Wall Street Banks Already Breaking Law Again, Violating Settlements With Prosecutors

from firedoglake.com


By: DSWright Thursday October 30, 2014 8:00 am

Brace yourself for an epic shock – Wall Street is breaking the law again. After a couple of years of questionable compliance with legal settlements the banksters are now straight up violating the terms of the deals prosecutors and regulators struck as an alternative to criminal charges. Apparently, as has been argued by everyone not dim or bought, settlements do not work to stop criminal behavior. Something prosecutors seem genuinely surprised by as they are having to reopen old settlements because the banks are back to their old tricks.

If nothing else it should be entertaining to watch prosecutors excrete yet another ridiculous explanation for why they will not be bringing criminals charges against the rich and powerful. Though the Too Big To Jail cover story is going to be hard to top in terms of comedic value.

Prosecutors in Washington and Manhattan have reopened an investigation intoStandard Chartered, the big British bank that reached a settlement in 2012 over accusations that it transferred billions of dollars for Iran and other nations blacklisted by the United States, according to the lawyers briefed on the cases. The prosecutors are questioning whether Standard Chartered, which has a large operation in New York, failed to disclose the extent of its wrongdoing to the government, imperiling the bank’s earlier settlement…
As reported earlier by The New York Times, prosecutors are also threatening totear up deals with banks like Barclays and UBS that were accused of manipulating interest rates, pointing to evidence that the same banks also manipulated foreign currencies, a violation of the interest rate settlements. The prosecutors and banks have agreed to extend probationary periods that would have otherwise expired this year.

Would any other group of criminals get this kind of treatment? These people have been caught breaking the terms of a deal they agreed to after breaking the law. This corruption is hitting new levels of absurdity every day.

At this point it is rather obvious that trying to rein in Wall Street through the legislative process is futile. Wall Street is not only breaking laws already on the books, they are breaking those laws even after being caught doing so. Maybe prosecutors should just say Wall Street is above the law and end the charade.