Swiss bank

In the aftermath of the mortgage crisis, where millions of home owners lost their homes and the big mortgage banks were and are being bailed out by the government, there has been an outcry of why hasn’t someone gone to jail. This past week the US Justice Department headed by Eric Holder filed a claim against a Swiss Bank who had little or nothing to do with the mortgage fiasco but was hiding money from US firms and individuals in order to escape taxation. The Bank pleading guilty and accepted a fine of 2.5 billion dollars but the total assets of this bank are 1000 billion. In addition no executives had to resign and the bank did not disclose the list of people whose money they are sheltering. This process of protecting the clients at the expense of the bank further enhanced their appeal and the stock price rose. All this was done so the Justice Department could claim that they took some action against the big banks. The result is a further widening of the gap between the rich and the not so rich affectionately known as the middle class.