Aaron Swartz Taken To Trial But Not The Last 18 Banks Accused of Lending Discrimination

In the past four years, banks and other financial institutions have paid over $560 million to resolve Justice Department allegations of lending discrimination. The problem is that without any trials the public never learns the truth of the matter or whether the $560 million paid was an appropriate figure or not.

When no one is personally held accountable at the banks (and no one was) then for banks it just becomes a cost benefit analysis of how much discrimination they conduct. Clearly, that's a subversion of the intended purpose of the law.

Of course, it's not just lending discrimination that this problem occurs with. It happens in almost every case prosecuted by the government. In False Claims Act cases, the government can swoop in, in the last moment and negotiate a settlement which can rescue or destroy a company. Government over and under prosecution essentially means that the government controls your ability to survive as it did in the case of Aaron Swartz.