Some of the world’s biggest banks have overplayed their hand. They have strived at every turn to exert extraordinary political influence in order to get away with criminal violations of the law.
To date, not a single top banking executive has faced a single day in criminal court.
The staggering wrongdoing committed by leading banks includes massive fraud in mortgage lending in the United States, manipulating international interest rates and currency markets, as well as laundering billions of dollars for drug cartels and corrupt politicians.
Rare case of bipartisan agreement
Now, despite the general atmosphere of extreme partisanship, both of America’s major political parties are declaring that the good times are over for the crooked bankers.
The Democratic Party’s “platform,” approved at its convention in Philadelphia, includes the phrase: “Democrats believe that no bank can be too big to fail and no executive too powerful to jail.”
Meanwhile, the Republican Party’s leadership of the U.S. House of Representative’s Committee on Financial Services published a report titled: “Too Big To Jail: Inside the Obama Justice Department’s decision not to hold Wall Street accountable.”
In recent years, the major banks have agreed to settle a wide array of charges brought against them by U.S. banking authorities, the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission.
For example, Bank of America has paid over $75 billion in fines, while J.P. Morgan Chase has settled a host of cases for around $40 billion.
Read more: US: Bankers No Longer Too Big to Jail?
To date, not a single top banking executive has faced a single day in criminal court.
The staggering wrongdoing committed by leading banks includes massive fraud in mortgage lending in the United States, manipulating international interest rates and currency markets, as well as laundering billions of dollars for drug cartels and corrupt politicians.
Rare case of bipartisan agreement
Now, despite the general atmosphere of extreme partisanship, both of America’s major political parties are declaring that the good times are over for the crooked bankers.
The Democratic Party’s “platform,” approved at its convention in Philadelphia, includes the phrase: “Democrats believe that no bank can be too big to fail and no executive too powerful to jail.”
Meanwhile, the Republican Party’s leadership of the U.S. House of Representative’s Committee on Financial Services published a report titled: “Too Big To Jail: Inside the Obama Justice Department’s decision not to hold Wall Street accountable.”
In recent years, the major banks have agreed to settle a wide array of charges brought against them by U.S. banking authorities, the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission.
For example, Bank of America has paid over $75 billion in fines, while J.P. Morgan Chase has settled a host of cases for around $40 billion.
Read more: US: Bankers No Longer Too Big to Jail?
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