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You're right to apply critical thinking and not trust the general sentiment against HSBC. That brings a healthy perspective. I searched for "HSBC prosecution"

You're right to apply critical thinking and not trust the general sentiment against HSBC. That brings a healthy perspective. I searched for "HSBC prosecution" and found the following article from December 2019. https://www.crainsnewyork.com/markets/third-times-charm-hsbc-enters-yet-another-deferred-prosecution-agreement https://www.crainsnewyork.com/markets/third-times-charm-hsbc... The words of Brandon Garrett, a professor at the Duke University of Law, concludes: > They are recidivists, but they do not receive harsher penalties despite their growing criminal records. Individual criminal defendants are not so lucky. The article seems to provide factual support to the sentiment, that HSBC has a record of criminal behavior, in legal terms.

lmm 6y ago
> The article seems to provide factual support to the sentiment, that HSBC has a record of criminal behavior, in legal terms. It doesn't. A deferred-prosecution agreement means that the case never went to court and they didn't admit guilt. Obviously in theory a company that was confident of their innocence would refuse such an agreement. But the laws are ambiguous, public sentiment is against them, and in practice the industry regulators have a lot of discretion and will make life very hard for you if they decide you're fighting them. HSBC does seem to have more than their fair share of allegations against them - but in my book circumstantial, ambiguous allegations never amount to a smoking gun even if there's a huge number of them.