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Originally Posted by crockett
I am an American and I feel this isn't justice. If I as an individual helped support Mexican drug lords or bankrolled Iran you think I'd get the same buy my self out of trouble deal?
They want to claim corporations have the same rights as people, well then that street should go both ways and they should face the same penalties as a person does if they break the law.
There is nothing to stop them from doing it again, if they determine the profit margin justifies the risk. This is the problem with letting them "buy" their way out of trouble with a fine because none of the officers of the company are at threat of any punishment for their actions. Meaning this just becomes a cost of doing business that can be weighed by risk vs reward.
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I don't get it, the logic behind jailing someone in this case instead of fining them, this is absolutely the correct action, what good would putting any of these guys in Jail do? This is a public company, with 1000's of shareholders, the shareholders own the company, all of them. How would any of them suffer by putting a few executives in jail? and How would the US benefit from it?
by putting say 10 executives in jail. 10 guys at the company get big promotions, and the owners of the company do not suffer at all. by Fining them 1.9 Billion dollars, you are completely wiping out a quarterly dividend for the entire ownership of the company. The US government just took 3 months income from every investment in HSBC. They hit them right where it matters.
punishment is meant to inflict hardship on the offender. For a company, the best way to do that is to impose fines and make the ownership of the company suffer. For an individual, the best way to do that is to take away their freedom. But I can guarantee you that if you had 1.9 Billion laying around, the Gov would much rather take that from you than throw you in jail.