Trump Administration Stops Enforcing Regulations; Spares Corporate Wrongdoers Billions in Penalties

During the Obama years, Walmart, Barclays, and RBS complained that the admin was being unreasonable about investigations. After Trump took office, they looked to the Trump admin for a more sympathetic ear — and got one

Across the corporate landscape, the Trump administration has presided over a sharp decline in financial penalties against banks and big companies accused of malfeasance, according to analyses of government data and interviews with more than 60 former and current federal officials. The approach mirrors the administration’s aggressive deregulatory agenda throughout the federal government.

Essentially, Republicans want no rules for corporations, which they term as "evil regulations."  It takes years, perhaps decades, to get rid of them.  So in the meantime, they simply stop enforcing them.  They fail to uphold their elected duty to enforce the law.

In the final months of the Obama administration, Walmart was... to accept a guilty plea to resolve a foreign bribery investigation.  Barclays faced... $7 billion to settle civil claims that it had sold toxic mortgage investments that helped fuel the 2008 financial crisis, and the Royal Bank of Scotland was ensnared in a criminal investigation over its role in the crisis.

The three corporate giants complained that the Obama administration was being unreasonable.... After President Trump took office.... Federal prosecutors and the Securities and Exchange Commission have yet to charge Walmart, and the Justice Department reached a much lower settlement agreement with Barclays in March, for $2 billion. R.B.S. paid a civil penalty, but escaped criminal charges altogether.

Government exists to respresent and protect US, the people of America.  That should involve working with corporations for the mutual benefit of everyone.  The powerful companies that dominate our society aren't inherently evil but a government of Republicans letting them do whatever they want is.

... top political appointees under Mr. Trump have led a philosophical shift in governing that favors big business and prioritizes the interests of individual investors.

Comparing cases filed during the first 20 months of the Trump presidency with the final 20 months of the Obama administration, the review found:

• A 62 percent drop in penalties imposed and illicit profits ordered returned by the S.E.C., to $1.9 billion under the Trump administration from $5 billion under the Obama administration;

• A 72 percent decline in corporate penalties from the Justice Department’s criminal prosecutions, to $3.93 billion from $14.15 billion, and a similar percent drop in civil penalties against financial institutions, to $7.4 billion;

Trump's Republican appointees soft approach toward banks will open the door to the sort of reckless Wall Street behavior that spurred the financial crisis, particularly as federal regulators ease some Obama-era rules adopted after the crisis.

Robert J. Jackson Jr., a Democratic commissioner at the SEC, said the philosophy of Republican commissioners sent the wrong message. “We should be trying to deter management from committing fraud, not rewarding corporations when their lawyers cleverly mask bad deeds,” he said, while declining to discuss specific cases.

“The goal is really to instill in those who are regulated the illusion that the government is everywhere and looking over your shoulder,” said Harvey L. Pitt, a Republican who was chairman of the S.E.C. under President George W. Bush. “If you take away that threat, that could embolden some to keep breaking the law.”

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/03/us/trump-sec-doj-corporate-penalties.html