There are three ways corporate America protects its executives from jail: 1) they allow their low level people to do the dirty work. They say “compensation wil

There are three ways corporate America protects its executives from jail: 1) they allow their low level people to do the dirty work. They say “compensation will be a percentage of your sales” knowing what will happen, and put the disclaimers in a required training class that you can click though in 10 seconds. 2) they diffuse responsibility over a large set of companies with complicated ownership and partnership relationships 3) the Department of Justice never seems to extract the maximum punishment they can. They settle out of court for money, while bloodthirsty juries might happily hand down a 30 year sentence. The effect is that the tycoons know they can get away with anything. Look at the recent Sackler family message that they would reject the paltry $4.5 billion settlement if they were not indemnified from other lawsuits. That’s the act of a party with a good alternative, not a party begging for his life while the crowd erects a gallows.