HSBC bankers stage mock ISIL beheading
Europe’s biggest bank HSBC has sacked six employees after a video emerged showing them carrying out ISIL-style "mock beheading".
British media revealed that a video showed five men, wearing hoods and black fatigues, forcing an Asian colleague in orange jumpsuit to kneel down. One banker reportedly yells ISIL slogans and pretends to execute his prisoner with a coat hanger.
The workers reportedly filmed the stunt while on a team-building day organized by HSBC in Birmingham, England.
The bank has apologized for the stunt, with an HSBC spokesman saying, "We do not tolerate inappropriate behavior.”
"This is an abhorrent video and HSBC would like to apologize for any offence," he said.
The bank has been rocked by a series of scandals, including revelations that its Swiss arm helped wealthy clients evade taxes.
HSBC faces a criminal investigation in France where prosecutors are demanding a bail of one billion euros on the bank be upheld to cover a potential fine.
Last year, US, British and Swiss regulators fined HSBC and four other global banks $3.4 billion for attempting to manipulate foreign exchange markets.
In 2012, HSBC paid a record $1.92 billion in US fines for laundering a river of drug money flowing out of Mexico and other banking lapses.
The bank also faces three lawsuits from investors who incurred 22 billion pounds of losses in the run-up to the financial crisis.
The ISIL fallout for HSBC is the latest in a series of scandals rocking leading financial institutions in Europe and the US after revelations that they rigged foreign exchange market on a massive scale.
Barclays, RBS, JPMorgan, Bank of America, UBS and Citigroup are accused of using a series of deceptive means to manipulate the US dollar and the euro.
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