"Corporations have neither a soul to save or a body to incarcerate" -- Lord North. I have quoted this one before. I have to hand it to the Mittster, he got it right when he said "Corporations are People".
I may be just a Tax Accountant (CPA), what is the point of levying a fine on a financial institutions the taxpayer still owns, or at least is still on the hook to bail out. Are we going to lend them the money to pay the fine??
This is a Joke. Until the persons within these organizations are held at least professional, if not legally accountable for how they conducted business, it is all a whitewash.
Until the persons who failed uphold the duties they swore to when they took licenses are held accountable, we have no assurance that the "Rule of Law" will ever regain control. The Securities Brokers, Mortgage Brokers, Insurance Brokers, Attorneys, CPA, and all the other licenses that signed off on all of these transactions are made responsible, we have condoned and continue to condone unprofessional conduct, fraud and outright theft.
The right wing talk radio has it right, we all need to take responsibility for our actions. Corporations are not the responsible party, they have no body or soul, they are judgement proof, they die it is but a tick mark on a tax return ("Last Return"). But the people who ran the corporations have bodies, and bank accounts. The persons how benefited from the fraud should pay a price. The big execs that got away with the billion dollar bonuses, payed out even after they bailout should have these bonuses clawed back. If we get $20 billion settlement, it needs to come from the people who took took the bonuses.
I know most would be thrilled with just getting the big guys who have the huge yachts, but that is not where the corruption lies. The real perversion of they system is with the professionals who signed off on all of this. They did so with the faith that they were upholding a professional oath. If we knew the tens of thousands of times licensed professionals signed off things they knew were wrong.
Sub-contracting services, Robo signing and the like are symptoms of just how far this system went it its fraud. Blurring the lines of responsibility do not relieve the underlying obligations. There are responsible parties who not only agreed to these frauds, but set up systems to perpetuate the fraud and insulate others.
I am not an expert on high finance, just a tax accountant, who has to answer for everything I sign off on. It just seems to me that "Corporations are to People my Friend", is right. People run corporations, and the Limits of liability are for the shareholders not for the management.
Do not fine Bank of America ect. $20 Billion, get the money back from the big execs. And while I am living in fantasy world lets have every CPA, Attorney, Broker ect from these big banks/Mortgage giants give up their license. Or better yet, make them sit the Bar CPA exam ect. again.
Seriously, these guys/gals who sold out our professions for a cushy paycheck need to prove they still deserve the public trust we swore to when we took our license.
