Grits For Breakfast: New GAO report on border corruption [Archive]

Winehole23

01-17-2013, 05:02 AM

New GAO report on border corruption among federal customs agents

From a GAO report (http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-13-59) published earlier this month related to corruption in border security operations:

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data indicate that arrests of CBP employees for corruption-related activities since fiscal years 2005 account for less than 1 percent of CBP’s entire workforce per fiscal year. The majority of arrests of CBP employees were related to misconduct. There were 2,170 reported incidents of arrests for acts of misconduct such as domestic violence or driving under the influence from fiscal year 2005 through fiscal year 2012, and a total of 144 current or former CBP employees were arrested or indicted for corruption-related activities, such as the smuggling of aliens and drugs, of whom 125 have been convicted as of October 2012. Further, the majority of allegations against CBP employees since fiscal year 2006 occurred at locations along the southwest border. CBP officials have stated that they are concerned about the negative impact that these cases have on agencywide integrity.

See related MSM coverage from Fox News, "Study finds corruption on rise among border agents, rep says security at risk (http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/01/15/study-finds-corruption-on-rise-among-border-agents-rep-says-security-at-risk/)," which included this tidbit from Texas Congressman Mike McCaul: "In fiscal year 2011 alone, the DHS Inspector General received almost 900 allegations of corruption from within CBP and ICE."

Though unrelated to the Customs service, the corruption angle provides an opportunity to link to a remarkable story from the Houston Chronicle about a Houston PD cop caught laundering cartel drug money: "Ex-HPD officer faces 25 years for running drug money (http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Ex-HPD-officer-faces-25-years-for-running-drug-4197132.php)."

See also prior, related Grits posts:

Told ya so: Massive expansion of customs agents invited border corruption (http://gritsforbreakfast.blogspot.com/2010/03/told-ya-so-massive-expansion-of-customs.html)
Drug corruption (allegedly) all in the law enforcement family (http://gritsforbreakfast.blogspot.com/2013/01/drug-corruption-allegedly-all-in-law.html)
FBI: Border corruption increasing on the US side (http://gritsforbreakfast.blogspot.com/2008/07/fbi-border-corruption-increasing-on-us.html)
Border corruption hinders border security (http://gritsforbreakfast.blogspot.com/2006/09/border-corruption-hinders-border.html)
Border corruption runs amok: New cash for border cops should go to internal affairs (http://gritsforbreakfast.blogspot.com/2006/04/border-corruption-runs-amok-new-cash.html)
Laredo chief's bribery plea continues border corruption trend (http://gritsforbreakfast.blogspot.com/2007/11/laredo-chiefs-bribery-plea-continues.html)
Will boosted border hiring spur corruption? (http://gritsforbreakfast.blogspot.com/2006/11/will-boosted-border-hiring-cause.html)
Border security and the drug war: Corruption mounts, resources stretched (http://gritsforbreakfast.blogspot.com/2009/08/border-security-and-drug-war-challenges.html)
Police corruption taints US border security (http://gritsforbreakfast.blogspot.com/2006/09/police-corruption-taints-us-border.html)
Border enforcement sees more corruption (http://gritsforbreakfast.blogspot.com/2006/09/border-enforcement-sees-more.html)
What do we know about US-side cartel infrastructure? (http://gritsforbreakfast.blogspot.com/2008/01/what-we-know-about-us-side-cartel.html)
Did Los Zetas infiltrate Collin County law enforcement? (http://gritsforbreakfast.blogspot.com/2008/07/did-los-zetas-infiltrate-collin-county.html)
Guilty plea from corrupt border sheriff (http://gritsforbreakfast.blogspot.com/2009/05/guilty-plea-from-corrupt-border-sheriff.html)
On the Texas side, too: Corrupt cops operate north of the river (http://gritsforbreakfast.blogspot.com/2006/04/on-texas-side-too-corrupt-cops-operate.html)
More on narco-traffickers bribing US cops (http://gritsforbreakfast.blogspot.com/2006/10/more-on-narco-traffickers-bribing-us_25.html)
Drug enforcement broken down on the border (http://gritsforbreakfast.blogspot.com/2006/04/drug-enforcement-broken-down-on-border.html)
Spillover corruption: Texas companies laundered bribes to Mexican politicos (http://gritsforbreakfast.blogspot.com/2012/05/spillover-corruption-texas-companies.html)
Bazookas, grenades, corrupt police and the worsening border crisis (http://gritsforbreakfast.blogspot.com/2006/09/bazookas-grenades-corrupt-police-and.html)
Assassinated Monterrey cop was key US ally (http://gritsforbreakfast.blogspot.com/2006/09/assassinated-monterrey-cop-was-key-us.html)
Corrupt Sheriff sentenced to five years for assisting drug traffickers (http://gritsforbreakfast.blogspot.com/2009/08/corrupt-sheriff-sentenced-to-five-years.html)
Elected Sheriff receiving border security funds allegedly worked for Gulf Cartel (http://gritsforbreakfast.blogspot.com/2008/10/sheriff-receiving-governors-border.html)
McAllen probation officer screened job applicants for drug cartel (http://gritsforbreakfast.blogspot.com/2009/07/probation-officer-screened-job.html)
Cartel violence so far stays in Mexico but corruption has crossed the river (http://gritsforbreakfast.blogspot.com/2008/10/lack-of-us-side-violence-doesnt-mean.html)
Better border strategies needed for journalist, witness protection, unmasking corruption (http://gritsforbreakfast.blogspot.com/2008/12/better-border-strategies-needed-for.html)

http://gritsforbreakfast.blogspot.com/2013/01/new-gao-report-on-border-corruption.html?spref=fb

Winehole23

01-17-2013, 05:09 AM

Mexico’s fearsome Sinaloa Cartel was so practiced at laundering millions of dollars in drug profits at the Mexican branches of the global bank HSBC that it packed bulk cash in boxes that were measured to slide neatly under the teller windows.

The Justice Department’s record $1.9 billion settlement Tuesday with HSBC exposed the continuing ability of drug cartels, rogue nations and terrorist financiers to move billions of dollars through the international and U.S. banking systems.
Money laundering was a major focus of U.S. counterterrorism policy after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The Patriot Act of 2002 included provisions that required the Treasury Department to identify banks and individuals suspected of links to terrorism. And the law instructed banks to strictly monitor and report potentially illegal transactions.

But a string of august names in global banking — Credit Suisse, Lloyds Bank, ABN Amro, ING Bank and now HSBC — have reached settlements in the past couple of years with the U.S. government for billions of dollars in tainted transactions. These investigations have revealed that weaknesses in the financial system lay not with the so-called hawala brokers of Karachi, Pakistan, but the bespoke bankers of London, Amsterdam and Geneva, and their American affiliates.

“HSBC is being held accountable for stunning failures of oversight — and worse — that led the bank to permit narcotics traffickers and others to launder hundreds of millions of dollars through HSBC subsidiaries, and to facilitate hundreds of millions more in transactions with sanctioned countries,” Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer said at a news conference in New York on Tuesday.

One of the world’s largest banks, HSBC has its headquarters in London and $2.5 trillion in assets. It earned nearly $22 billion in profits in 2011.

Breuer said that between 2006 and 2010, the Sinaloa Cartel in Mexico, the Norte del Valle Cartel in Colombia and other drug traffickers laundered at least $881 million in illegal narcotics trafficking proceeds through HSBC.

http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2012-12-11/world/35767206_1_stuart-gulliver-hsbc-traffickers