Five huge Wall Street Banks fined a total of Five Billion Dollars, in this case for distorting international interest and currency conversion rates to benefit themselves at the expense of, well, everybody else.
You don’t sound surprised. I can’t say that I am, either. As a matter of fact, either one of us could have predicted it, and probably did.
After all, when you’re made out of money, the way these huge banks are, how can taking just a bit of your money really hurt you? No individual officer got criminally charged, and NO ONE went to jail. Lawbreaking is suddenly much less risky than even gambling. When jail is off the table, the risk is like you or I having to pay for our own groceries, just a lot less. So why stop now?
And, of course, they don’t. Ever! Year after year, one Billion-dollar settlement after another, till you lose count. It’s not just banking, or Microsoft engaging in wildly anti-competitive behavior, it’s General Motors, and air bag defects that kill hundreds of Americans.
There is something fundamentally wrong with a legal system that makes it possible for some to completely ignore the law. A corporation can’t go to jail, and, though they can be broken up, it never happens any more. Not being human, corporations have no fear of getting caught.
The only hope we have of governing such essentially amoral entities lies in making sure their officers and employees are personally afraid to break the law on the corporations behalf. But that is off the table.
There is a reason that voices like Elizabeth Warren & Bernie Sanders are starting to sound so reasonable. It is becoming more and more clear that the game IS rigged against the middle-class law-abiding citizen.
The stage is set by the huge pay CEO’s are paid. Add the Golden Parachutes, paid whether the officer makes money for the company in the traditional sense (by earning it in the marketplace), or whether they follow the law.
For decades, we’ve operated under the notion that the best interests of society are not a proper concern of corporate officers. We are finally revisiting that sick idea, and hopefully we will see the other side, at least a few days before Miami sinks beneath the waves.
Story By Thomas A. Brodersen, ESQ.
Thomas A. Brodersen, Esq., Anderson & Brodersen, P.A. • 7116 Gulf Blvd., Suite D, St. Pete Beach • (727) 363-6100• www.PropertyLawGroup.com