Cruz published a book about his experience with HSBC, titled
“World Banking World Fraud: Using Your Identity.”
http://www.wnd.com/2015/02/hsbc-whistleblower-spills-lynch-evidence-to-senate/
HSBC WHISTLEBLOWER SPILLS LYNCH EVIDENCE TO SENATE
Massive drug, terrorism scandal ropes in Obama's AG nominee
February 18, 2015
Jerome R. Corsi
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[In addition to this new article, I received an email on February 13, 2015, with large attachments from the attorney for Mr. Slater. Actually it is from his "media team." This is a complex case with all kinds of government officials, businessmen and politicians too involved. I will add to this as I am able to understand what is going on.]
[From article]
As NRO has previously
reported, Lynch’s office appeared to have let self-professed criminals walk free in exchange for their cooperation, watched impassively as they committed further crimes, and intentionally kept the victims of those crimes in the dark — denying them their legal right to seek restitution.
In 2013, former federal judge Paul Cassell testified before the House Judiciary Committee, and encouraged them to look at how Lynch’s office had handled a stock fraud case.
That case involved Felix Sater, a convicted fraudster with ties to the mafia. Utah senator Orrin Hatch, a Republican member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, asked Lynch to respond to Cassell’s testimony. He also asked whether Lynch had complied with federal laws that ensure restitution is provided to crime victims.
In a written
response to Hatch obtained by NRO, Lynch replied that Sater’s cooperation with her office was crucial to national security, and declined to discuss the issue of restitution in his case:
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/398456/loretta-lynch-responds-reporting-allegations-she-slighted-victims-rights-ryan-lovelace
Loretta Lynch Responds to Reporting on Allegations She Slighted Victims’ Rights
By
Ryan Lovelace
February 12, 2015 11:09 AM
National Review
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[From article]
in her time in charge of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York. Lynch’s office appears to have let self-professed criminals walk free in exchange for their cooperation with her office, watched impassively as they committed further crimes, and intentionally kept the victims of those crimes in the dark — denying them their chance to seek tens or hundreds of millions of dollars in restitution in direct contravention of federal law.
[. . .]
Though he didn’t mention Lynch by name, Cassell alleged that her office had failed to comply with important provisions of the Crime Victims’ Rights Act and the Mandatory Victims Restitution Act. The provisions require federal prosecutors to notify victims of criminal proceedings against those who wronged them, so as to guarantee them their legal right to pursue full and timely restitution against the accused. According to Cassell’s testimony, the restitution in question amounted to over $40 million.
[. . .]
Felix Sater — later revealed to be the “Doe” to whom the case refers — pleaded guilty to federal money-laundering and fraud charges in a RICO case, admitting that he had artificially inflated the price of stock he bought cheaply, defrauding investors and reaping millions of dollars in profit for himself. Then Sater, who has
well-documented connections to the Mafia, apparently leveraged those connections to strike a deal.
In exchange for the government’s protection in keeping his case sealed and secret, the New York Times
reported in 2007, Sater may have worked with the CIA, offering to purchase a dozen missiles from Osama bin Laden on the black market. He also reportedly provided evidence against the Mafia. When Sater was eventually convicted in 2009, the government
argued vociferously for leniency on his behalf at sentencing, and he served no time behind bars.
[. . .]
Oberlander alleges that after the government set Sater free with a slap on the wrist, he went right back to conning unsuspecting innocents. According to Oberlander’s suit, Sater managed to build up a real-estate company, find investors, and secure funding from banks without disclosing his criminal past, and proceeded to defraud new victims of millions of dollars. Lynch then fought to keep the details of Sater’s case secret, despite having issued a
press release trumpeting his role in the crime for which he was convicted at the beginning of her first tenure as U.S. attorney.
[. . .]
Cassell, the former federal judge, tells NRO that he spoke out because he had the sense that the people involved — the prosecutors and the judge in Sater’s case — thought it was outrageous for the victims to expect that they would actually get their money back. “This case has what I would call a ‘business as usual’ feel to it, which leads me to think this is not a one-off, idiosyncratic kind of thing,” Cassell says. “It clearly looks like there’s the potential for this to be going on in a lot of other cases, and the problem of course is that since these cases are sealed, there’s no way for the victims to find out what’s happening, there’s no way for Congress to monitor how often this is being used.”
[. . .]
she may be even more dangerous than Holder because of her restrained personality, which he worries will deflect attention from some of the Justice Department’s more outrageous actions.
[. . .]
former federal prosecutor Sidney Powell. Powell sees disturbing parallels between Holder’s mishandling of the Fast and Furious scandal — in which the DOJ’s indifference allowed American guns to end up as weapons used by drug cartels against American citizens — and the conduct of Lynch’s office in looking the other way while cooperating criminals harmed more unsuspecting and innocent people.
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/396640/loretta-lynchs-secret-docket-ryan-lovelace
JANUARY 19, 2015 4:00 AM
