HSBC Crimes Are the Whole System; Remember Costa’s Revelations

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In December 2009, Antonio Maria Costa, who served from 2002 to 2010 as an Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations in positions as both the Executive Director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and Director-General of the UN Office in Vienna (UNOV), exposed that drug money became the main source of liquidity for banks after the 2008 explosion of the financial system.

Earlier, Costa had exposed the unprecedented rise of opium and heroin production in Afghanistan during the British and US invasion and occupation there–especially the British occupation of the opium-producing Helmand province. Costa also repeatedly identified that the Taliban and Al Qaeda were using the opium/heroin trade as a major source of funding.

As the investigations spread into HSBC, it is important to recall Costa’s revelations, made in an exclusive 2012 interview with EIR and earlier in interviews with the London Observer. On Dec. 12, 2009, Observer reporter Rajeev Syal, wrote:

“Drug money saved banks in global crisis, claims UN advisor on drugs and crime chief; says $352bn in criminal proceeds was effectively laundered by financial institutions.
“Drugs money worth billions of dollars kept the financial system afloat at the height of the global crisis, the United Nations’ drugs and crime tsar has told the Observer.

Antonio Maria Costa, head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, said he has seen evidence that the proceeds of organised crime were ‘the only liquid investment capital’ available to some banks on the brink of collapse last year. He said that a majority of the $352bn (£216bn) of drugs profits was absorbed into the economic system as a result….

“Speaking from his office in Vienna, Costa said evidence that illegal money was being absorbed into the financial system was first drawn to his attention by intelligence agencies and prosecutors around 18 months ago. ‘In many instances, the money from drugs was the only liquid investment capital,'” he said.

In April, 2012, EIR published an interview with Costa where he also exposed the cover-up of the banks’ crimes. Costa told EIR:

“The 2008 financial crisis, still unfolding, hit the entire trans-Atlantic banking sector…The illiquidity associated with the banking crisis, the reluctance of banks to lend money to one another, and so on and so forth, offered a golden opportunity to criminal institutions which had developed huge financial power, money which was liquid because it could not be recycled through the banking system in earlier years.

At this point in time, we’re talking about the 2008-11 period, the need for cash by the banking sector and the liquidity of organized crime created an extraordinary opportunity for a marriage of convenience, namely, for organized crime to penetrate the banking sector.”

He singled out the case of Wachovia Bank (now the Wells Fargo megabank), saying,

“According to the U.S. Justice Department, Wachovia recycled $480 million over a period of three years. That was the most dramatic case, although there are similar cases…. The tragedy of the Wachovia case is that those who were responsible for the recycling of Mexican drug money were let go without any retribution….

“The penetration of the financial sector by criminal money has been so widespread that it would probably be more correct to say that it was not the mafia trying to penetrate the banking system, but it was the banking sector which was actively looking for capital–including criminal money–not only as deposits, but also as share acquisitions and in some cases, as a presence on Boards of Directors.”

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