Incompetent Russian Spies Get Speedy Justice, While Wall St. Criminals Face No Consequences

We just witnessed justice on steroids. Ten Russian "spies" -- even if we still don’t know what they were spying on or why — were brought to court, copped a plea, and were on their way out of the country by midnight.

The wheels of justice move quickly when governments want them to. Wam, bam, thank you ma’am.

When a crisis is looming -- in foreign affairs or even potential embarrassment for a country in the spotlight, Courts jump to; cases are rapidly disposed of; and the wrath of the law is felt with dispatch.

In South Africa, land of the World Cup and vuvuzelas, special courts were set up to avoid a crisis of image if an expected crime wave erupted. Noted the New York Times:

"To swiftly handle the anticipated caseload -- to satisfy the robbed, the throttled, the burgled, the scammed -- 54 courtrooms around the country were set aside, ‘on the ball’ from 8:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. and staffed with 110 magistrates, 260 prosecutors, 1,140 court officials and 200 translators.

“But only 172 cases have come to the World Cup courts, the noise of the gavels no match for the vuvuzelas. The scorecard, as tallied by the Justice Ministry through July 5, reads: 104 convictions, 7 acquittals, 28 withdrawn or dismissed, 33 pending."

Now contrast this approach to the handling of our financial crisis where nary a financial big shot has gone to jail or even been tried.

Despite the loss of trillions and the destruction of our economy, its business as usual in the halls of justice where, as Lenny Bruce once quipped, “the only justice is in the halls.”

The government is not pushing prosecutions and there are no special courts despite all the anger in the public at the crimes of Wall Street. According to a recent report in Forbes, the Business magazine, financial crime is growing.

"Mortgage fraud is on the rise, as are bogus job counseling services and frauds conducted over the Internet. Since the financial crisis erupted in 2008, the FBI's 1,000-agent New York office has tripled its mortgage fraud investigations squad and beefed up its securities and financial fraud group.

“The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center says it received 336,655 fraud complaints last year related to financial losses of $560 million, double the dollar amount reported the year before.”

Instead of "all deliberate speed" (to use a civil-rights-era phrase), there is no deliberate speed in going after this financial crime wave. Yes, the FBI rounded up low-level mortgage fraudsters but did not go after the firms that securitized the bogus mortgages or insured them.

Instead you get cases like this one reported by Business Insider,

“Robert Miller, a former lawyer for the SEC (and also a former money manager) deserves a prize for his performance in court the other day.

“He just escaped a potential 20-year prison sentence by telling the judge that he used to be a ‘fearful, self-loathing suicidal alcoholic,’ says the Wall Street Journal. He was just too drunk to realize that he was participating in a fraud.

“It's like he told his lawyer: 'No matter how drunk I was, I wouldn't have’ [done it had I known it was a fraud].

“Now Miller won't have to spend anytime in jail. He will just have to live under ‘supervised release’ for 2 years.

“This is amazing because Miller already plead guilty to conspiracy to commit securities fraud, wire fraud and securities fraud in November.”

Part of the reason for this shocking judicial failure, is the way the industry, through lobbying and political contributions, managed to change the laws and decriminalize their scams.