In the world of anti-bribery/anti-corruption and anti-money laundering enforcement, just as is true in about any other domain between the heavens and hades you can think of, it certainly is good to have friends at the top. That well-known maxim was demonstrated yet again recently when it was revealed that the U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne had intervened directly with the U.S. government during the investigation of money laundering violations by the U.K. bank HSBC. Rather amazingly or, perhaps simply through coincidence, this intervention obtained the result it sought to achieve.
