tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1194375569044391746.post1131943700698800576..comments2024-03-29T02:00:55.623-04:00Comments on Corporate Justice Blog: Will Those Who Led the Financial System Into Crisis Ever Face Charges?Steven Ramirezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16741346526253732489noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1194375569044391746.post-39014839555024042582016-03-17T15:13:29.920-04:002016-03-17T15:13:29.920-04:00Having recently seen yet again a reference to the ...Having recently seen yet again a reference to the movie "The Big Short", I remain surprised very little has been done to prosecute the Wall Street offenders in light of what the movie exposed to the general public. Even before seeing that movie, I personally felt the bond ratings companies (S&P, Moody's, Fitch) were the most blatant offenders who should have been held financially and criminally liable. (I would have put them out of business and required new companies to be formed.) But the corrupt concept of "pay to be blessed" appears elsewhere in our economic system -- from public accountants to real estate appraisers to binding arbitrators. The real solution is to make "blesser" choice, result, and payment determination independent from the influence of the parties benefiting. Otherwise, honestly, its a pretty silly system!<br /><br />Phil - a senior law student with accounting, real estate appraising, and arbitration experiencePhilnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1194375569044391746.post-72299238131237688262016-02-10T16:30:12.820-05:002016-02-10T16:30:12.820-05:00great question nick. thanks.
so, during both t...great question nick. thanks. <br /><br />so, during both the enron era scandals and the savings and loan era scandals, the government conducted serious investigations and hundreds of individuals responsible for accounting fraud, securities fraud and bank fraud were prosecuted and imprisoned. while this does not seem to have dissuaded the mortgage crisis perpetrators from engaging in reckless fraud (see the book Lawless Capitalism by Professor Steven Ramirez), we at least upheld the rule of law in those scandal periods. laws on the books exist and the fact that the obama administration has refused to prosecute bankers that engaged in criminal fraud is frankly astonishing. i can think of at least a dozen bankers from lehman brothers, bear stearns, countrywide, goldman sachs, jp morgan chase, and AIG that should be serving time right now. evidence of this is that many of those big banks have entered into settlements with the government, hundreds of millions of dollars in settlements, to make amends for their reckless and fraudulent behavior in the run-up to the mortgage crisis. the problem with settlements is that shareholders pay the fines, not the recalcitrant corporate leaders. <br /><br />so, yes, i do think that criminal prosecution could at least have some deterrent impact.dré cummingshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13427038538259417962noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1194375569044391746.post-446289838602618642016-02-09T22:30:08.788-05:002016-02-09T22:30:08.788-05:00It is appalling to think that no one is being held...It is appalling to think that no one is being held accountable. It seems to me that senior executives were (and probably still are) being incentivized to take great risks lending money. There does not seem to be legal liability for their extreme recklessness. I have heard of “clawback” provisions. However, I’ve read there are ways to get around them. Do you think criminal prosecution will likely turn this risky behavior around? In other words, something that involves personal liability for the decisions being made.<br /><br />A naive law student – Nick Fisher<br />Nicknoreply@blogger.com