5x15

A special 5x15 event with Chris Blackhurst- an acclaimed writer, commentator, former editor of The Independent and author of Too Big To Jail (Macmillan)- in conversation with investigative reporter Oliver Bullough, author of Butler to the World and Moneyland. El Chapo, the world’s number one drug baron, had a problem: he needed to launder the billions of dollars he netted from peddling drugs across the United States. Step forward, HSBC... Too Big to Jail : Inside HSBC, the Mexican drug cartels and the greatest banking scandal of the century by Chris Blackhurst tells the shocking story of how the bank that likes to call itself ‘the world’s local bank’ came to the aid of one of the world's biggest drug cartels. For years, HSBC via its Mexican subsidiary, acted as a giant laundromat for Chapo and his Sinaloa drugs cartel. In one visit, a Chapo henchman deposited $933,000, in cash; they also used specially made boxes that exactly fitted the cashiers’ windows; the gangsters routed their money via HSBC in the Ca