HSBC was a hotspot for Mexican drug traffickers trying to launder the proceeds of their illicit U.S. sales during the 2000s, as suggested by a Senate report released in July and verified by a deferred prosecution agreement announced by the Justice Department on Tuesday. But now that the British banking giant has been forced to take steps to clean up its anti-money laundering act, Mexican cartels are making moves that may mean more risk for other banks, sources said.
Eager to move cash through the teller windows of HSBC's Mexico unit in the largest amounts possible — sometimes as much as hundreds of thousands of dollars per day — drug traffickers designed specially shaped boxes, a document released by the Justice Department on Tuesday states. Once the cash was in HSBC accounts, brokers wired it to exporters in New York City and elsewhere in the United States as payment for goods destined for Colombian businesses, according to a"statement of facts" that was filed in federal court in Brooklyn
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