1 Timothy 6:9,10 But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
British Bank HSBC has been found guilty of “dangerous practices” that allowed drug kingpins and nations that fund terrorism to funnel their money. A US Senate investigation found the bank had been laundering money for many years for nations like Iran in violation of US and UK policies.
The bank agreed to pay a fine of $1.9 billion dollars and admitted having “poor money laundering controls.”
The bank was found to have provided US dollars to banks in Saudi Arabia that had links to terrorist organizations, to have ignored US rules aimed to stop drug lords from making transactions in over 25,000 transactions and clearing hundreds of millions in “obviously suspicious” US travellers checks for a Japanese bank benefiting Russians.
HSBC has appointed a former US government official to be the “head of financial crime compliance” in an attempt to avoid future problems.
While $1.9 billion is the largest fine ever filed on the bank, it’s only 10% of the bank’s pre-tax profits for the first six months of 2012.
