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Hello Mike
I am writing to you to ask if you are aware of any plans within the government, to begin prosecutions against those responsible for the LIBOR and FOREX scandals (and any subsequent financial rigging scandals)?
The reason I ask, as I have heard so many people ask and wonder about in recent times, is that we are talking about fraud on a massive scale. A conman conning a little old lady out of a few hundred pounds will be plastered across the press as evil incarnate, yet it always seems that those conning entire countries out of money are given a government approved “get out of jail free card”. Despite all the wrongdoing and, lets be quite honest here, criminal behavior, not one bank executive has seen the inside of a police car, let alone a jail cell.
Surely we are talking about organized crime here, on a huge scale, yet the punishment meted out is a fine (some or part tax deductible?) which is recouped soon enough anyway and the costs passed on to the customers. I see too that as punishment, the “regulators” as talking about the banker’s bonuses being capped at 200% of salary. Well now, that willl sure teach them the error of their ways and ensure they won’t be naughty again!
I thought the proceeds of organized crime were to be seized – houses, flash cars, cash etc. So far, all we have seen is those guilty of this massive fraud being perpetrated upon the people of the world, not just the UK, being rewarded for their crimes and let off with a stern word or two. Isn’t it about time that all those committing the crimes, and those at the top of the ladder, the executives, whose salaries and bonuses are also tied to the institution’s performance, are placed in jail and have all they own seized as the profits of organized crime? After all, the executives are guilty too of profiting. They know where the money is being made and turn a blind eye, but profit from it personally.
Time to take the gloves off and start issuing harsh sentences and asset seizures I think, and many would agree. The excuse that is always trotted out, that we can’t be too harsh as all the top bankers would leave the city of London, is laughable. I mean, seriously, they have not exactly done a stellar job in the past and have shown their greed and utter contempt for the country and the people within it. Another bailout for the boys and it’s off to the club for a large one!
A crime is a crime, no matter who the perpetrator is or their perceived importance. We either uphold the letter of the law, in all cases, and have justice meted out equally across the board, or none at all.
I’d be interested to hear your views on the punishments for high financial crimes, and the government’s justification for the apparent non prosecutorial approach.
originally posted by: myselfaswell
a reply to: Britguy
Well done to you Sir.
Seems to me though that the SFO have started the hunt. First Arrest in SFO forex investigation.
How many more will there be ?, and will they get the top dogs ?, one can only hope.
Kind Regards
Myselfaswell
originally posted by: crazyewok
That's why I like my current MP she pretty good at responding to letters and not with pre made letters or using Secretarys.
But shes a young and new. Give it a decade and she will end up like the rest I bet!
originally posted by: Silk
a reply to: Britguy
That's a good result and I commend you - nice to see your constituency MP did in deed pass it up the line. As to the outcome of these things only time will see - and in an an Election year its good to keep pointing out your issues - so fair play. You deserve plaudits :-)
France, Belgium, Spain, the US, and Argentina have already launched legal proceedings against HSBC and its high net worth clients. But not so the UK, whose tax authority has used the data to bring only one measly prosecution in the last five years. Worse still, according to The Guardian, the UK authorities were allegedly already in possession of detailed evidence about wrongdoing at HSBC’s Swiss bank when the country’s premier David Cameron appointed Stephen Green, the executive chairman of HSBC from 2006-10, as the country’s Minister of Trade.
Upon Green’s appointment, the government’s business secretary, Vince Cable, had the following to say:
In Stephen we will be appointing a minister with a long career as a leading international banker. [He is] one of the few to emerge with credit from the recent financial crisis, and somebody who has set out a powerful philosophy for ethical business.