Wall Street firms that are allegedly too big to fail are, in the eyes of Federal regulators, reportedly too big to punish. Despite having been accused by the government of cheating and misleading clients while ripping off the investments of tens of thousands of consumers, some of the nation’s largest financial firms have received, sometimes repeatedly, special exemptions from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that have saved them from regulatory penalties that would have decimated their fraudulent mutual fund businesses.
The SEC was well-aware of Bernie Madoff’s ponzi fraud scheme, but did absolutely nothing to stop or prevent it. More than a dozen firms have been let off the hook by the SEC since January 2007, including Bank of America, Citigroup and American International Group (AIG).
Goldman Sachs, the world’s largest financial firm, has been in the middle of and responsible for many of the fraudulent bubbles that have caused the world’s economy to crash — more than once. Despite defrauding the world’s populations out of trillions of dollars, not one person has been held accountable, which is hardly surprising when you consider the fact that President Obama’s economic team is padded with Wall Street insiders, most of which have ties to Goldman Sachs. Rampant financial fraud in Credit Default Swaps (CDS) and Derivatives — which are also being concocted for use around carbon trading schemes in part of the proposed Cap and Trade legislation — helped cause the global meltdown.
In lieu of regulations and accountability for their fraudulent actions, SEC rules allow corporate lawbreakers to apply for Section 9(c) waivers that effectively shutter the violators operations from one of the SEC’s harshest penalties. Consequently, regulators never rejected one single application for any of those firms. Some of the firms were punished by other means, but were spared from any type of severe penalties or accountability. According to McClatchy News, the last time the SEC’s staff turned down a waiver was 1978.