Outrageous HSBC Settlement Proves the Drug War is a Joke
If you've ever been arrested on a drug charge, if you've ever spent even a day in jail for having a stem of marijuana in your pocket or "drug paraphernalia" in your gym bag, Assistant Attorney General and longtime Bill Clinton pal Lanny Breuer has a message for you: Bite me.
Breuer this week signed off on a settlement deal with the British banking giant HSBC that is the ultimate insult to every ordinary person who's ever had his life altered by a narcotics charge. Despite the fact that HSBC admitted to laundering billions of dollars for Colombian and Mexican drug cartels (among others) and violating a host of important banking laws (from the Bank Secrecy Act to the Trading With the Enemy Act), Breuer and his Justice Department elected not to pursue criminal prosecutions of the bank, opting instead for a "record" financial settlement of $1.9 billion, which as one analyst noted is about five weeks of income for the bank.
The banks' laundering transactions were so brazen that the NSA probably could have spotted them from space. Breuer admitted that drug dealers would sometimes come to HSBC's Mexican branches and "deposit hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, in a single day, into a single account, using boxes designed to fit the precise dimensions of the teller windows."
This bears repeating: in order to more efficiently move as much illegal money as possible into the "legitimate" banking institution HSBC, drug dealers specifically designed boxes to fit through the bank's teller windows.
Lynchburg man sentenced to 33 years on cocaine charges
A Lynchburg (Virginia) man was sentenced to 33 years in prison Tuesday for nine felony drug distribution charges in what the Commonwealth’s Attorney Office described as one of the stiffest punishments in years for a city drug dealer.
Vincent Leon Dawson, 33, pleaded guilty to four counts of distribution of cocaine; two counts of distribution of cocaine in a school zone; two counts of possession of cocaine with intent to distribute; and one drug-related charge of obstruction of justice.
In Lynchburg Circuit Court on Tuesday, Judge Patrick Yeatts sentenced Dawson to 75 years in prison and suspended 42 years.
Dawson twice had been convicted of selling cocaine out of his mother’s house at 1300 16th Street in 2002 and 2007 and had served nearly eight years for those offenses, Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Chuck Felmlee said.
If you've ever been arrested on a drug charge, if you've ever spent even a day in jail for having a stem of marijuana in your pocket or "drug paraphernalia" in your gym bag, Assistant Attorney General and longtime Bill Clinton pal Lanny Breuer has a message for you: Bite me.
Breuer this week signed off on a settlement deal with the British banking giant HSBC that is the ultimate insult to every ordinary person who's ever had his life altered by a narcotics charge. Despite the fact that HSBC admitted to laundering billions of dollars for Colombian and Mexican drug cartels (among others) and violating a host of important banking laws (from the Bank Secrecy Act to the Trading With the Enemy Act), Breuer and his Justice Department elected not to pursue criminal prosecutions of the bank, opting instead for a "record" financial settlement of $1.9 billion, which as one analyst noted is about five weeks of income for the bank.
The banks' laundering transactions were so brazen that the NSA probably could have spotted them from space. Breuer admitted that drug dealers would sometimes come to HSBC's Mexican branches and "deposit hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, in a single day, into a single account, using boxes designed to fit the precise dimensions of the teller windows."
This bears repeating: in order to more efficiently move as much illegal money as possible into the "legitimate" banking institution HSBC, drug dealers specifically designed boxes to fit through the bank's teller windows.
Lynchburg man sentenced to 33 years on cocaine charges
A Lynchburg (Virginia) man was sentenced to 33 years in prison Tuesday for nine felony drug distribution charges in what the Commonwealth’s Attorney Office described as one of the stiffest punishments in years for a city drug dealer.
Vincent Leon Dawson, 33, pleaded guilty to four counts of distribution of cocaine; two counts of distribution of cocaine in a school zone; two counts of possession of cocaine with intent to distribute; and one drug-related charge of obstruction of justice.
In Lynchburg Circuit Court on Tuesday, Judge Patrick Yeatts sentenced Dawson to 75 years in prison and suspended 42 years.
Dawson twice had been convicted of selling cocaine out of his mother’s house at 1300 16th Street in 2002 and 2007 and had served nearly eight years for those offenses, Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Chuck Felmlee said.
