In a dictatorship, the leader enjoys impunity and confers it on business allies—but crushes them if they show disloyalty. In both China and Russia, corruption is tolerated for supporters of the regime, but billionaires who express dissent abruptly find themselves charged with crimes. Impunity is fundamentally inconsistent with democracy.

But the defendant and the judge fully agreed about the fairness of the sentence he imposed in federal court. I remember my mom crying out and asking the Lord why,' said Ms. George, now 42, in an interview at the Federal Correctional Institution in Tallahassee. 'Sometimes I still can't believe myself it could happen in America.'"In 2014, the International Monetary Fund and others said the problem still had not been dealt with. [14] [15] While the individual components of the new regulation for systemically important banks (additional capital requirements, enhanced supervision and resolution regimes) likely reduced the prevalence of TBTF, the fact that there is a definite list of systemically important banks considered TBTF has a partly offsetting impact. [16] Definition [ edit ] The too-big-to-fail idea has led to legislators and governments facing the challenge of limiting the scope of these hugely important organizations, and regulating activities perceived as risky or speculative—to achieve this regulation in the UK, banks are advised to follow the UK's Independent Commission on Banking Report. [81] See also [ edit ]

a b Simon Johnson & John E. Parsons (April 25, 2013). "The Treasury's Mistaken View on Too Big to Fail". The New York Times. As long as things are kept to a dull roar, the banks will get the money to balance their books, nobody needs to go to jail and the government doesn't need to be embarrassed in the media.

Oskar Holenweger was in bed in his villa in a quiet village on Lake Zurich when he awoke to a loud crash: a heavily armed federal agent had jumped through the kitchen window. Holenweger leapt out of bed to discover two dozen policemen and federal officers in combat uniform and bulletproof vests bursting into his home

Had the US authorities decided to press criminal charges, HSBC would almost certainly have lost its banking licence in the US, the future of the institution would have been under threat and the entire banking system would have been destabilised. The UK remains a favourite destination for dirty money because the political and regulatory system is ineffective. An independent public inquiry into the finance industry is long overdue, but even if one were granted it would be hard to be optimistic: it seems our law enforcement agencies have been captured by corporations. The revelation that the City of London police fraud investigation unit is now funded by Lloyds Bank – an organisation severely criticised by the all-party parliamentary group on fair business banking for its role in the unresolved frauds at HBOS – does not inspire any confidence. Will it take another financial crash to generate enough political pressure to change the system? Breslow, Jason (March 5, 2013). "Senators Bash DOJ for "Evasive" Response on "Too Big To Jail" ". Frontline . Retrieved March 18, 2013. He was not the only casualty. In June 2006 Weltwoche, a Swiss weekly newspaper, revealed that Roschacher had based his case on the claims of a former drug lord who had lived it up on the Swiss taxpayer’s dime. The Swiss minister of justice immediately opened an investigation into Roschacher, who resigned a month later. Handelszeitung, a business weekly, called it “the biggest judicial scandal of recent times”.

These days Roschacher spends his days in a studio in the hills above Lake Zurich, working on meticulous landscapes infused with colour. “I always told myself, ‘You’ll live as a prosecutor, but you will die as a painter, as an artist,’” Roschacher said one morning in January 2020. Let me be very, very, very clear,” Holder said. “Banks are not too big to jail. If we find a bank or a financial institution that has done something wrong, if we can prove it beyond a reasonable doubt, those cases will be brought.”April 03, 2019 Senator Warren Unveils Bill to Expand Criminal Liability to Negligent Executives of Giant Corporations She Also Reintroduces the Ending Too Big to Jail Act to Hold Wall Street Executives Criminally Accountable It creates an uneven playing field between big and small firms. "This unfair competition, together with the incentive to grow that too-big-to-fail provides, increases risk and artificially raises the market share of too-big-to-fail firms, to the detriment of economic efficiency as well as financial stability."

Main article: Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act The leverage ratio, measured as debt divided by equity, for investment bank Goldman Sachs from 2003–2012. The lower the ratio, the greater the ability of the firm to withstand losses. The Swiss prosecutor was also under pressure to bring in high-profile indictments. The government had given the attorney-general’s office hundreds of millions of francs to help prosecute money-launderers and organised criminals, but its expert advisers complained that Roschacher’s office had exaggerated the scale of the problem to expand the reach of his department. Roschacher needed a victory to deflect the criticism. Ramos looked like he might provide it. On December 21st 2002 Roschacher’s entreaties finally bore fruit. Ramos boarded a flight to Zurich, free at last. United Press International (UPI), "Lagarde: 'Too big to fail' banks 'dangerous'" Retrieved April 13, 2013 Near Failure of Long-Term Capital Management | Federal Reserve History". www.federalreservehistory.org . Retrieved October 11, 2021.In November 1997 the Swiss sent two of their most senior law-enforcement officers to America to question Ramos themselves. It was a critical mission. Switzerland had long been criticised for harbouring the ill-gotten gains of organised crime bosses and corrupt politicians. Proving that Salinas’s accounts contained drug money would demonstrate to the world that the country had changed its ways. José Manuel Ramos sold his first bag of cocaine in 1979. Unfortunately for him, it was to an undercover cop and he was sentenced to two and a half years in prison A civil penalty paid by the corporation, indirectly by the shareholders, was nothing like the bank and its senior executives being tried and found guilty, and embarrassing and undermining as it might be, imposing a fine does not cause the bank to suffer. For HSBC, it is simply an additional cost that needs to be submitted like any other ongoing expense of running such a huge enterprise. It's the sum the bank has paid to avoid justice, an option that is not available to an ordinary citizen." If citizens feel they need someone or something to blame, they should at least be told what it is and was, a systemic failure. Schnabel, Isabel; Shin, Hyun Song (2004). "Liquidity and Contagion: The Crisis of 1763". Journal of the European Economic Association. 2 (6): 929–968. doi: 10.1162/1542476042813887. The longer Roschacher took to dredge up evidence proving Holenweger’s guilt, the more loudly he was criticised in the Swiss media and parliament. “Organised crime (convictions) desperately wanted”, read one headline in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung.