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[WillyT]

Feds Ever-So-Gently File Criminal Charges Against Credit Suisse
Mark Gongloff - HuffPo
Posted: 05/19/2014 10:11 am EDT Updated: 19 minutes ago

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The U.S. government has finally backed up its boast that no bank is too big to jail, if by "jail" you mean "vigorously slap on the wrist."

The Justice Department on Monday filed criminal charges accusing Swiss banking giant Credit Suisse of conspiring to help U.S. customers dodge taxes. The bank pleaded guilty to the charges, breaking from a recent tradition of letting banks defer prosecution. Credit Suisse also agreed to pay about $2.6 billion to settle the claims brought by the Justice Department, the Federal Reserve and New York State.

"This case shows that no financial institution, no matter its size or global reach, is above the law," Attorney General Eric Holder said in a press release announcing the settlement.

Though the government is undoubtedly proud of itself for successfully managing to prosecute a large bank -- with the first guilty plea for a big financial firm since 1989, The New York Times notes -- this by all accounts is turning out to be the most toothless criminal plea imaginable. It's hard to imagine it will deter future crimes.

Prosecutors and regulators have done everything they could to make this criminal case easy on Credit Suisse. The bank will not lose its ability to do business in the United States, The Wall Street Journal has reported. Its top executives, including CEO Brady Dougan and Chairman Urs Rohner, will keep their jobs.

Meanwhile, there is no indication that any more people will be criminally charged...

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More: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/19/credit-suisse-criminal-charges_n_5351885.html