Let's Review: Criminal Violations, Bank-Style

It's tiresome to hear about "Gummint did it."  That's true--but there are these bank criminal violations...

Citifinancial's chief risk officer testified under oath that by 2007 80% of the loans they handled and sold did not meet their quality guidelines.  The same quality guidelines that they were representing to investors, and investors were relying on

Wachovia pled guilty to money laundering for mexican drug cartels

Several people went to prison in Jefferson County Alabama for bribery and other offenses related to the now-infamous sewer deal.  None of them were bankers who make a bunch of money from that crooked process.   [That would be Chase, by the way.]

Both Goldman and Citibank got caught structuring CDOs that were intended to fail, yet were sold to customers as "good investments."  Both paid fines while "not admitting or denying fault."  Ooook.  It's commonplace to pay a $200 million fine if you did nothing wrong, yes?

And fuggeddabout yapping "More regulation!!"   What you have above are instances which occurred in a highly-regulated market.  No 'regulator' prevented them; few 'regulators' saw it happening.  Adding a few thousand more 'regulators'  ain't the answer.