Matt Taibbi: Another Slap on the Wrist for Wall Street

[marmar]

from Rolling Stone:




JP Morgan Chase Fine: Another Slap on the Wrist for Wall Street
POSTED: July 8, 12:05 PM ET


Courtesy of my good friend Eric Salzman comes this latest outrage – SEC Enforcement Director and former Deustche Bank general counsel Robert Khuzami boasting about the latest slap on the wrist directed at a major bank, this time a $228 million fine of JP Morgan Chase for a bid-rigging scheme involving municipal bonds. The Chase ruling is the latest to come down in a series of fines involving a number of banks, including Bank of America and UBS.

This is one of the best examples we’ve had yet of the profound difference in the style of criminal justice enforcement for the very rich and connected, versus the style of justice for everyone else. This scam that Chase, Bank of America and UBS were involved with was no different in any way, really, from old-school mafia-style bid-rigging scams.

What these banks did is they got together and carved up territory between them, arranging things so that they wouldn’t be bidding against each other in municipal debt auctions. That means the 18 different states involved in these 93-odd deals all got screwed out of the best prices, leaving the taxpayers in those places severely overcharged for their public borrowing. ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/jp-morgan-chase-fine-another-slap-on-the-wrist-for-wall-street-20110708

[yourout]

1. 228 million is all they were fined? They probably earned 10 times that due to....

the bid rigging.

[tomm2thumbs]

2. they'll take it out of donut money

petty cash, in the true sense of the word

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

3. This SEC and DOJ are as useful as tits on a bull. They should be embarrassed but

I'm afraid these people are beyond embarrassment.

[_ed_]

4. Way to go, Obama DOJ!

Another fucking pathetic banking prosecution. Obama is a coward, so is Holder. I guess they need to spend their time busting up Med Marijuana instead.

[Dept of Beer]

5. Banks: Too big to fail. US Politicians: Too corrupt to care.