Beyond Ethics Accounting 557

Beyond Ethics

ETERNITY LIVE

Strayer University

ACC557

[ July 28, 2013 ]

Professor Good Guy

Beyond Ethics, beyond integrity, and oblivious to justice

Beyond ethics, beyond integrity, and oblivious to justice. London's HSBC bank may be considered untouchable. In several articles, online journals, and radio news shows they all reported that HSBC will have to pay a fine of 1.9 billion dollars in settlements for its role in money-laundering and violating the Bank Secrecy Act, Trading with the Enemy Act, and other U.S. laws intended to prohibit money laundering. We already know the obvious reasons or at least the outer layers of the truth. But what if there's corruption that is so deep that it has infiltrated the very parts of our government that upholds the laws.

In another article from the New York Times they state that "HSBC was thrust into the spotlight after a Congressional committee outlined how the bank, between 2001 and 2010, “exposed the U.S. financial system to money laundering and terrorist financing risks.” The Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations held another hearing at which the bank’s compliance chief resigned amid mounting concerns that senior bank officials were complicit in the illegal activity. For example, an HSBC executive at one point argued that the bank should continue working with the Saudi Al Rajhi bank, which has supported Al Qaeda, according to a congressional report. In addition In 2010, the regulators found that HSBC had severe deficiencies in its anti-money laundering controls, including $60 trillion in transactions and 17,000 accounts flagged as potentially suspicious, activities that were not reviewed. Despite the findings, the regulator did not fine the bank [ (Silver-Greenberg, HSBC to Pay $1.92 Billion to Settle Charges of Money Laundering, 2012) ].

According to an article from USA Today they stated that HSBC shares were up 0.5% to $51.82 in afternoon trading Tuesday. The shares also traded higher in...