House Bill Would Make It Harder To Prosecute White-Collar Crime

[n2doc]

CEOs could be off the hook for even gross negligence.

Zach Carter
Senior Political Economy Reporter,


House Republicans on Monday unveiled legislation that would decriminalize a broad swath of corporate malfeasance, a move that injects white-collar crime issues into the thus-far bipartisan agenda on criminal justice reform.

The public debate over criminal justice reform has focused on reducing severe sentences for nonviolent drug offenses. But some influential conservative voices, including the billionaire Koch brothers and the Heritage Foundation, have quietly advocated for curbing prosecution of corporate offenses as well.

The House bill would eliminate a host of white-collar crimes where the damaging acts are merely reckless, negligent or grossly negligent. If enacted, it would make it more difficult for federal authorities to pursue executive wrongdoing, from financial fraud to environmental pollution.

Department of Justice spokesman Peter Carr blasted the legislation in a statement provided to HuffPost, saying it "would create confusion and needless litigation, and significantly weaken, often unintentionally, countless federal statutes," including "those that play an important role in protecting the public welfare ... protecting consumers from unsafe food and medicine."


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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/white-collar-crime-prosecution_564a2336e4b06037734a2f84

[lonestarnot]

1. I hate those motherfuckers!

[Rex]

7. I second that!

Last edited Thu Nov 19, 2015, 11:11 PM - Edit history (1)

They rob us blind and then pretend America is about opportunity and "anyone can make it if they work hard enough".

Not with the deck stacked against us.

[forest444]

25. Best gummint money can buy - if you have the means.

[think]

2. Democrats need to speak out on this. Seriously. All our Presidential candidates should /nt

[IDemo]

3. Other than Warren and Sanders, I predict silence from Dems on this n/t

[think]

4. Unfortunately you're probably correct. /nt

[daleanime]

6. Yeahup.....

[Enthusiast]

33. Correct.

[Octafish]

5. ''The Criminal Code Improvement Act''

Bankster Protection Act.



"Yeah, see. Protection."

[Enthusiast]

34. Precisely.

[Scuba]

8. But Obama would veto that, right? Right?

[daybranch]

22. Obama vetoes it if there is a large public outcry, and just as important, what's a gal gonna do,

go home with one percent who brought her to the dance or triangulate and make it appear she is for the people? I think triangulation is becoming more noticeable and more damaging, so will her 1 percent friends accept her being against this until she takes office and sign it after election when it comes back up?
I really do not know when she will change to her true self (evolve is a polite word) and support the 1 percent more openly, okay you got me, she will wait and hope the public will buy a phony explanation of the issue just because she is a woman, and women know better , and we never had one as President or Vice president for that matter, and she talks to important experts (conservative ones it seems) so she knows more than other progressives, like Warren or Bernie, or Sherrod Brown or the Progressive Caucus in the House, and I hope she has quit claiming to be a progressive herself. So whats a gal gonna do? Life must be tough to try to fool the people over and over. Hopefully our desirous empress is revealed without the trappings and regalia of style over substance paid for with investments of the 1 percent.

[Enthusiast]

35. LOL!

[gollygee]

9. I always thought they were tough on crime

Oh wait, they're tough on poor people's crimes. Yeah, not their own.

[marmar]

10. Good dogs protecting their masters.

[Dustlawyer]

11. Life under corporate rule!

Feel the Bern!

[CharlotteVale]

12. How can we tell the difference?

[valerief]

13. This is the GOP agenda. Protect the bastards who can hurt the most people at once. nt

[Johonny]

14. Yip, it's countless things like this that make it hard to respect a conservative voter

because its laws like this that the GOP support. Never a thing that helps the common man. Oh, I'm sure there's some myth that these protective laws will help create jobs... there's always a myth to help quell the mind of the GOP voter.

[n2doc]

16. I doubt the average con voter would hear of this

The real dirty work is done quietly. They will loudly trumpet something like banning Syrian Refugees, but quietly pass this on a late friday night. The average con voter would not even believe you if you told them about it. Certainly it will never be mentioned by Fox, or Rush.....

[turbinetree]

15. Really.................................

this is now what are "elected" representatives have now reached for a new low, to make corruption and greed legal.
Gotta send out a big thank you to Paul Ryan, for going out into the public and saying that he and his band of corruption are gonna wipe the slate clean

It is now "good / fair / " to call bilking "merely reckless, negligent or grossly negligent." to the public that it is now OKAY.

The last time I checked, I think it was Barclay's was just given a "negligent" fine for around 135 million for some kind of "negligent fraud", no criminal prosecution, no frog stepping of any one (corporations) are now people (gotta thank the right wing Roberts Court for this mess).

I wonder how parents would explain this to there kids, bad is good and good is bad logic. I just wonder if this is how Ryan goes home to explain this to his kids and this Ayn Rand logic


Honk-----------------fora political revolution Bernie 2016

[tclambert]

17. If you rob one guy, you're a dangerous criminal. If you rob millions, you're a bank.

[Initech]

18. Grrrr!!!! They really don't give a shit do they??

It's all about the uber wealthy. Congress just doesn't care about the people who elected them. They only care about their corporate masters.

[lark]

19. Drip, drip, drip.

Repugs want to do away with any and all controls on the 1%, one tiny bit at a time so it's not that noticeable to most. Until your child is killed by salmonella, or your family dies in a car crash due to faulty tires that the company knew about and didn't report, or something along those lines, you'd never know that the rich can cause conditions which hurt/kill others with impunity. Of course the Kochs want this. They are so busy polluting, they don't want to be held responsible when people die.

[gregcrawford]

20. I didn't think it was possible...

... but my hatred of the Republican Party now burns several million lumens brighter.

[jwirr]

21. This is why the robber barons of 2008 were never prosecuted

because they passed laws making what they were doing legal. Laws like Glass-Steagall were repealed.

[Dont call me Shirley]

23. That is truly insane.

[Enthusiast]

36. You have to wonder what kind of a world they want to live in.

They seem to have zero sense of justice.

[Dont call me Shirley]

39. They have already created a fakey plastic world of illusion and delusion, Cartoonville. They

abhor true reality and those who choose to live authentic lives.

[Enthusiast]

40. That is it, exactly.

[Dont call me Shirley]

42. Because fuck their cheap plastic fakey breaky over-priced shit. That's why Bernie!

[Phlem]

24. Disgusting.

ever want to feel like a worthless sprocket, work in the tech field. They use you up and spit out, used. I've helped a few tech startups get up and running only to be laid off and have my stock shares involuntarily taken from me. The last straw was working for a couple of Mormons running a tech company. You are literally expendable so the bottom line can be shored up for the few, and the special.

Corporations are SO not people my friends.

[Solly Mack]

26. Walking, talking buboes. The whole lot of them.

[Yallow]

27. Go Getem Bernie

Use this piece of crap bill to bash Republicans, set yourself apart from Hillary (who won't say a word) and get 50 Democrats elected to congress.

Democrats could use this to take back the congress, but they won't. They are afraid of all the money too.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

28. They just don't even bother to hide it any more.

How do you know when corporatist corruption is widespread across the system? When they don't even PRETEND not to want to make anything corporations and their executives do legal.

As if it wasn't nearly impossible to convict executives of anything anyway...

[raouldukelives]

29. Best representation shareholders can finance for all of us. nt

[Gothmog]

30. These provisions are poison pills and should be rejected

[d_legendary1]

31. Rob a bank at gunpoint

get 15 to life. Rob a bank with a pen and paper and get bonuses, golden parachutes, and photo ops with Presidents.

Unreal.

[noiretextatique]

32. WTF

[Enthusiast]

37. Oh, those poor inconvenienced white collar criminals.

[lark]

38. Ahem, Obama, time for the veto pen.

The problem is you never know when he's going to go corporatist on us. Hope this isn't one of those times.

[graegoyle]

41. Gross misstatement in that official's statement:

"unintentionally"

[NorthCarolina]

43. Well, I guess that was Wall Street money well spent. eom