On 11 December 2012 the US Department of Justice announced that HSBC Holdings plc and HSBC Bank USA N.A. had agreed to forfeit $1.256 billion and enter a deferred prosecution agreement. With penalties from other US authorities, the package totalled about $1.92 billion. Reuters described it as a record.
A four-count felony criminal information filed in the Eastern District of New York charged HSBC with, among other things, wilfully failing to maintain an effective anti-money-laundering programme. The DOJ said the failures let at least $881 million in drug-trafficking proceeds, including money from Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel and Colombia’s Norte del Valle cartel, be laundered through HSBC Bank USA and HSBC Mexico.
The DOJ also said that from at least 2006 to 2009 HSBC Bank USA rated Mexico as “standard” risk, its lowest anti-money-laundering risk category. Separately, it said HSBC’s wilful flouting of US sanctions led to hundreds of millions of dollars of transactions prohibited by the Office of Foreign Assets Control being processed.
HSBC agreed to an independent compliance monitor. In December 2017 HSBC said the five-year agreement had expired, and the Justice Department moved to dismiss the charges. No HSBC entity was convicted.
HSBC’s position
HSBC accepted responsibility and acknowledged its anti-money-laundering programme had failed. It said in December 2017 that the agreement had expired.
The evidence
4 sources- Exhibit AHSBC Holdings Plc and HSBC Bank USA N.A. Admit Anti-Money Laundering and Sanctions ViolationsUS Department of Justice · 11 December 2012 · justice.govOfficial record
- Exhibit BHSBC to Pay Record $1.9 Billion U.S. Fine to Settle Money Laundering CaseReuters via Insurance Journal · 11 December 2012 · insurancejournal.com
- Exhibit CExpiration of 2012 Deferred Prosecution AgreementHSBC Holdings plc · 11 December 2017 · hsbc.comOfficial record
- Exhibit DHSBC draws line under Mexican cartel case after five years on probationReuters via Business Standard · 12 December 2017 · business-standard.com
Last checked 2 November 2026. Something wrong or out of date? Tell us and we’ll correct it.