History has shown that the SEC, whose enforcement officials often end up working for Wall Street Firms, don't seem to feel they need to punish those firms in a way that makes them admit that their transgressions were illegal.
How nice that employees of those firms don't worry about the legal implications of their dubious behavior, but rather about a minor line item on a spreadsheet documenting business expenses.
I give you a hero of the People, U.S. District judge Jed Rakoff in Manhattan, who threw out a deal between Citigroup and the SEC over a billion dollar transgression which involved neither admitting or denying that Citigroup were the scoundrels they so obviously are.
This ruling has gigantic implications that might mean that corporate executives involved in lifting a billion dollars off of unsuspecting "clients" might be treated like a guy who steals $50 from a gas station: i.e. like a criminal - rather than as an untouchable Master of the Universe.
This is promising.
Read more: SEC Policy Challenged Bob van Voris
