philly | When a self-described cabal repeatedly
engages in what the attorney general calls "brazenly illegal behavior"
and pleads guilty to criminal acts, it is reasonable to expect its
members will get some jail time. But not in the paradoxical world ruled
by mega banks and paralyzed by fears that being too harsh with banks
deemed too big to fail might implode the economy.
Consequently, JPMorgan Chase, Barclays, Citigroup, and the Royal Bank
of Scotland, which recently pleaded guilty to conspiring to manipulate
international currency markets, will collectively pay only $5.7 billion
in state, federal and foreign fines for a scam that ran six years and
netted them $85 billion. A fifth bank, UBS, cooperated with
investigators and pleaded guilty to a charge in a separate
investigation.
Currency manipulation inflates the cost of imported consumer goods
ranging from phones to clothing. That means Americans who purchased
these items have already paid for the banks' crimes. But they will pay
even more. The banks will likely charge higher service fees to recover
the cost of their fines.
That's not justice. Some people busted for small amounts of marijuana
face jail time. Was no one in the executive suites aware of the banks'
criminal acts? These sweetheart plea deals are hardly a deterrent to
future misdeeds. Before the deals were even struck, the banks extracted
assurances from banking regulators that their businesses would in no way
be inconvenienced by the guilty pleas.
