A guiding principle of US law is that no one is above the law. However, while HSBC spent years committing serious crimes, involving money laundering for terrorists; "facilitat[ing] money laundering by Mexican drug cartels"; and "mov[ing] tainted money for Saudi banks tied to terrorist groups" and "senior bank officials were complicit in the illegal activity.", the Justice Department said HSBC would not be criminally prosecuted, claiming that they are too important to subject them to such disruptions, shielding them from the system of criminal sanction to which the rest of us are subjected. This is an insult to the citizens of the USA and cannot be tolerated.



