HSBC's Gulliver and "You Can't Make This Stuff Up"

I'm not a crook.” ….. How about…? ….”I did not have sexual relations with that woman.”

Surely “Read my lips. No new taxes!!” has a special place in history.

In this same vein, those lines and the longstanding ridicule associated with them received a little company overnight. Who knocked on the door and uttered a line that is sure to go down in financial history? 

None other than Stuart Gulliver, the CEO of the bank of ill repute, aka HSBC, which was just tagged with a $700 million fine for allowing the Mexican drug cartel to turn the bank into a “laundromat.”  What did this British banker have to say? Under the heading of “You can't  make this stuff up,” Gulliver put forth the following mea culpa in the Financial Times,

 “The firm clearly lost its way,” he said. “But we have changed.”

ROFLMAO….hahahahahaha….I seriously cannot wipe the grin off my face thinking of him uttering this line. How I wish I was there in person when he made this statement. After getting up off the floor and trying to gather myself in the middle of my laughing, I think my only retort could have been,

“Are you serious? You expect the public to buy that load of hor$e$h!t. The Mexican drug cartel uses your bank like an ATM and this is the best you've got.”

Put it in the record books as we will surely want to revisit this line and use it regularly for comic entertainment in the future. Let's also simultaneously induct Gulliver into the Sense on Cents Hall of Shame .  .  . after we all stop laughing of course.

If Gulliver and his cronies inside and outside of HSBC were not so pathetic perhaps his statement might truly be comical.

Do readers have other comments or lines that also deserve recognition in the “You Can't Make This Stuff Up” category?

Larry Doyle

ISN'T IT TIME to subscribe to all my work via e-mail, an RSS feed, on Twitter or Facebook?

I have no affiliation or business interest with any entity referenced in this commentary. The opinions expressed are my own. I am a proponent of real transparency within our markets so that investor confidence and investor protection can be achieved.

Posted In: MarketsTrading Ideas
Benzinga simplifies the market for smarter investing

Trade confidently with insights and alerts from analyst ratings, free reports and breaking news that affects the stocks you care about.

Join Now: Free!

Loading...