Too Big to Jail

Across the world, HSBC likes to sell itself as the worlds local bank, the friendly face of corporate and personal finance. And yet, a decade ago, the same bank was hit with a record US fine of $1.9 billion for facilitating money laundering for drug kingpins and rogue nations. In pursuit of their goal of becoming the biggest bank in the world, between 2003 to 2010, HSBC allowed El Chapo and the Sinaloa cartel, one of the most notorious and murderous criminal organizations in the world, to turn its ill-gotten money into clean dollars and thereby grow one of the deadliest drugs empires the world has ever seen. Just how did the worlds local bank find itself enabling Mexicos leading drugs cartel, and the biggest drugs trafficking organization in the world, to launder cash through the banks branch network and systems? How did a bank, which boasts were committed to helping protect the worlds financial system on which millions of people depend, by only doing business