The Political Scene | The New Yorker

Patrick Radden Keefe and Sheelah Kolhatkar on Prosecuting Financial Crimes

Episode Summary

<p>Jesse Eisinger’s book “The Chickenshit Club” asks why the Justice Department fails to prosecute financial executives for criminal business dealings. The staff writer <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/contributors/patrick-radden-keefe">Patrick Radden Keefe</a>, who has covered crime of many kinds, <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/07/31/why-corrupt-bankers-avoid-jail">reviewed</a> the book for <em>The New Yorker. </em>He compared notes with his fellow staff writer <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/contributors/sheelah-kolhatkar">Sheelah Kolhatkar</a>, who writes the magazine’s Financial Page. How, they wonder, can the government charge a bank a sixteen-billion-dollar fine for wrongdoing yet fail to prosecute any individual at that bank for a crime?</p>

Episode Notes

Jesse Eisinger’s book “The Chickenshit Club” asks why the Justice Department fails to prosecute financial executives for criminal business dealings. The staff writer Patrick Radden Keefe, who has covered crime of many kinds, reviewed the book for The New Yorker. He compared notes with his fellow staff writer Sheelah Kolhatkar, who writes the magazine’s Financial Page. How, they wonder, can the government charge a bank a sixteen-billion-dollar fine for wrongdoing yet fail to prosecute any individual at that bank for a crime?