Free Republic

Reporting from Mexico City— Money launderers for ruthless Mexican drug gangs have long had a formidable ally: international banks... Banking powerhouse Wachovia Corp. last year agreed to pay $160 million in forfeitures and fines after U.S. federal prosecutors accused it of "willfully" overlooking the suspicious character of more than $420 billion in transactions between the bank and Mexican currency-exchange houses — drug money HSBC Bank, is being monitored by U.S. regulators after a probe last year focused on bulk cash that the bank's U.S. branch received from Mexican exchange houses, money suspected to be drug proceeds....

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A University of Texas at Austin LBJ School of Public Affairs professor called for an unprecedented audit of the Federal Reserve Bank balance sheet expansion of $2trillion during the 2007-09 financial industry crisis. During a San Antonio appearance Friday, Robert Auerbach, author of the 2008 book “Deception and Abuse at the Fed,” argued for an audit by the U.S. Government Accountability Office as he spoke at an event sponsored by the Henry B. Gonzalez Foundation for Inspiring Public Service in San Antonio. Auerbach, who served on the U.S. Housing Banking Committee staff when Gonzalez was chairman in the 1990s, said...