Wall Street Continues with Impunity 7 Years After World Crisis

A study by the Wall Street Journal released May 25 shows a severe lack of justice for the Wall Street firms and executives responsible for the 2008 global financial crisis, and reminds people of the United States' lax laws concerning morally reprehensible financial practices.

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The report examined 156 criminal and civil cases brought by the Justice Department, Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission against 10 of the largest Wall Street banks since 2009.

In 81 percent of those cases, individual employees were neither identified nor charged. A total of 47 bank employees were charged in relation to the cases. One was a boardroom-level executive, the Journal’s analysis found.

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Part of the problem is that the Justice Department has a hard road proving criminal misconduct on the part of Wall Street bankers. Often, if it looks like a case will go to trial, the accused will plead guilty or settle a civil case by paying a fine. The median fine was US$61,000.

One of the few successful government cases was overturned Monday. Several civil mortgage-fraud charges and a US$1 million penalty against Rebecca Mairone, a former executive at Countrywide Financial Corporation, now part of Bank of America. The same court threw out US$1.27 billion in related fines against Bank of America.

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Last fall, the Justice Department redoubled its efforts to convict finance executives. New guidelines recommend that companies only receive credit for cooperation if they turn over information on employees.

It seems that the efforts have yet to bear fruit.