WASHINGTON, Jul 17, 2012 (AFP) - Global banking giant HSBC and its US affiliate concealed more than $16 billion in sensitive transactions to Iran, violating US transparency rules over a six-year period, a Senate panel said Tuesday.
HSBC executives were aware of the "concealed Iranian transactions" -- which stripped all identifying Iranian information from documentation -- as early as 2001 but allowed some 25,000 of the transactions to continue until 2007, according to a Senate report on HSBC shortcomings in stopping money laundering.
mlm/oh
