HSBC Bank: Trouble, Again

     Just when you thought it was safe to get back into the water......the banking industry, that is.  So, HSBC, the very large British bank headquartered in London, has been rapped with significant fines, and has come under more scrutiny for-horror of horrors- Money Laundering!  Can it be true?   Well, we know that Iran has been financially and economically crippled by sanctions imposed on it by the West, ie. the US and the ECB, and others.  We know that temptation exists in banking, with all that money floating in and out of deposits, loans, and credit cards.  So much money that it seems a shame not to take a little.  A little here, a little there, and maybe just a little more.
     HSBC bank reached a settlement with the Dept. of Justice and paid $1.9 billion because they violated sanctions against Libya, Iran, and Sudan.  HSBC admitted it failed to catch at least $881 millions of drug-trafficking proceeds laundered in its US bank and its staff stripped data from those transactions to evade those same sanctions.  Now a private client has entered the fray and a Judge in the case, Judge John Gleeson, deemed a letter written to the court is, in fact, a legitimate request to unseal the confidential agreement that includes terms and conditions of the settlement.  Both the Justice dept. and the Bank oppose the unsealing and have asked that the request be denied.  It could be some months before another decision is reached.
     Meanwhile, stay out of the banking waters, especially if those banks had big loans in the oil and gas industry.