In Case You Missed This... 'WTF ???'

[WillyT]

As Wall St. Polices Itself, Prosecutors Use Softer Approach
GRETCHEN MORGENSON and LOUISE STORY - HeraldTribune
Published: Thursday, July 7, 2011 at 1:00 a.m.
Last Modified: Friday, July 8, 2011 at 2:28 p.m.

<snip>

As the financial storm brewed in the summer of 2008 and institutions feared for their survival, a bit of good news bubbled through large banks and the law firms that defend them. Federal prosecutors officially adopted new guidelines about charging corporations with crimes — a softer approach that, longtime white-collar lawyers and former federal prosecutors say, helps explain the dearth of criminal cases despite a raft of inquiries into the financial crisis.

Though little noticed outside legal circles, the guidelines were welcomed by firms representing banks. The Justice Department’s directive, involving a process known as deferred prosecutions, signaled “an important step away from the more aggressive prosecutorial practices seen in some cases under their predecessors,” Sullivan & Cromwell, a prominent Wall Street law firm, told clients in a memo that September.

The guidelines left open a possibility other than guilty or not guilty, giving leniency often if companies investigated and reported their own wrongdoing. In return, the government could enter into agreements to delay or cancel the prosecution if the companies promised to change their behavior.

But this approach, critics maintain, runs the risk of letting companies off too easily.

“If you do not punish crimes, there’s really no reason they won’t happen again,” said Mary Ramirez, a professor at Washburn University School of Law and a former assistant United States attorney. “I worry and so do a lot of economists that we have created no disincentives for committing fraud or white-collar crime, in particular in the financial space.”

<snip>

More: http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20110707/ZNYT01/107073017?p=all&tc=pgall

:nuke::nuke::nuke:

:shrug:

[WCGreen]

1. Wow, just wow....

And a kid who steal a couple of bucks is on the chain gang...

What the fuck is wrong with this country?

[hootinholler]

2. Why that would be a sort of amnesty, wouldn't it? n/t

[spanone]

3. bu$h*/cheney turned 'em loose..let them regulate themselves...what we got was 2008

it's the republican theory of de-regulation....the myth that corporations will self regulate

it's a license to cheat and steal

[WillyT]

4. Great... And Since 2008 ???

:shrug:

[Angry Dragon]

5. Same thing they did with bp

it seems no one steering this country in the right direction

[Waiting For Everyman]

6. Admission of complicity with the criminals.

Any official who ok'd this should be prosecuted too.

[WillyT]

7. + 1,000,000,000... What You Said !!!

:kick:

[WillyT]

8. G'Night Kick !!!

:hi:

:kick:

[theaocp]

9. Ironically enough,

we punish MMJ growers and dispensaries all the time. I wonder when that will create a disincentive to stop helping the sick and dying? Priorities. are. skewed.

[WillyT]

10. Great Point !!!

:hi:

[tomp]

11. fuck obama and holder. assholes deluxe. nt

[WillyT]

12. Man... Where've You Been ???

Haven't seen that screen name in a loooong time.

How ya doin?

:hi:

[tomp]

16. well, WillyT, i pop in and out from time to time....

....but actually i've been trying to keep the anxiety down. too may conservative wolves in "progressive" sheeps' clothing for my blood pressure.

but thank you for the lovely greeting! nice to be missed.

hope you are well, as well.

[Uncle Joe]

13. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, WillyT.

[slipslidingaway]

14. knr for "deferred prosecutions" n/t

[Liberalynn]

15. Kick

:dem:

[xchrom]

17. Kick