pbs高端访谈:汇丰银行沦为洗钱工具

 　　JUDY WOODRUFF:Now: The U.S. government brings its highest profile case yet of international money laundering² against one of the world's biggest banks.

　　For years, American officials have sought and sometimes struggled to crack down on the practices. Today, the Departments of Justice and Treasury³ announced a settlement with HSBC.

　　The bank agreed to pay almost $2 billion in fines and penalties. It was charged with violating sanctions laws by conducting business with customers in Iran, Sudan, and Cuba. It was also party to helping⁴ them launder¹ almost $900 million for Mexican drug cartels.

　　At a news conference in New York City, U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch described some of the practices at one of the bank's Mexican units.

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　　LORETTA LYNCH,U.S. attorney: The investigation⁵ revealed that staggering amounts of cash, hundreds of thousands of U.S. dollars daily, were being deposited into HSBC Mexico using boxes especially made to fit through their tellers⁶' windows to speed the transactions.

　　Indeed, it was reported to one HSBC official that HSBC Mexico had received the ring endorsement⁷ of money launderers as the place to launder money.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF:Devlin Barrett is covering this story for The Wall Street Journal, and he has more details for us now.

　　So, thank you for joining us.

　　How much money was involved, and what are some other examples of what was going on, beside this box that fit through the tellers' window?

　　DEVLIN BARRETT, The Wall Street Journal: Well, the $800 million or so you mentioned is what they know was essentially⁸ laundered⁹ drug proceeds.

　　But there's actually vast pools of billion of dollars of money where the bank just wasn't paying attention and wasn't checking sort of the basic principle of know your customer.

　　And, personally, one of my favorite little tidbits in this whole case is, there was a sequence of transactions in a bank in Japan in which they brought sequentially numbered traveler's checks into this one little bank in Japan totaling $290 million.

　　And no one seemed to have any idea where it was coming from. It all traced back to a guy in Russia who claimed to be a used car salesman. And no one asked any questions.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF:A used car salesman?

　　DEVLIN BARRETT:A used car salesman with $290 million in sequentially numbered traveler's checks.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF:But isn't there supposed to be internal monitoring going on inside a bank?

　　DEVLIN BARRETT:Right.

　　The basic principle is called know your customer. And since 9/11 and since a whole bunch of other money laundering issues have surfaced, the U.S. government has really tried to make the banks tighter and more careful in terms of who they're doing business with, who they're moving money for.

　　And what seems to have happened repeatedly, according to the investigators¹⁰ in the HSBC case, is no one was asking questions.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF:Now, it was clear that the investigation on the part of the government has been going on for several years. What brought all this to light? How did it surface?

　　DEVLIN BARRETT:It actually started in 2007 with an operation called El Dorado in New York that was looking at suspiciously large movements of money between New York and Mexico.

　　And as they moved through that, they kept looking and kept opening doors and, frankly¹¹, and finding new problems.

　　For example, at one point, they realized that the bank branch in Mexico had a location in the Cayman Islands where there on paper $2.1 billion worth of accounts for tens of thousands of customers. That branch had no staff and had no office. And no one knew really who that money belonged to.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF:And the culpability¹² inside HSBC, Devlin Barrett, is there—is it known who knew and how high it went?

　　DEVLIN BARRETT:Part of why the settlement was so large is because there was an electronic trail of all the internal warnings that went on.

　　At one point, one compliance¹³ officer claimed, what is this, the school of low expectations banking¹⁴? We know how this movie ends, and it ends badly. And those warnings kept going up. And they kept getting ignored. That's what the electronic records show. And since this whole thing has come to light, a lot of the senior leadership has changed out.

　　And there are new people in place. And they have hired some pretty senior former U.S. anti-money laundering officials to try and get their systems correct.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF:The penalty sounds big, almost $2 billion. But I listened to some of the news conference today. Reporters were asking, wait a minute. Is this really a painful penalty for a bank that deals in so much money?

　　DEVLIN BARRETT:Right. And that's a recurring¹⁵ question in all these cases.

　　On the one hand, they have hit this bank harder than they have ever hit any bank for this type of violation¹⁶.

　　On the other hand, the bank is making, I believe, north of $10 billion according to—in the last year. And so $2 billion is not going to cripple them, by any means, but I do think that this is a hit for them.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF:And what about—you and I were just talking about, this is a criminal investigation. No one is going to jail.

　　DEVLIN BARRETT:Right. And this is the other issue that comes up in the public mind, because since the financial meltdown, the constant complaint you hear is no one important has paid for doing anything truly criminal.

　　And that issue has been raised again in this case. And, essentially, the problem with making this a criminal case is, one, you lose the certainty of the decision. If you take it to a judge and a jury, there's always uncertainty¹⁷ in that. And you may not get $1.9 billion. You may have some strange things happen to you.

　　The other issue becomes, the government has made settlements with a bunch of other banks for this type of conduct. You would have to be able to make a coherent and fair argument that, even though HSBC has cooperated for years at this point with this investigation, that they still deserve to be indicted¹⁸. And I think that's a tougher argument to make, given their track record with these other banks.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF:And, finally, a sense that this is the tip of the iceberg¹⁹, that they have gotten to the bottom of this as a practice?

　　DEVLIN BARRETT:I think the draw—there's so much money that wants to move either illegally or illicitly²⁰ in the financial system that there's always going to be, if not a temptation, then the ability to help this money move.

　　But I do think that, with HSBC, you see a really big chunk²¹ of the iceberg and maybe the last big chunk for a while.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF:Devlin Barrett with The Wall Street Journal, thank you very much.

　　DEVLIN BARRETT:Thanks, Judy.

1 launder   

v.洗涤；洗黑钱（把来路可疑的钱弄得似乎合法）

参考例句：

• She wore a freshly laundered and starched white shirt.她穿一件刚刚浆洗熨烫过的白色衬衣。
• The gang launders the steal money through their chain of restaurants.这帮匪徒通过他们的连锁饭店洗赃款。

2 laundering   

n.洗涤（衣等），洗烫（衣等）；洗（钱）v.洗（衣服等），洗烫（衣服等）( launder的现在分词 )；洗（黑钱）（把非法收入改头换面，变为貌似合法的收入）

参考例句：

• Separate the white clothes from the dark clothes before laundering. 洗衣前应当把浅色衣服和深色衣服分开。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He was charged with laundering money. 他被指控洗钱。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 treasury   

n.宝库；国库，金库；文库

参考例句：

• The Treasury was opposed in principle to the proposals.财政部原则上反对这些提案。
• This book is a treasury of useful information.这本书是有价值的信息宝库。

4 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

5 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

6 tellers   

n.（银行）出纳员( teller的名词复数 )；（投票时的）计票员；讲故事等的人；讲述者

参考例句：

• The tellers were calculating the votes. 计票员正在统计票数。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The use of automatic tellers is particularly used in large cities. 在大城市里，还特别投入了自动出纳机。 来自辞典例句

7 endorsement   

n.背书；赞成，认可，担保；签(注)，批注

参考例句：

• We are happy to give the product our full endorsement.我们很高兴给予该产品完全的认可。
• His presidential campaign won endorsement from several celebrities.他参加总统竞选得到一些社会名流的支持。

8 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

9 laundered   

v.洗（衣服等），洗烫（衣服等）( launder的过去式和过去分词 )；洗（黑钱）（把非法收入改头换面，变为貌似合法的收入）

参考例句：

• Send these sheets to be laundered. 把这些床单送去洗熨。 来自辞典例句
• The air seems freshly laundered. Sydney thinks of good drying weather. 空气似乎被清洗过，让悉妮想起晴朗干爽适合晒衣服的好天气。 来自互联网

10 investigators   

n.调查者，审查者( investigator的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• This memo could be the smoking gun that investigators have been looking for. 这份备忘录可能是调查人员一直在寻找的证据。
• The team consisted of six investigators and two secretaries. 这个团队由六个调查人员和两个秘书组成。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 frankly   

adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说

参考例句：

• To speak frankly, I don't like the idea at all.老实说，我一点也不赞成这个主意。
• Frankly speaking, I'm not opposed to reform.坦率地说，我不反对改革。

12 culpability   

n.苛责，有罪

参考例句：

• As if the estrangement between them had come of any culpability of hers. 姐弟俩疏远的责任竟仿佛落到了她的身上！ 来自英汉文学 - 双城记
• The offence, as now defined in English law, covers a wide spectrum of culpability. 英国法律规定，违法包括很多种过失行为。 来自互联网

13 compliance   

n.顺从；服从；附和；屈从

参考例句：

• I was surprised by his compliance with these terms.我对他竟然依从了这些条件而感到吃惊。
• She gave up the idea in compliance with his desire.她顺从他的愿望而放弃自己的主意。

14 banking   

n.银行业，银行学，金融业

参考例句：

• John is launching his son on a career in banking.约翰打算让儿子在银行界谋一个新职位。
• He possesses an extensive knowledge of banking.他具有广博的银行业务知识。

15 recurring   

adj.往复的，再次发生的

参考例句：

• This kind of problem is recurring often. 这类问题经常发生。
• For our own country, it has been a time for recurring trial. 就我们国家而言，它经过了一个反复考验的时期。

16 violation   

n.违反(行为)，违背(行为)，侵犯

参考例句：

• He roared that was a violation of the rules.他大声说，那是违反规则的。
• He was fined 200 dollars for violation of traffic regulation.他因违反交通规则被罚款200美元。

17 uncertainty   

n.易变，靠不住，不确知，不确定的事物

参考例句：

• Her comments will add to the uncertainty of the situation.她的批评将会使局势更加不稳定。
• After six weeks of uncertainty,the strain was beginning to take its toll.6个星期的忐忑不安后，压力开始产生影响了。

18 indicted   

控告，起诉( indict的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The senator was indicted for murder. 那位参议员被控犯谋杀罪。
• He was indicted by a grand jury on two counts of murder. 他被大陪审团以两项谋杀罪名起诉。

19 iceberg   

n.冰山，流冰，冷冰冰的人

参考例句：

• The ship hit an iceberg and went under.船撞上一座冰山而沉没了。
• The glacier calved a large iceberg.冰河崩解而形成一个大冰山。

20 illicitly   

违法地，不正地

参考例句：

• That substance illicitly to fool quality-inspection testers because it can mimic the properties of protein. 乳制品之所以添加三聚氰胺是因为它可以虚增蛋白质含量、在质量测试中蒙混过关。
• Western governments international bodies should police Gaza's borders and crossing-points to stop weapons illicitly coming in. 西方政府和国际组织应该巡查加沙边界和交叉区域，阻止武器的非法流入。

21 chunk   

n.厚片，大块，相当大的部分（数量）

参考例句：

• They had to be careful of floating chunks of ice.他们必须当心大块浮冰。
• The company owns a chunk of farmland near Gatwick Airport.该公司拥有盖特威克机场周边的大片农田。