Mexican Media Says HSBC Costa Rica Involved in Cuba Money Laundering

The report published today by El Universal of Mexico, reveals that accounts opened in the name of the embassies of Cuba and Cuban nationals with restrictions, despite the financial constraints of the embargo Washington imposed on Havana in 1962, according to a report by the U.S. Senate on the vulnerabilities Americans by "laundering" drug money and terrorist financing.



The accounts were opened in HSBC branches in Mexico, Colombia, Costa Rica, Panama, Honduras and El Salvador from 2002 to 2007. The report is based on a a US Congressional report shows prohibited transactions under the Cuban embargo by the HSBC bank.

HSBC is in the centre of a storm for making multi-million dollar money laundering operations of Mexican drug traffickers.

Cuba, North Korea, Iran, Myanmar and Syria, among other countries in the US list of enemies, were frequent customers of HSBC.

According to the report, "some HSBC subsidiaries" sent through HBUS, between 2002 and 2007, potentially prohibited transactions with Myanmar, Cuba, North Korea, Sudan and other countries or people you are forbidden to make such a procedure. Without success, El Universal sought a reaction from the Cuban government on the report.

With the data, the Subcommittee determined that HSBC affiliates in Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras and Panama "were also providing dollar accounts" to Cubans and Cuban embassies. Also it found that arrangements were made to cancel "all business relationships" with Cuban clients with dollar accounts and commercial relations throughout the region.

The U.S. Justice Department has been conducting its own probe examining whether HSBC was vulnerable to illicit funds moving through the bank and a potential settlement could exceed $1 billion, according to people familiar with the situation and an HSBC regulatory filing.

HSBC is the latest global bank to be caught in U.S. law-enforcement investigations of money laundering. In 2010, Wachovia Corp. agreed to pay US$160 million as part of a Justice Department probe that examined Mexican transactions.