A U.S. Senator is focusing the attention of the Department of Justice, the Federal Reserve, and the Securities and Exchange Commission on why they exist.
They exist for the purpose of protecting the public and enforcing the law. Each of them in the past has equated serving this purpose with making secret settlements with investment banks. That includes the secrecy surrounding why exactly they do not demand admissions of guilt in making settlements with investment banks.
They are not your ordinary parties to civil litigation, who settle their differences rather than go to trial. Regardless of their public releases, these agencies of government are not serving their common purpose by pursuing a policy of constantly settling with wrongdoers in every situation.
They are prosecutors, these agencies, not simply parties who as it happens have a difference of opinion about the wrongs that were done and are still being done.
Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) has demanded that the Department of Justice, the Federal Reserve, and the Securities and Exchange Commission provide the Senate with the analyses they have done, if any, on the pros and cons of settling with large financial institutions accused of financial wrongdoing, without requiring an admission of guilt. See E. Scott Reckard, "Sen. Warren Goads Fed, SEC, DOJ to Explain No-Fault Bank Deals" (Los Angeles Times Online at www.latimes.com, posted May 14, 2013).
More to come....
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