Oh goodness, more fines for banks that engaged in criminal behavior. Surely some of their executives will be going to prison, right? Ha ha ha. Of course not. With our pretend justice system, federal and state agencies pretend to enforce laws against banksters but instead settle for fines. No one is inconvenienced by criminal prosecutions, governments gets a steady cash flow, the corrupt institutions pretend to reform, and nothing changes. This is a protection racket. The government gets paid off and allows criminal behavior to continue.
Citi, J.P. Morgan, Barclays, RBS plead guilty to criminal charges, get $5.6 billion in fines. UBS avoided criminal prosecution and was fined $500 million. All the banks are no doubt very very sorry for what they did, which was get caught. But really, these fines are just a cost of doing business, so no worries for them, especially since government regulation and enforcement is basically a compliant lapdog, barking a bit, maybe snarling occasionally, but never actually biting.
As the live webcast from US AG Loretta Lynch indicates, moments ago the DOJ announced five global banks including Citi, J.P. Morgan, Barclays, RBS would plead guilty to criminal charges to conspiring to manipulate FX Prices, and would pay some $5.6 billion in combined penalties to resolve a long running U.S. investigation into whether traders at the banks colluded to move foreign currency rates in directions to benefit their own positions.
As always, the comments on Zero Hedge are sarcastic, funny, and biting.
And where does the $5B go to?
The TBTF banks! TADAAAAA!
…
These fines, when not accompanied by personal punishment, are simply a tax, and like all taxes are just another cost of doing business that will be passed on to their customers, or in the case of no customers, back to the taxpayer. No crime syndicate could come up with as good a scam.
…
Come on guys, this is victimless crime. Bankers, drug dealers and prostitutes. Just add their activity to the GDP and move along.
…
Aren’t DOJ fines tax-deductible?