Posted on 07/16/2014 12:30:14 PM PDT by Kaslin
America’s most effective extortion racket, the Department of Justice, just bullied another big bank into surrendering billions of dollars in fines. Citigroup has agreed to pay an astounding $7 billion settlement to the DOJ for apparent wrongdoing leading up to the financial crisis. Why am I suddenly reminded of Al Capone’s observation about government coercion?
"A crook is a crook, and there's something healthy about his frankness in the matter. But any guy who pretends he is enforcing the law and steals on his authority is a swell snake. The worst type of these punks is the big politician.” – Al Capone.
Citi will be paying $4.5 billion as a cash settlement, and another $2.5 billion in the form of financing for affordable housing and mortgage modifications. Holder even ran to the microphones to brag about the fact that the cash portion is the largest settlement ever reached from an American bank for actions that supposedly led to the “great recession”. (Wow… Too bad we can’t get a settlement from politicians for leading us into this so-called “recovery”.)
But, here’s where the extortion racket really comes into view: no criminal charges have been filed against any individuals. In fact, no handcuffs have been slapped on anyone tied to the “egregious” corporate actions. And while Holder has threatened criminal charges against various banks (because JP Morgan can clearly spend “hard time” in a Federal pen, right?), there likely will be no charges filed against any individuals moving forward. Heck, even if Holder decided he wanted to throw a banker in jail, the statute of limitations would likely make it impossible in the next year or two.
Even a junior prosecutor could probably scrape together a criminal case against individuals who were responsible for the bank’s “egregious” actions if they were so inclined – especially given the fact that the banks have shelled out multi-billion dollar settlements and admissions of wrong-doing. But, the dirty little secret is that Holder-Obama & Co don’t actually want to file any charges against any wealthy executives.
And why not? Well, it’s easier to get a hefty settlement from a corporation facing a PR nightmare than a couple of executives who are facing jail time. While a criminal trial for some executives might make for good press among the Occupy Wall Street demographic of the Democrat Party, it would be unlikely that billions of dollars would be handed over for the DOJ to redistribute in a “progressive” liberal fashion. Putting some obscure loan officer in jail for falsifying loan documents (so they meet the regulator’s quota of subprime loans) certainly wouldn’t get $2.5 billion redirected at helping poor people buy homes they can’t afford.
No, no, no… It’s much easier for the greatest prosecutorial body in America to simply threaten a bank with some obscure, and often non-existent, political argument civil case than actually put together a criminal complaint against people who made the decisions and supposedly skirted the rules.
Of course, this isn’t exactly Holder’s only venture into the realm of extortion. Aside from strong arming billions of dollars from banks for their (often government mandated) roll in the financial crises, he has also managed to extract millions from other institutions for “race based” lending practices. Ally Bank, to name just one, paid roughly $100 million to the DOJ’s Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in an effort to avoid a public trial.
Even the DOJ admitted that they had no actual evidence of wrong-doing in the Ally case. (Heck, they didn’t even have access to the bank’s credit reports, loan decisions, borrower information, or racial quotas.) They based their whole premise of “racial discrimination” off of Ally’s geographical lending area. But why let little things like evidence get in the way of skimming the profits from financial institutions? And, much like Citi’s settlement, no one is going to jail over Ally’s alleged misbehavior. Heck, no one has even been named as the focus of a criminal complaint. Apparently, dollars speak more to the DOJ than Lady Justice
Eric Holder has already proven that he is willing to wield the power of the DOJ to force his political will on opponents. Between tapping the phones of reporters, running guns to Mexico, and investigating an anti-Obama parade float, Holder’s DOJ has managed to intimidate, regulate, and prosecute many of the administration’s ideological opponents into some state of submission. With that unrelenting willingness to use his department as a tool of ideological enforcement, it’s pretty obvious that bankers would be sharing a cell with Rod Blagojevich by now; if Holder had any inclination to pursue individual charges. But, let’s face it, this isn’t really about “justice”.
To this administration, raising some revenue for Federal coffers and forcing those rich banks to redistribute their profits to the “needy”, is apparently far more important than holding people accountable. (Besides, it would be awkward if they started targeting the community organizers and Democrat politicians who forced banks to start dabbling in sub-prime lending in the first place.) Actually holding people accountable isn’t nearly as high of a priority to Holder as getting a little bit of good PR… And some “redistributive justice” is apparently an added bonus.
For not being elected, he pretty much has this “politician” thing down pat.
It’s called a fine, but it’s really confiscation of money legally earned. Remember, this administration is communist, and their goal is putting the means of production in the hands of the collectivity. Read the communist manifesto.
The list, Ping
Let me know if you would like to be on or off the ping list
All this because these big banks were coerced to
buy the scum suckers in the mortgage industry
that were about to go belly-up, which would devastate
the industry and hurt the investors.
Hope that the banks will realize to never acquire a troubled bank without the ability to complete due-diligence
in the future, and tell the feds to go screw.
Well, maybe. Me, I think those banks are no more to be trusted than this government. I would much rather have seen several bank officers do time, and I'm certain that a diligent investigation could have turned up enough dirt to get the job done if we were actually interested in enforcing the law.
The 1930’s National Socialists of Germany revived. Complete with millions of adoring, worshiping fools.
“It’s called a fine, but it’s really confiscation of money legally earned.”
Wonder what the commission (Under the Table Earned Lawyers Fee) was on prez pardons back when it was a RICH thing to do???
Holder’s like having Jesse Jackson with real power.
White hatred in action. How much damage can he do in 30 more months?
You probably really don’t want to see it.
“Communist” would be giving them more credit for benevolence than they deserve.
They’re flat out fascists. They want to impose control on the means of production without the responsibility of being the owner.
How much more will “the people” allow?
As for the banks:
1. We were hunkering down in 2002.
2. Dodd-Frank encouraged loose lending, congress agreed.
3. The real estate sector boomed and busted.
4. Most banks suffered (not Wells Fargo).
5. The fines are minimal to a major bank.
The root of the blame is Dodd-Frank and congress. Guess who voted for congress? That’s why no one goes to jail.
You’re right, there should be no fines. It should prison.
Pretty much everyone was ok with lending guidelines at the time and knew how things were being done. Things were loose and some loans were being made that in hind site; shouldn’t have been.
But everyone knew the situation.
Now they want to come back and apply todays much tougher guidelines and punish lenders.
Nothing new here, the healthcare industry has been heavily regulated for decades. Did you think it was for your health?
Same with the IRS and the EPA, all the regulations can be used to extract obscene amounts of money from corporations, because you can always find something under the microscope. If they happen to be enemies of your administration, well that’s purely coincidental icing on the cake.
Also, if some influential citizen speaks out against you, you can surely find something to criminalize them.
Can anyone tell us WHERE this money goes? Where is it deposited?
Is there any chance such money from fines is being used to orchestrate the invasion of the illegals at our southern borders?
Since this money certainly isn’t in any kind of budget process-—WHERE does it GO??
Fat chance you'd ever see Dodd, Frank or Klinton prosecuted...
And guess who will pay those fines in the end? The consumers, of course. Another way to assist in collapsing the economy by removing disposable (is there really such a thing anymore unless you’re an elitest?) from the consumers. Sort of like saying the IRS isn’t going to raise taxes but require higher payroll taxes and removing tax deductions at the same time....
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.