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submitted 1 year ago by L4s@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

Banks hit with $549 million in fines for use of Signal, WhatsApp to evade regulators’ reach::Wells Fargo, a relatively small player on Wall Street, racked up the most fines Tuesday, with a total of $200 million in penalties.

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[-] db2@sopuli.xyz 60 points 1 year ago

It's cost if doing business for them though, the "fines" are a farce, just protection money paid to a gang.

[-] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 30 points 1 year ago

they really need to start with forfeiting all profits. and then maybe a percentage-based fine on top of that.

make it really painful, in the only place these people can be hurt.

[-] Risk@feddit.uk 18 points 1 year ago

How about sending the people responsible to prison?

[-] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago

it's more complicated when it's an entire corporation. Corporations only care about the bottom line so they'll let their minions take the blame. The only real solution is to hurt them in the wallet enough that they have to play by the rules to make a profit.

[-] grte@lemmy.ca 13 points 1 year ago

Not really. Put the C suite in prison and I'm sure the next crew will think twice. They can try and throw underlings under the bus but we don't have to accept that. The buck stops at the top.

[-] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

Can't put people into prison for things they didn't do, and demonstrating RICO is a lot harder than it sounds. I guarantee you, you start going after their profits and making them take losses, the behavior stops immediately, and across the board.

they'd just get another C-Suite.

[-] grte@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 year ago

But they did do something? They ran a company in an illegal fashion. If they didn't act directly they were negligent. Either way, lock them up.

[-] Kecessa@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 year ago

They always defend their ridiculous income by saying that it's proportional to their level of responsibility? Then the board is responsible for everything that happens in the company unless they can pin point exactly who did what under whose guidance.

[-] krolden@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago

Send the whole corporation to prison since they have legal rights same as I do (but I can't afford to enforce mine).

[-] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

hey, I'd be down for that. just one question..... ... how?

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago

They need to start throwing these criminal fucks in prison.

[-] db2@sopuli.xyz 4 points 1 year ago

They'll just pass it along to the customers though, that would have to be made very illegal first.. and even then they'd probably do it anyway and blame it on the tellers. In the sea of illegal things Wells Fargo has already done that wouldn't even make a ripple.

[-] Kecessa@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago

Can't pass anything to the customer if your business got closed by the authorities.

[-] xePBMg9@lemmynsfw.com 1 points 1 year ago

They can pass whatever they want on to the customer; as long as they follow the rule of law. If they charge too much, their buissnes idea was unsound and will most likely be done better by a competitor.

[-] SatanicNotMessianic@lemmy.ml 18 points 1 year ago

I feel like they need to apply charges like conspiracy and fraud against the individuals responsible. When I worked in national security oriented roles, the standard response when being asked to break the law (eg reveal classified info) was to say “I could do that, but I look really bad in orange.”

If the individuals being asked to commit violations and crimes were held individually responsible more often, people would be less likely to do it.

White collar crime costs the economy far more than other kinds of crime, and that’s due to a lack of enforcement caused by misaligned priorities.

[-] demonquark@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago

Fines as a percentage of revenue. A big percentage. That’ll stop this nonsense.

[-] mojo@lemm.ee 22 points 1 year ago

Private speech is never the problem and should absolutely be encouraged as a human right. The problem here is them avoiding regulators and should get fucked for that alone, that's the crime here. Signal and Whatsapp should not be mentioned at all and this is an attempt to push "encryption bad" narrative.

[-] treadful@lemmy.zip 6 points 1 year ago

Yeah, the issue is evading records keeping requirements. The issue is not encrypted communications.

These articles make me pucker my asshole. Like it could be that thing that sends us down that slippery slope.

[-] Cras@feddit.uk 1 points 1 year ago

I work for a large American bank working under a consent order from the SEC to address this exact problem, and it's my job to find and implement the solutions. I can say with absolute confidence that weakening platform integrity is absolutely not a solution being pushed for any of this - not least because the platform owners will 100% not cooperate with any attempt to do so.

[-] flumph@programming.dev 4 points 1 year ago

I worked at a firm that was regulated and audited by the SEC. The standard lesson from the compliance department was always to have potentially problematic conversations out loud instead of in email or Slack. They never needed encryption to avoid regulators.

[-] broguy89@lemm.ee 3 points 1 year ago

I see this as a "yes, Signal is secure, look, they used it and are getting away with it too" narrative.

[-] anon_water@lemmy.ml 18 points 1 year ago

It’s always Wells Fargo with the law breaking.

[-] Skyrmir@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago

It's the American version of HSBC

[-] mountainman131@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago

Of course it's Wells Fargo!

[-] yoz@aussie.zone 6 points 1 year ago

Chump change for banks. Cost of doing business already sitting with the accounts team.

[-] Reborn2966@feddit.it 4 points 1 year ago

how do i summon the auto tldr bot?

[-] Deiv@lemmy.ca 10 points 1 year ago

U.S. regulators on Tuesday announced a combined $549 million in penalties against Wall Street firms that failed to maintain electronic records of employee communications.

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced charges against 11 firms for “widespread and longstanding failures” to maintain records, including by allowing employees to use unsupervised side channels such as messaging apps WhatsApp and Signal, the regulator said.

Wells Fargo was the biggest U.S. bank cited Tuesday in the sweeping actions.

beep boop, I'm not a bot

[-] LilPappyWigwam@lemm.ee 5 points 1 year ago

Good nonbot

[-] Disgusted_Tadpole@lemmy.ml 0 points 1 year ago

Exsúrgat Deus et dissipéntur inimíci ejus: et fúgiant qui odérunt eum a fácie ejus. Sicut déficit fumus defíciant; sicut fluit cera a fácie ígnis, sic péreant peccatóres a fácie Dei. Júdica Dómine nocéntes me; expúgna impugnántes me. Confundántur et revereántur quaeréntes ánimam meam. Avertántur retrórsum et confundántur, cogitántes míhi mála.

small player

Tee hee!

[-] LEDZeppelin@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

That’s chump change

[-] ultratiem@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 year ago

And made $5 billion on the deal. I imagine it’s like “oh right, now we have to pay off the regulators, I mean the fine.”

[-] Clav64@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago

The banks have heavily invested in a cross platform chat app that's (in its own words) bridging the gap.

https://symphony.com/insights/blog/tech4fin/symphony-and-solving-the-off-channel-communication-conundrum/

Just wait for the consumer version ready to be pushed by governments.

[-] Mojojojo1993@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Oh no. In other news banks keep breaking the law and using our money to pay fines.

Remove banks. Leach on society that provide nothing. Yet they are the reason we can't frolic in the meadows.

[-] broguy89@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago

Crypto has been in existence for a while.

[-] Mojojojo1993@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Crypto is currently run and maintained by the banks. Blockchain could be the answer if it wasn't under the thumb of the banking elite.

Nothing of value can happen until the old die.

[-] chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com 0 points 1 year ago

I don't think that's true for the most part, care to elaborate? Which banks can stop me from sending which cryptocurrencies?

[-] Mojojojo1993@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

You wouldn't send crypto from a bank. I know that my banks. 3 of them refused to buy crypto. So that for a start.

Also jp Morgan and other huge conglomerates have massive holdings in and against Bitcoin. So it's not for the poor's. It's bring manipulated by the mega wealthy.

[-] chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 year ago

You wouldn’t send crypto from a bank.

Right, that's the point, you don't need a bank to send or receive it, banks aren't involved in that process at all.

I know that my banks. 3 of them refused to buy crypto.

They don't do this because they run crypto, they do it because they don't want you to be able to use crypto.

It’s bring manipulated by the mega wealthy.

True, but that just means if you try to play the market you're likely to get burned. That's separate from whether they're an alternative to the problems posed by banks. In this case the article is about banks having poor transparency and record keeping so they can get away with shit. Crypto has great transparency, not just to the government but to anyone who cares to look at a record of every transaction. Banks don't want that for the obvious reasons.

[-] Mojojojo1993@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

You need to use fiat to purchase crypto. Suppose you could mine it. Banks are though. Most sites I use require verification now and banks are involved in that process.

I'm aware of that but they are heavily invested in Bitcoin and making money from it. They don't want it to succeed but they do what monies from exploiting it.

I'm aware. Not crypto but blockchain has impeccable transparency. Every politician and business should show a paper trail of what they spend our money on.

Auz has receipts of what their tax is "spent" on. Be great to force that through but they control the laws so far chance

[-] J12@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

I break the law, I go to jail. A corporation breaks the law they get a fine the equivalent of a parking ticket.

If corporations want to be people it’s time we start treating them like people. CEOs and Execs in prison. Actual fines that hurt the bottom line. And for the really egregious: shut them down, or if they’re “too big to fail” we can let the government take over or break them up into dozens of small companies ex: Baby Bells

[-] MdRuckus 1 points 1 year ago

Good. Bastards.

this post was submitted on 08 Aug 2023
306 points (99.0% liked)

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