No jail time for bank executives

JUNE 11, 2011

http://www.pslweb.org/liberationnews/news/banking-giant-drug-laundering.html

The U.S. banking giants that instigated the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression have gotten off virtually scot-free for their predatory lending, foreclosure swindles and other crimes. Millions of working people in this country—billions around the world—have faced job loss, benefit cuts, evictions from their homes, rising food and gasoline prices and outright violence as the crisis drags on. But the instigators of the crisis have been rewarded with multi-billion-dollar bailouts and a banker-dominated regulatory environment.

It comes as no surprise, then, that outright illegal acts by the biggest banks on the planet are punished with mere wrist-slaps.

A case in point is Wachovia, the sixth-largest bank in the country before the consequences of the 2008 financial panic forced its acquisition by Wells Fargo—financed by billions in taxpayer dollars. Wachovia recently completed what was effectively a one-year probation as part of its deal with the federal government related to its part in massive international money-laundering. It also paid the government $110 million in forfeiture, for allowing transactions later proved to be connected to drug smuggling, and incurred a $50 million fine for failing to monitor cash used to ship 22 tons of cocaine. (Guardian, April 3)

While the punishment seems substantial, it amounts to less than 2 percent of Wells Fargo's profits in 2009. The fact remains that Wachovia played a significant role in laundering $378 billion of drug money tied to Mexico’s brutal drug cartels—responsible for over 40,000 deaths since 2006.

None of the bank executives who surely knew of the illegal activity face a second of jail time.

Meanwhile, poor and working-class people who commit even the simplest drug-related crimes face onerous, life-altering (even life-taking) punishment. A man in Alaska, for example, sold a half-ounce of crack cocaine and was sent to prison for 10 years.

Workers face harsh penalties for breaking the laws enacted by capitalist politicians, regardless of the harm done to others. Under ridiculous felony laws in some states, theft of a pair of socks can lead to life in prison. But the most vicious, law-scoffing activities of the biggest capitalists result in little more than legal formalities. Untold numbers of working people suffered and died as a result of Wachovia’s crimes, but the penalties barely touched the bank's bottom line.

The capitalist state will never hold the class it serves accountable for its crimes against humanity, but it will grind working people to dust for daring to break rules not of their own making. Only a revolutionary change in society can bring capitalist criminals to justice!