Horseshit!
Having worked quite a few very high-level money laundering and terrorist financing cases after I retired from the Army, I can tell you that, by and large, ALL banks are involved in money laundering to some extent. Some - including some very well known US banks - know exactly what they’re doing and some simply choose to look the other way. In many cases, major US banks have avoided indictment by “cooperating” (to a limited extent) with federal law enforcement. This link and a minor amount of research will give you some insight into the real extent of the issue: http://wallstreetonparade.com/2013/12/relationship-managers-at-the-new-york-fed-and-citibank-the-job-function-ripe-for-corruption/
The truth is that every president of every bank in the world knows that the amount of money generated by criminal enterprises like drug trafficking organizations makes billions for banks around the world every year. For example, almost 20 years ago a friend and very highly-regarded international money laundering expert and I did a bottoms-up estimate of the amount of money generated worldwide by drug trafficking organizations alone. Our very conservative estimate, based on verifiable information, came in at over $620 billion per year. Factor in other criminal enterprises, including official corruption, and it easily exceeds that estimate by orders of magnitude. Does anyone really believe that the banking industry would willingly support removal of that amount of money from the banking system when the transfer fees alone generate millions in profits every year?
At any given time, you’ll find one or more major banks UNDER INDICTMENT somewhere in the world. The underlying reasons for those indictments are many and varied, which is an important point. By definition, “under indictment” means that the bank has been officially accused of complicity or involvement in illegal activity, sometimes knowingly and sometimes because they should have known or failed to complete and submit required disclosures. An accusation is NOT the same as a conviction and the same standard could be applied to major corporations in other industries.
If we’re going to single out a couple of banks that donated to Ted Cruz, then we ought to look at the financial institutions that have donated to every candidate at every time in that candidate’s political career. El Dorado Savings and Loan, BCCI and the Bush family come to mind, as do the activities of Bill and Hillary Clinton, the Clinton Foundation and the banks with which they have been involved, as well as, I’m sure, every candidate who has been involved in politics for more than 10 minutes.
What do you think about Goldman Sachs’ handling of AAA rated bundled debts that led to the Economic Meltdown of 2008?
I think it would be great if Cruz were to resarch that, convince his wife to resign from G. Sachs, return the donation, and denounce that infernal corporation.