http://www.classwarfareexists.com/elizabeth-warrens-letter-to-the-sec-put-bank-ceos-in-jail/
This week, the Department of Justice ordered JPMorgan Chase to pay a
record fine for their role in the financial crisis of 2008. The bank had been under numerous state and federal level investigations into the bank’s sale of troubled mortgage investments. Those investments were one of the major contributors to the worldwide financial collapse.
The deal requires JPMorgan Chase to pay $13 billion in penalties, a clear sign that the Obama administration – sometimes viewed as being a little too friendly with big banks – is finally gaining traction in their effort to rein in the types of unaccountability that led to the recession.
But Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) says that isn’t enough. In a
letter addressed to the Federal Reserve, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Officer of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), Warren argues that what happened at JPMorgan Chase and other banks was criminal and therefore charges should be brought up against those who were responsible for the decisions.
Warren pointed out that the overseer of the TARP bailout had done a fantastic job of identifying, prosecuting and convicting those who were caught abusing the TARP money. Even more impressive, the TARP overseers were able to do so with a minimal staff and budget. She gives a table showing just how different the budgets are between the TARP staff and the bigger agencies in charge of overseeing the financial sector.
So how many criminal charges of CEOs and executives have those well supported agencies made?
She called on the Fed, the SEC, and the OCC to provide records on the number of people the agencies have charged criminally and civilly, the number of convictions and prison sentences they have obtained, the number of people banned or suspended from working in the industry, and the total amount of fines leveled against Wall Street ne’er-do-wells.
Zero Wall Street CEOs are in jail. In a crisis that cost an
estimated $14 trillion not one company leader has faced charges. Some of those execs lost their jobs, some got new jobs, but every single one of them has never served a single day in jail over the destruction of the world economy.
The government has shown a reluctance to going after big banks, with some – including Attorney General Eric Holder – arguing that banks may be “too big to jail.” During a congressional testimony earlier this year, Holder worried over the impact enforcing the law for banks would have in terms of the economy.
“I am concerned that the size of some of these institutions becomes so large that it does become difficult for us to prosecute them when we are hit with indications that if you do prosecute, if you do bring a criminal charge, it will have a negative impact on the national economy, perhaps even the world economy,” Holder said,
according to The Hill. “And I think that is a function of the fact that some of these institutions have become too large.”
To go after the banks and their captains would have also put the Obama administration in a politically awkward place by demonizing the very banks that the taxpayers were spending billions to bail out. Instead, the administration just choose to drop it, hoping the public would lose interest and the banks would learn their lesson on their own.
Warren doesn’t agree. She closes her letter by saying that individuals and institutions must be held accountable for their actions if we are to avoid another mess borne from greed and corruption.
“[A] great deal of work remains to be done to hold institutions and individuals accountable for breaking the rules and to protect consumers and taxpayers from future violations. Strong enforcement is an important deterrent, and I believe transparency is critical.”
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