Re: Oh dear
I do feel that the yanks are wayyyyyy harsh in a lot of their "justice" and sentencing processes.
Well, in some cases. This guy could get sentenced to the rest of his live in jail.
However, if he was working for an international bank, then he could get off with a slap on the wrist and a fine. Admittedly HSBC was fined $1.9B, which sounds like a lot until you realise it was about 7% of their profits for that year. Not that HSBC helped to launder money of course, oh no, they merely had a "compliance failing".
After all, it's hardly their fault that they "severely understaffed" their oversight department in Mexico where "cartel operatives would sometimes deposit hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash in a single day using boxes designed to fit the exact dimensions of the teller's window at HSBC branches". And of course, the amount of money they were making off of these transactions had no bearing whatsoever on their reluctance to carefully examine what their bank was being used for.
So no, the US is not "wayyyyyy harsh", it's much more selective than that, and I'm sure that this guy's sentence will have no bearing on him not having contributed to any politicians' election fund.