Santa Cruz County Says No to TBTF Banks

The story of how the biggest banks on Wall Street, like JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup and others, pled guilty to a number of international financial crimes is well known. What is not quite as well known is that these banks received no penalties other than some stiff fines. Despite taking part in collusion to fill their pockets at the expense of innocent consumers, investors and global institutions, there were never any very serious penalties imposed on them.

Apparently, Santa Cruz County in California has had enough. Our client Richard Bowen, known for his role as a whistleblower in the Citigroup scandal, recently detailed the story of how the county is completely fed up with TBTF banks essentially subverting the political process by giving gigantic donations to political campaigns and drafting new pieces of legislation that benefit them. Now, the board of supervisors in the county has voted not to do any business with the big banks that were recently fined for the next five years.

Although this act doesn’t significantly hurt the banks financially, it could have a ripple effect to other municipalities across the United States. The Santa Cruz County board is urging other states, counties and cities to also refuse to do business with these banks. The idea is if every municipality said “enough is enough” and refused to work with them, eventually some level of change would have to be imposed and the banks would know they would not be able to get away unscathed from ripping off the general public.

So, while Santa Cruz County is just one small part of the country, its decision to stand up to the big banks is one that should be commended. Hopefully others will follow suit.

For more information about how you can report wrongdoing in the financial industry, contact experienced Dallas whistleblower attorney Steve Kardell at Whistleblower Law for Managers today.