 home discuss pieces professional about faq search links Can regulation get AIG off the hook for criminal behavior?
I'm surprised to find myself close to Ron Paul on the issue of regulation. But after following the story of AIG's Financial Products unit, their London-based division, I think an exclusive concern with regulation misses the point. As I understand it, this division raked in profits for AIG by selling insurance without sufficient collateral to back it up. They did this by deliberately setting up a corporate structure for this division that would allow it to escape insurance regulations that would otherwise require this collateral. In other words, they slid out from existing regulations. If a burglar enters my home because the door is unlocked, it's still a crime. If a corporation evades the barriers to a crime, is it just good business? In the case of AIG, it looks like fraud, smells like fraud, and it seems as if criminal charges should have been considered as part of any bail-out discussion. |
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Last update: Friday, March 27, 2009 at 11:08:19 AM. © 1996-2006 Cecilie Scott |
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