Everyday Canvas

Wells Fargo and White-Collar Crime

Prompt: Pick a good news story and start a conversation about it. (not related to politics) What are your thoughts on the subject? Do you feel that others will agree? If so, why? If not, why not?

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News Story: What the Wells Fargo scandal teaches us about white-collar crime
David Brodwin - U.S. News & World Report - Friday, November 4, 2016

Well, opening two million retail bank accounts fraudulently is certainly a huge white-collar crime; plus, it is from within the bank itself. I don’t care who resigns or who is let go, I think the entire bank is to blame. This is not one or two persons’ crimes. It is widespread.

I am not sure what the prevention of white-collar crime has to be, but surely actions leading to the crime ought to be taken into consideration. In the case of Wells Fargo, I think it has to do with the board of directors, executives, and their actions such as putting extra pressure on the lower staff through incentives and excess encouragement to open new accounts. What happened as the result is, in fact, some kind of a theft, a theft from the stockholders and law-abiding citizens.

Still, I don’t think it will be easy for the regulators or the criminal justice system to stop similar crimes. After all, when someone steals and uses someone else’s credit card number, it is considered to be only a misdemeanor, and because it is a misdemeanor, no agency or any police force goes after such crimes. Certainly, all kinds of theft and ID stealing should be a crime more than a misdemeanor, and I am sure most anyone will agree to that, if only the justice system could see through the opaque political veil over its face.