> "Had the U.S. authorities decided to press criminal charges," said Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer at a press conference to announce the settlement, "

> "Had the U.S. authorities decided to press criminal charges," said Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer at a press conference to announce the settlement, "HSBC would almost certainly have lost its banking license in the U.S., the future of the institution would have been under threat and the entire banking system would have been destabilized." Corporations don't commit crimes, people do. Executives employed by this company were responsible for all of the illegal activities that this story describes. They get paid a shitload of money because they take risks on behalf of the company and are supposed to be responsible for the results of those actions. When they perform well, they get a huge bonus. When they don't, their punishment is that they get "only" their salary and no bonus. Fine, whatever. But when they authorize actions that are clearly illegal, they should go to jail. The attorney general should be finding the responsible executives and prosecuting them. If the company doesn't cooperate, then throw the board in jail. The company can then hire/elect replacements who will be properly scared shitless of doing anything illegal. These guys are supposed to be compensated for the risks that they take. You can't have a multi-million dollar (personal) upside and no comparable downside. In a just society, the downside needs to be that if you're caught breaking the law, you go straight the fuck to jail like everybody else. If you don't make people personally responsible for their actions, you're effectively giving them a blank check to do whatever the hell they want and then hide behind an operation that won't be touched because it's too big to fail. You also have employment contracts that require the corporation to pay legal fees and use their enormous resources to protect them from personal liability. Obviously there are situations when a company needs to defend its executives in order to conduct normal operations, but the line in the sand needs to be drawn at accusations of criminal behavior.