Matt Taibbi has become one of my favorites ~ he gets it ~ and it seems Federal Judge Jed Rakoff gets it, too ~ Sooz

Matt Taibbi
TAIBBLOG

Finally, a Judge Stands up to Wall Street
POSTED: November 10, 10:07 AM ET

Federal judge Jed Rakoff, a former prosecutor with the U.S. Attorney's office here in New York, is fast becoming a sort of legal hero of our time. He showed that again yesterday when he shat all over the SEC's latest dirty settlement with serial fraud offender Citigroup, refusing to let the captured regulatory agency sweep yet another case of high-level criminal malfeasance under the rug.

The SEC had brought an action against Citigroup for misleading investors about the way a certain package of mortgage-backed assets had been chosen. The case is very similar to the notorious Abacus case involving Goldman Sachs, in which Goldman allowed short-selling billionaire John Paulson (who was betting against the package) to pick the assets, then told a pair of European banks that the “designed to failâ€

hahaha. i love the python bit.

My decision would be:

a) Reimburse the $700. million to those who were ripped off.
b) The $160. million profit goes to charity.
c) $500. million fine.
d) Pay all costs incurred for investigations and prosecutions
e) Jail time for those involved.

But Oskar... we can't have the banks being held accountable for their "indiscretions" now, can we? That's for commoners and simpletons - not the elite.

As long as they walk away with a profit they'll continue to flaunt the rules and regulations.

Yep... it's just "the cost of doing business".