Corporate fines with no admitted wrongdoing shield executives from consequences

Evidence

Responsibility is restored by consequences for culpable behavior. The market system malfunctioned because wrongdoers were shielded from the consequences of their detrimental actions. Instead, the public bore the costs of their faulty practices. Many such situations involve high-ranking officials, who command influence and power, which they use to shape protective self-policies and to craft settlements for harmful practices that guard them from legal penalties. For example, faceless companies are fined for corporate transgressions, but their chief executives are neither charged nor penalized nor even required to admit wrongdoing. It is difficult to reform transgressing organizations when they are considered agentless entities and allowed to treat fines as business tax write-offs. Although some progress has been made in getting transgressing corporations at least to admit wrongdoing, consequences need to be tied to individual executive wrongdoers, and corporations should not be allowed to treat financial penalties as tax benefits. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2977 (#qualifies, via linked claim)

These bank settlements reflect a shift in policy from civil settlements and deferred prosecutions to requiring corporations at least to admit to criminal practices. The Justice Department is apparently no longer scared by the “Chicken Little routine,” as the U.S. attorney Preet Bharara calls it, that admission of corporate criminal wrongdoing will do serious damage to world economies. This new phase of adjudication includes admission of corporate guilt, but corporate crimes continue to be treated as personless crimes. Top executives still remain above the law. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 1587 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Corporate antitrust violations once carried no prison risk for gentlemen; Corporate fines leave executives personally unpunished and tax-deductible; Corporate wrongdoing goes lightly punished when executives are shielded from consequences. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 1404 (+14 more)

Broader Connections

• Corporate fines shield executives from personal accountability when treated as business costs #qualifies (0.95) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2977
• Corporate prosecutions admit guilt while leaving crimes personless and executives unpunished #corroborates (0.93) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 1587
• Corporate fines leave executives personally unpunished and tax-deductible #expands (0.92)
• Corporate executives minimize and displace blame for systemic wrongdoing onto renegade individuals #complicates (0.78) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 1602
• Corporate felony fines are trivial compared to the costs of the harm #complicates (0.76) — , Harr Jonathan - A Civil Action, 3148
• Boards of directors are held responsible for employee misconduct regardless of actual control #complicates (0.74) — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 163