The chairwoman of the Securities and Exchange Commission defended the agency’s record of settling fraud cases with Wall Street companies, saying on Wednesday that she believed the agency’s practices “clearly have deterrent value,” even though firms were often charged repeatedly for violating the same securities laws.
Mary L. Schapiro, the S.E.C. chairwoman, added that repeat offenders remained a problem because “people have short memories” on Wall Street. That forces the commission to bring many of the same types of cases “so that people don’t forget that they have these obligations and that somebody is watching and somebody is willing to hold them accountable.”
"Oops, we stole a million dollars while holding up your street-corner country with a greasy .45 and you're only asking for $100,000 back?" cool, says criminal Wall Street/City of London bankers, "We got another country to bankrupt this afternoon. Gotta keep our SWAP INSTRUMENTS on the move, so nobody can see what absolute garbage it all is."