WASHINGTON–While credit unions frequently point out they did not play a role in contributing to the financial crisis that began a decade ago, it appears there are few if any consequences for those who did.
Of 156 criminal and civil cases brought by the Justice Department, Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission against 10 of the largest Wall Street banks since 2009, almost no one has been convicted of any crimes, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis. The Journal found that in 81% of those cases, individual employees were neither identified nor charged. Overall, just 47 bank employees were charged in relation to the cases, and of those only one was a boardroom-level executive, according to the Journal’s analysis.
“Most of the bankers who were charged pleaded guilty to criminal counts or agreed to settle a civil case, with those facing civil charges paying a median penalty of $61,000,” the Journal reported. “Of the 11 people who went to trial or a hearing and had a ruling on their case, six were found not liable or had the case dismissed. That left a total of five bank employees at any level against whom the government won a contested case.”
As CUToday.info reported here, one conviction has been overturned on appeal.
A spokesperson for the SEC told The Wall Street Journal the agency brings charges against individuals whenever the evidence supports it. In the past five years, 80% of what the SEC calls its “independent” cases—stripping out various routine enforcement actions—have included charges against individuals, the spokesman said.