--- title: HSBC Fires Six Staffers Over Mock ISIS-Style Beheading Video description: "HSBC would like to apologize for any offense caused,” a bank spokesman said of the video apparently made during a team-building exercise. canonical: https://time.com/3947594/hsbc-video-isis-is-isil-execution-beheading/ author: Joanna Plucinska article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-07-07T09:25:34.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:21:49.699Z og:title: HSBC Fires Six Staffers Over Mock ISIS Beheading Video og:description: The video was apparently filmed during a team building exercise og:url: https://time.com/3947594/hsbc-video-isis-is-isil-execution-beheading/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt08a8c8380c978696/698859ce524fc00430df370b/rtx1fs7s.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3500 og:image:height: 1969 og:image:alt: A branch of HSBC is seen in Chinatown in central London og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: HSBC Fires Six Staffers Over Mock ISIS Beheading Video twitter:description: The video was apparently filmed during a team building exercise twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt08a8c8380c978696/698859ce524fc00430df370b/rtx1fs7s.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # HSBC Has Fired Six Staffers Over a Mock ISIS-Style Beheading Video > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. by [Joanna Plucinska](https://time.com/author/joanna-plucinska/) ## Joanna Plucinska Jul 7, 2015 9:25 AM UTC  A branch of HSBC is seen in Chinatown in central London June 9, 2015 A branch of HSBC is seen in Chinatown in central London June 9, 2015 Toby Melville — Reuters by [Joanna Plucinska](https://time.com/author/joanna-plucinska/) ## Joanna Plucinska Jul 7, 2015 9:25 AM UTC Six HSBC staffers have been fired after posting a mock execution video to social media, reportedly filmed in the style of an ISIS beheading. The video purportedly showed a group of men in balaclavas, wielding what appeared to be a knife, surrounding a kneeling man in an orange jumpsuit. It was allegedly filmed during a team building exercise in the U.K., AFP reports. The staff members posted the video on Instagram, according to AFP. It has since been deleted and all of the staffers involved have been fired. “This is an abhorrent video and HSBC would like to apologize for any offense caused,” a representative of the bank said. ISIS has released a series of gruesome videos showing the beheading of international hostages wearing orange jumpsuits. The Islamic group has executed over 3,000 people in the last year alone, according to the AFP. \[[AFP](http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/jul/07/hsbc-fires-six-staff-for-making-fake-islamic-state-style-execution-video)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3947594/hsbc-video-isis-is-isil-execution-beheading/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3947594/hsbc-video-isis-is-isil-execution-beheading/"},"headline":"HSBC Has Fired Six Staffers Over a Mock ISIS-Style Beheading Video","datePublished":"2015-07-07T09:25:34.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:21:49.699Z","description":"The video was apparently filmed during a team building exercise","url":"https://time.com/3947594/hsbc-video-isis-is-isil-execution-beheading/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Bizarre","U.K."],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt08a8c8380c978696/698859ce524fc00430df370b/rtx1fs7s.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Joanna Plucinska","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/joanna-plucinska/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt08a8c8380c978696/698859ce524fc00430df370b/rtx1fs7s.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"A branch of HSBC is seen in Chinatown in central London","caption":"A branch of HSBC is seen in Chinatown in central London","creditText":"Toby Melville — Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3947594/hsbc-video-isis-is-isil-execution-beheading/","name":"HSBC Has Fired Six Staffers Over a Mock ISIS-Style Beheading Video"}}]}] ```