America Should Get MUCH Tougher on Financial Crimes

Chris revisits his 2012 column, "Time to Get Medieval," reflecting on the SEC's inability to collect $10 billion in fines and the systemic leniency towards white-collar crime. Drawing on historical precedents like the Code of Hammurabi and medieval Catalonia, Christopher highlights the lack of accountability for financial criminals in modern times. Should we demand stricter repercussions for those who exploit the system? www.watchdogonwallstreet.com

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Watchdog on Wall Street podcast explaining the news coming
out of the complex worlds of finance, economics, and politics
and the impact it will have on everyday Americans. Author,
investment banker, consumer advocate, analyst and trader Chris Markowski.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Time to get medieval title of the column that I
wrote back in twenty twelve, and I thought about it today.
I saw this story in the Wall Street Journal how
the Securities and Exchange Commission has to write off ten
billion dollars in fines that it can't collect. And in

(00:40):
this it cites various different cases of big time financial
crooks that haven't paid the fines are supposed to pay,
have left the country and are living in the Caribbean
doing various different means of not paying the fines that
the sec has posed upon them. And again I laugh

(01:04):
at this because the whole thing, quite frankly, is a
bit of a joke. We see the fines that are
paid often by the big investment houses. They pay them
because they can. And the reality of the situation is
is that it's not the actual company that pays The
find company is nothing more than a tax ID number
and a logo. It's the actual shareholders of the company

(01:27):
and the people that are actually responsible for committing the crime.
More often than not, nothing happens that. That's most certainly
in the case of the big investment houses. And I'd
almost look at it as if you know, the big
investment houses are paying these fines, it's almost like so
you know, it's almost like they're the government and the

(01:48):
SEC is like Don Finucci walking around with his beacon
godfather too. They're paying them. And then the SEC turns
around and gives that money to who to probably some
bs liberal ngo h pushing some bs keeping some morons. Uh,
it's some DEI crap employed you think I'm kidding. Look

(02:10):
into it anyway, Last time you steal from somebody, you know,
there should be repercussions for those actions. I just I'm
a big believer in that. And you know, I don't
remember the name of the ark, but I talked about
this years ago, and how you know in essence, Uh,

(02:30):
you know, white collar crime pretty much pays when it
comes to Wall Street. If you're going to be a criminal,
I mean, if you're thinking about if you if you
you know you had that ethical bypass at birth, you
are evil. You're a diabolical person. You get off on
ripping people off and taking advantage of others. I mean,

(02:52):
why wouldn't you, Why wouldn't you go to Wall Street?
Why wouldn't you become a white collar criminal? I mean,
if you think about it more often not, what's the
worst thing is going to happen to you? If you
get caught, you pay a fine, okay, and you walk away.

(03:14):
And in the case of the big investment houses, again,
the fine to them is pretty much a parking ticket.
A piece I wrote back this is November twenty, twenty twelve.
I cited again ob secure reference pulp fiction Marcellus Wallace. Okay,

(03:37):
the character in the film Pulp Fiction. Not familiar with
the movie.

Speaker 3 (03:43):
There was a really evil, sadistic rapist and his suggestion
in the film was to get medieval on him.

Speaker 2 (03:56):
Now you know you compile. Yeah, he want to take
a look at some how financial crooks were handled in
the past. Thirty seven hundred years ago. This thing called
the code of Hammurabi, which again law of Mesopotamia. If
anyone violated the terms of any financial contract, they were

(04:18):
put to death. As a thief in Mesopotamia had you know,
pretty vibrant commodities market at that point in time medieval Catalonia,
a banker who went under most certainly did not get
money from the government or below market interest rates from
the US government to bail themselves out. The failed banker

(04:40):
was humiliated by town criers who shouted the facts of
his failure in public squares throughout the land. The banker
had to live on nothing but bread and water until
he paid off his depositors. You think that the folks
at Silicon Valley Bank had that happened to him, now,
I don't think so. If after a year he was
unable to repay, he would be executed. Now, ah, government

(05:03):
bails you out, golden parachute, end up getting a job
at a hedge fund. Oh joy. Also in Catalonia, if
any banker was caught lying about their books, they could
be put to death. Again England, counterfeiting was punishable by
death in the fourteenth century. I can go on and

(05:24):
on and on, but how was it? I mean, how
is it okay? How is it fair that you're able
to go and rip off your clients, your customers, essentially
steal from them. You know, Okay, you're supposed to pay
a fine. Maybe you lose your license, but you walk.

(05:45):
I never really could ever get my arms around that
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