Watch: Elizabeth Warren Blasts Financial Regulators for Coddling Wall Street Fraudsters Like Jamie Dimon

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8NFcBzcZrA&feature=player_embedded

When it comes to calling out bought-and-paid-for financial regulators for coddling corrupt Wall Street banks and executives, nobody does it quite like Sen. Elizabeth Warren from Massachusetts.
On Thursday morning, she took the regulators to task during a hearing on the Senate Banking Committee on “Oversight of Financial Stability and Data Security” for allowing Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan, to receive a “75% raise, bringing his total compensation to 20 million dollars” after presiding over a corrupt financial institution who had to pay $17 billion in fines and settlements “relating to its sale of fraudulent mortgage-backed securities, its illegal foreclosure practices like robo-signing, its manipulation of energy markets in California and the Midwest, and its handling of the disastrous London Whale Trade.”

“Now, you might think that presiding over activities that resulted in $17 billion in payouts for illegal conduct would hurt your case for a fat pay bump, but according to the New York Times, members of the J.P. Morgan Board of Directors thought that Dimon “earned the raise, in part, and I am quoting here, “by acting as chief negotiator as J.P. Morgan worked out a string of banner government settlements.”"
“I think this raises questions about whether our enforcement strategy is working, or whether it is actually so bad, that we are making it more likely for big banks to break the law! Neil Weinberg, the editor in chief of the American Banker Magazine, said that in the current environment, “bank executives would be crazy to hold back! If they get caught, they can pay their way out of the problem with the shareholders’ money, and if there misdeeds pay off as expected, the profits will goose their pay!” I will add, even if they don’t get caught, the executors may still get a raise! So, here is my question. Does anybody on this panel actually think that the government’s current enforcement system for financial crimes is actually working in the sense of the deterring future law breaking? Anyone?”

Of course, although she continued to press them, none of the financial regulators were able to give her a good answer as to how the fact that Jamie Dimon was able to receive a fat pay raise after leading his bank into paying a $17 billion settlement for financial fraud is actually going to “deter” future executives from engaging in the very same kinds of shady financial practices.

As usual, Sen. Warren saved the best for last, “if regulators are even slightly willing to take a large financial institution to trial, that would have an impact on the future behavior of these financial institutions, and on the meaningfulness of any settlement. Until that time comes, I am not confident that our enforcement system is doing nearly enough to protect the public from financial crimes!”
Unfortunately for the American people, Sen. Warren couldn’t be more right.

Please watch the exchange below and share this and other related articles on social media forums so that everyone will understand that our complacently lackadaisical regulatory apparatus is allowing fraudulent bank executives such as Jamie Dimon to literally laugh their way to the bank while ripping off American consumers.