The whole purpose of Sarbanes-Oxley was to make sure that investors could make well informed decisions and rely on the veracity of financial filings by public companies.
We were told that CEOs, CFOs, Lawyers, and Accountants were going to be held criminally liable if they helped to lie to the public about the financial health of a publicly traded corporation.
But instead of being held criminally liable Citi is getting treated by the SEC as if a failure to disclose $40 Billion is a matter of just forgetting to carry the 1 and not as the criminal act that it was.
It is reprehensible that the former CFO was allowed to pay a $100,000, fine without admitting what he did was wrong both morally and criminally. He should be spending his twilight years in a federal prison not in his $2 Million plus mansion in New Canaan, CT.
Remember America no matter what they tell you Main Street will always get the shaft in favor of Wall Street getting a pass.
SEC-Citi Settlement Under Scrutiny - Zacks.com
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has defended its $75 million settlement with Citigroup Inc. to square off charges for the misleading disclosures of subprime exposures made by Citi in 2007. The SEC has asked for court approval over this arrangement.
In July, Citi had agreed to pay $75 million in an effort to settle charges brought by the SEC over subprime exposures disclosure by the company. Besides allegations against the company, the charges also individually targeted two of the Citi executives for preparing and approving deceptive statements. Both have agreed to settle the charges.
This scrutiny comes as the U.S. District Court Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle was not satisfied with the settlement, asking for further information before the accord’s approval. Judge Huvelle questioned why the current shareholders of Citi should suffer for the alleged misdoings of Citi’s executives, notably Gary Crittenden and Arthur Tildesley, Jr.
