Could BNP Conviction Signal the End of “Too Big To Jail”?

[RiffRandell]

Not holding my breath, but good article that gave me a very slight sense of hope:

Nearly six years since the peak of the financial crisis, U.S. prosecutors are still battling the perception that banks are “too big to jail.”

A pair of victories over the past two months may serve as a critical first step in helping to reverse that impression. On Monday, France’s biggest bank, BNP Paribas, agreed to plead guilty to criminal charges and pay a record $8.9 billion penalty for violating U.S. sanctions against Iran, Sudan and Cuba.

Six weeks earlier, Credit Suisse became the largest bank in 20 years to plead guilty to a criminal charge. The Swiss banking giant agreed to pay a $2.6 billion fine for helping wealthy Americans evade their taxes. The settlement, said Attorney General Eric Holder, “shows that no financial institution, no matter its size or global reach, is above the law.”

For the Justice Department, the push for criminal convictions in these two cases marked a shift in strategy could carry important implications for U.S. banks that run afoul of the law.

That the U.S. would test a more aggressive strategy against two foreign banks is not entirely surprising, according to Brandon Garrett, a University of Virginia law professor and author of the forthcoming book, Too Big To Jail: How Prosecutors Compromise with Corporations.

Link: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/business-economy-financial-crisis/untouchables/could-bnp-conviction-signal-the-end-of-too-big-to-jail/

[MannyGoldstein]

1. Perhaps not...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=5180771

[msongs]

2. "agreed to pay" versus sentenced to prison....oh sorry banksters just pay write off fines nt

[LuvNewcastle]

3. And I'm sure those fines are a small fraction of their ill-gotten gains.