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Comment by bsder | Hacker News Reader

> But the idea that he should go to prison for something like this is ludicrous.

Fine. Then the company should get the "death penalty" and be liquidated.

Especially for something like the banking sector where the federal government could replace a bank almost instantaneously, the "death penalty" should get dropped on companies that engage in malfeasance.

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> Especially for something like the banking sector where the federal government could replace a bank almost instantaneously...

Say what? It takes months to years for the FDIC to wind up a small bank. What is your basis for saying that the government can replace a huge bank almost instantly?

(Or perhaps the correct question is: What is your definition of "replace"?)

Fire the board and all the senior executives, announce a one-month grace period during which no new internal policies will be promulgated, seek a temporary continuance in any ongoing legal cases, and require the firm to undergo a total audit by a new external auditor. Set up a new firm, raise money through an IPO, do a mandatory buyback of all outstanding shares in the original company, and shut it down.

Since the bank isn't actually insolvent, this is much less drastic than winding it up. Of course it's far more complex than I'm outlining here and might take 6 months or a year. But if corporations can always rely on 'too big to fail' then what good is enforcement? A corporate charter that can't ever be withdrawn is basically a license to commit crime in perpetuity by shuffling the personnel.

If we're giving out personal rights without any of the accompanying responsibilities then how do you expect people to maintain any respect for the legal system? It's rather obviously in decline, not least through episodes such as this.

It takes months to years for the FDIC to wind up a small bank.

I'm sure it's something that could be streamlined with enough practice.

>>Fine. Then the company should get the "death penalty" and be liquidated.

Exactly. After all, corporations are people right? So let's actually treat them like we treat people.

You kill people that rob other people? Where are you from?

Perhaps we should just ban Wells Fargo from business for a couple of years then, equivalent to a prison sentence.

So you would fire 260k+ people from one day to another? Thats pretty cold.

* Perhaps we should just ban Wells Fargo from business for a couple of years then, equivalent to a prison sentence.*

The state of California did something like this, suspending Wells Fargo from bond-investment work, at the end of September:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-09-28/californi...

In theory, we would put the company in jail. However, this isn't possible.

The fiduciary value of a human life is about one million dollars. Robbing customers or society collectively of, say, 500 million dollars is thus equivalent to massacring 500 people. Yes, business corporations which commit that level of crime should be dissolved.

>After all, corporations are people right

Except they're not, and no one says they are.

All the court said was that groups of people don't lose rights they have as individuals.

So if A has right X B has right X C has right X

then A+B+C have right X

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