HSBC (Customs/ICE)
| Tracking # |
2016-ICFO-28488 |
| Submitted | March 17, 2016 |
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Communications
From: Michael Best
To Whom It May Concern:
This is a request under the Freedom of Information Act. I hereby request the following records:
Records relating to SBC Holdings plc (HSBC Group), a United Kingdom corporation headquartered in London—and HSBC Bank USA N.A. (HSBC Bank USA) (together, HSBC). The HSBC Group violated IEEPA and TWEA by illegally conducting transactions on behalf of customers in Cuba, Iran, Libya, Sudan, and Burma—all countries that were subject to sanctions enforced by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) at the time of the transactions. Please include materials relating to HSBC's 2012 agreement to forfeit $1.256 billion and enter into a deferred prosecution agreement with the Justice Department for HSBC’s violations of the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and the Trading with the Enemy Act (TWEA) as well as all other HSBC-related materials.
The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.
In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.
Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 20 business days, as the statute requires.
Sincerely,
Michael Best
From: ICE
**Please Do Not Respond Directly - This email has been sent on behalf of ice-foia@dhs.gov**
We have received your Freedom of Information Act request for records related to SBC Holdings plc (HSBC Group), and HSBC Bank USA N.A. (HSBC Bank USA) (together, HSBC), including materials relating to HSBC's 2012 agreement to forfeit $1.256 billion and enter into a deferred prosecution agreement with the Justice Department for HSBC’s violations of the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and the Trading with the Enemy Act (TWEA) as well as all other HSBC-related materials and have assigned it tracking number
2016-ICFO-28488. Please refer to the attached Acknowledgement Letter for more information.
ICE FOIA.
_______________
April 07, 2016
Michael Best
MuckRock
DEPT MR 23830
411A Highland Ave
Somerville, MA 02144-2516
RE: ICE FOIA Case Number 2016-ICFO-28488
Dear Mr. Best:
This acknowledges receipt of your March 17, 2016, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), for various records related to HSBC. Your request was received in this office on April 07, 2016.
Upon initial review of your request, I have determined that the information you are seeking is under the purview of the Department of Treasury. You may contact that office in writing at:
FOIA/PA Request
FOIA and Transparency
Department of the Treasury
Washington, D.C. 20220,
By phone at: (202) 622-0930, or electronically on their website.
Your request has been assigned reference number 2016-ICFO-28488. Please refer to this identifier in any future correspondence. To check the status of an ICE FOIA/PA request, please visit http://www.dhs.gov/foia-status. Please note that to check the status of a request, you must enter the 2015-ICFO-XXXXX or 2016-ICFO-XXXXX tracking number.You may contact this office at (866) 633-1182. Our mailing address is 500 12th Street, S.W., Stop 5009, Washington, D.C. 20536-5009.
Sincerely,
Catrina M. Pavlik-Keenan
FOIA Officer
From: Michael Best
While I understand how you might have arrived at the conclusion that it was solely under the purview of Treasury, it was the subject of an ICE investigation as confirmed by the ICE website at https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/hsbc-admits-anti-money-laundering-and-sanctions-violations-following-hsi-el-dorado
For your convenience, that press release from your agency says " An investigation by U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) revealed HSBC Bank USA violated the BSA by failing to maintain an effective anti-money laundering (AML) program and to conduct appropriate due diligence on its foreign correspondent account holders."
Therefore I request that you proceed with the search that I have requested, as your agency has confirmed generating these records less than four short years ago.
Thank you.
From: ICE
April 08, 2016 Michael Best MuckRock DEPT MR 23830 411A Highland Ave Somerville, MA 02144-2516 RE: ICE FOIA Case Number 2016-ICFO-28488 Dear Mr. Best: This acknowledges receipt of your March 17, 2016, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), for records related to SBC Holdings plc (HSBC Group), and HSBC Bank USA N.A. (HSBC Bank USA) (together, HSBC), including materials relating to HSBC's 2012 agreement to forfeit $1.256 billion and enter into a deferred prosecution agreement with the Justice Department for HSBC’s violations of the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and the Trading with the Enemy Act (TWEA) as well as all other HSBC-related materials. Your request was received in this office on April 07, 2016. Due to the increasing number of FOIA requests received by this office, we may encounter some delay in processing your request. Per Section 5.5(a) of the DHS FOIA regulations, 6 C.F.R. Part 5, ICE processes FOIA requests according to their order of receipt. Although ICE’s goal is to respond within 20 business days of receipt of your request, the FOIA does permit a 10- day extension of this time period. As your request seeks numerous documents that will necessitate a thorough and wide-ranging search, ICE will invoke a 10-day extension for your request, as allowed by Title 5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(6)(B). If you care to narrow the scope of your request, please contact our office. We will make every effort to comply with your request in a timely manner. Provisions of the FOIA allow us to recover part of the cost of complying with your request. We shall charge you for records in accordance with the DHS Interim FOIA regulations as they apply to non-commercial requesters. As a non-commercial requester, you will be charged 10 cents per page for duplication; the first 100 pages are free, as are the first two hours of search time, after which you will pay the per quarter-hour rate ($4.00 for clerical personnel, $7.00 for professional personnel, $10.25 for managerial personnel) of the searcher. We will construe the submission of your request as an agreement to pay up to $25.00. You will be contacted before any further fees are accrued. We have queried the appropriate program offices within ICE for responsive records. If any responsive records are located, they will be reviewed for determination of releasability. Please be assured that one of the processors in our office will respond to your request as expeditiously as possible. We appreciate your patience as we proceed with your request.
Your request has been assigned reference number 2016-ICFO-28488. Please refer to this identifier in any future correspondence. To check the status of an ICE FOIA/PA request, please visit . Please note that to check the status of a request, you must enter the 2015-ICFO-XXXXX or 2016-ICFO-XXXXX tracking number. You may contact this office at (866) 633-1182. Our mailing address is 500 12th Street, S.W., Stop 5009, Washington, D.C. 20536-5009. (http://www.dhs.gov/foia-status) http://www.dhs.gov/foia-status
Regards,
ICE FOIA Office
Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Freedom of Information Act Office
500 12th Street, S.W., Stop 5009
Washington, D.C. 20536-5009
Telephone: 1-866-633-1182
Visit our FOIA website at
www.ice.gov/foia
From: MuckRock.com
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on March 17, 2016. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed. You had assigned it reference number #2016-ICFO-28488.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: ICE-FOIA
Good afternoon,
We are still awaiting a response from the tasked agency within ICE.
Sincerely,
ICE/FOIA
-
~WRD000
From: MuckRock.com
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on March 17, 2016. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed. You had assigned it reference number #2016-ICFO-28488.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: ICE-FOIA
Good afternoon,
We are still awaiting a response from the tasked agency within ICE.
Sincerely,
ICE/FOIA
-
~WRD000
From: MuckRock.com
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on March 17, 2016. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed. You had assigned it reference number #2016-ICFO-28488.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: ICE-FOIA
Good afternoon,
We are still awaiting a response from the tasked agency within ICE.
Sincerely,
ICE/FOIA
-
~WRD000
From:
Mr. Best,
ICE's final response to your FOIA request, 2016-ICFO-28488, for records related to SBC Holdings plc (HSBC Group), and HSBC Bank USA N.A. (HSBC Bank USA) (together, HSBC), including materials relating to HSBC's 2012 agreement to forfeit $1.256 billion and enter into a deferred prosecution agreement with the Justice Department for HSBC’s violations of the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and the Trading with the Enemy Act (TWEA) as well as all other HSBC-related materials is attached.
Please note that the attachment may be password protected. If you are prompted to enter a password when opening the attachment and you did not receive a password it may be in your junk/spam folder.
Sincerely,
ICE FOIA
-
2016-ICFO-28488
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