We live in a country today that has an economy that is rigged, a campaign finance system which is corrupt and a criminal justice system which, too often, does not dispense justice.
Not one major Wall Street executive has ever been prosecuted for causing the near collapse of our entire economy. That will change under my administration. "Equal Justice Under Law" will not just be words engraved on the entrance of the Supreme Court. It will be the standard that applies to Wall Street and all Americans.
It seems like almost every few weeks we read about one giant financial institution after another being fined or reaching settlements for their reckless, unfair and deceptive activities.
Some people believe that this is an aberration: that we have an honest financial system in which, every now and then, major financial institutions do something wrong and get caught. In my view, the evidence suggests that would be an incorrect analysis.
The reality is that fraud is the business model of Wall Street. It is not the exception to the rule. It is the rule. And in a very weak regulatory climate the likelihood is that Wall Street gets away with a lot more illegal behavior than we know of.
How many times have we heard the myth that what Wall Street did may have been wrong but it wasn't illegal?
Let me help shatter that myth today.
Since 2009, major financial institutions in this country have been fined $204 billion. $204 billion. And that once again takes place in a weak regulatory climate. Here are just a few examples, a few examples, of when major banks were caught doing illegal activity.
In August 2014, Bank of America settled a case with the Department of Justice for more than $16 billion on charges that the bank misled investors about the riskiness of mortgage-backed securities it sold in the run-up to the crisis.
In November of 2013, JP Morgan settled a case for $13 billion with the Department of Justice and the Federal Housing Finance Agency over charges that the bank knowingly sold securities made up of low-quality mortgages to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
In June of 2014, BNP Paribas was sentenced to five years' probation and was ordered to pay $8.9 billion in penalties by a U.S. District Judge in Manhattan after the bank pled guilty to charges of violating sanctions by conducting business in Sudan, Iran and Cuba.
Let me, in addition, read you a few headlines and you tell me how it could possibly make sense that not one executive on Wall Street was prosecuted for fraud.
CNN Headline, May 20, 2015: "Five big banks pay $5.4 billion for rigging currencies." Those banks include JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup.
Headline from the International Business Times (February 24, 2015): "Big Banks Under Investigation For Allegedly Fixing Precious Metals Prices." The Banks under investigation included Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase.
Headline from The Real News Network (November 26, 2013): "Documents in JPMorgan settlement reveal how every large bank in the U.S. has committed mortgage fraud."
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