Economy
In reply to the discussion: Weekend Economists Waiting for FDR July 13-15, 2012 [View all]Demeter
(85,373 posts)...The United States government had the smoking guns, Professor Coffee said, and it could have demanded its price from Barclays, including a guilty plea to a crime. At the same time, the agreement isnt surprising, he said. The Department of Justice has done this in almost every major case since the collapse of Arthur Andersen. (Andersen was the accounting firm indicted after the collapse of Enron.)
Theyre afraid of unwanted consequences, he added. This is especially true of financial institutions. They dont want to set off a banking panic or domino effect by indicting a major bank. The United States government didnt want to put Barclays out of business, and in this sense, Barclays may indeed have been too big to charge with a crime...Professor Coffee agreed that you always give substantial concessions to the first to plea bargain, adding: The government is getting evidence it might otherwise not get. It also gets cooperating witnesses.