Elias LLC filed a lawsuit yesterday against HSBC on behalf of several innocent Americans killed by Mexican drug cartels. The plaintiffs seek to hold HSBC accountable under the Anti-Terrorism Act, a statute that creates civil liability for supporters of terrorism. HSBC was complicit in laundering billions of dollars for the drug cartels for nearly a decade leading up to the terrorist attacks on the victims–two U.S. federal agents ambushed by Los Zetas cartel members; a pregnant U.S. consulate worker and her husband gunned down by the Juarez cartel; and a groom abducted from his own wedding, tortured, and killed by Sinaloa cartel assassins.
The case, Zapata v. HSBC Holdings PLC, No. 1:17-cv-006645-NGG-CLP, is currently pending in federal court in Brooklyn in the Eastern District of New York.