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Addicting InfoIn 2008, George Bush issued a DOJ directive that sealed the deal on a practice known as “deferred prosecutions.“ The directive gave DOJ and SEC desk jockeys incredible latitude with a practice used for years to craft immunity deals, with big companies, in secret in exchange for millions in fines and promises to be better.
The practice of buying your way out of prosecution (without admitting guilt) was used as early as 2004 when AIG reached a deal of ‘deferred prosecution’ with the Justice Department. Avoiding all criminal prosecution, AIG simply paid a fine of $126 million dollars and the charge of “helping their clients falsify financial statements” just … went away.
Recently, Citigroup made similar offer to the federal government to the tune of $285 million in return for dropping the charges it defrauded investors. The deal would quietly wrap-up Citi’s case without admitting guilt. Under the deferred prosecution directive, the deal looked like a gimme.
Read more:
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2011/11/29/one-up-for-occupy-wall-st-judge-orders-citigroup-cannot-buy-its-way-out-of-charges/