Page 153 - Articles Written by JGJ EF DPS

By contrast, according to the FT (11), “other countries might never fully
break even, thus having to deal with the consequences of higher public
debt for years to come.

While the US has had success with financial punishment, it is lagging
behind other countries on the legal side of things. According to an
analysis by US law enforcement agency Sigtarp, US prosecutors have
convicted 324 individuals of crimes linked to the crisis. But not a single
Wall Street CEO is among them. Instead, they come from Main Street:
mortgage lenders, loan officers, real estate brokers and developers,
among others. US authorities have said this is due to lack of evidence,
not effort.”

By contrast, Iceland, has prosecuted executives of three large banks as
well as 23 other bankers. Whilst in June 2017, the UK announced
charges against Barclay's John Varley former CEO, and three other
executives.

In October 2017 the UK financial regulators and the Serious Fraud
Office announced they were to review if banks HSBC and Standard
Chartered were linked to a South Africa corruption scandal. Lord Peter
Hain told Parliament that the banks may "inadvertently have been
conduits" for up to £400 million of laundered money siphoned out of the
country via Hong Kong and Dubai.

Lord Hain said he was not accusing British banks of complicity in

money-laundering but wanted them to help recoup any funds that have
left the country by illicit means saying:

"That is a major breach of FCA [Financial Conduct Authority] practice,
which I am sure you would never countenance, and is an incitement to
money laundering, which has self-evidently occurred in this case and
also been sanctioned by HSBC as part of [the] flagrant robbery of South
African taxpayers of many millions,"(14)