MONEY TALKS

CRIMINALS WALK
Johann Wagener 10-19-13

At least that's the way it works for the gifted and talented (one of them even claimed he was doing God's work) titans of Wall Street. Boards of Directors (who belong to the same club) reward these clowns with huge bonuses and obscene salaries for stealing and cheating their way to the top.

When the time comes to bring them down, they run like cockroaches when you turn on the lights. Nowhere to be found. They are invisible and untouchable; or so it seems. The corporation pays the fines with the money they stole so there's really nothing lost, and plenty gained for the perpetrators. Their salaries and bonuses keep on coming and the praises continue to be showered on them as if they had nothing to do with the disasters they wrought. And when it comes to jailing them; well, there just "too big to jail." Jail is for those who sell crank on street corners or steal a 6 pack from a 7/11. Those are the heinous crimes that can't go unpunished while stealing billions results in little more than a fine and "don't do it again."

JPMorgan agrees to tentative $13 billion settlement with U.S. over bad mortgages

JPMorgan is urgently attempting to wrap up a barrage of investigations into its conduct in recent years, leading the bank to agree to pay billions to settle various cases in recent months. 

Dimon, once considered the sage of Wall Street, has taken a conciliatory tone with regulators and has called the legal fallout “painful” for him and the company.

 Officials at JPMorgan and the Justice Department declined to comment.

Selling mortgage securities was a brisk business for Wall Street for many years. Banks, after issuing loans to home buyers, would pool hundreds of mortgages and market the bundles as investments that could be traded like stocks. When the housing market crashed, the securities were worthless and left investors saddled with massive losses.