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Banks hit with $549 million in fines for use of Signal, WhatsApp to evade regulators’ reach::Wells Fargo, a relatively small player on Wall Street, racked up the most fines Tuesday, with a total of $200 million in penalties.
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Private speech is never the problem and should absolutely be encouraged as a human right. The problem here is them avoiding regulators and should get fucked for that alone, that’s the crime here. Signal and Whatsapp should not be mentioned at all and this is an attempt to push “encryption bad” narrative.
Yeah, the issue is evading records keeping requirements. The issue is not encrypted communications.
These articles make me pucker my asshole. Like it could be that thing that sends us down that slippery slope.
I work for a large American bank working under a consent order from the SEC to address this exact problem, and it’s my job to find and implement the solutions. I can say with absolute confidence that weakening platform integrity is absolutely not a solution being pushed for any of this - not least because the platform owners will 100% not cooperate with any attempt to do so.
Never considered this angle but you’re right.
I worked at a firm that was regulated and audited by the SEC. The standard lesson from the compliance department was always to have potentially problematic conversations out loud instead of in email or Slack. They never needed encryption to avoid regulators.
I see this as a “yes, Signal is secure, look, they used it and are getting away with it too” narrative.
I break the law, I go to jail. A corporation breaks the law they get a fine the equivalent of a parking ticket.
If corporations want to be people it’s time we start treating them like people. CEOs and Execs in prison. Actual fines that hurt the bottom line. And for the really egregious: shut them down, or if they’re “too big to fail” we can let the government take over or break them up into dozens of small companies ex: Baby Bells
Some countries have speeding fines set to a percentage of your pre-tax income. A student is hurt as much as a CEO. This should be the same.
Companies in prison. Unable to operate for whatever length their sentence is. When they come out, they will forever be considered a felon and will not be able to do business with most other companies.
Of you put CEOs and Execs in prison then you are not treating corporations like people. If you do something illegal then they put you in prison. Not your CEO or Execs.
Nobody’s sending you to jail for using WhatsApp.
They evaded scrutiny of regulators. That is what they’re being charged with.
It’s cost if doing business for them though, the “fines” are a farce, just protection money paid to a gang.
I feel like they need to apply charges like conspiracy and fraud against the individuals responsible. When I worked in national security oriented roles, the standard response when being asked to break the law (eg reveal classified info) was to say “I could do that, but I look really bad in orange.”
If the individuals being asked to commit violations and crimes were held individually responsible more often, people would be less likely to do it.
White collar crime costs the economy far more than other kinds of crime, and that’s due to a lack of enforcement caused by misaligned priorities.
The obvious first step is revocation and personal barring for life every single person who participated in the communication from holding a SEC license. The second is jail time for anyone who did it willfully. The third is revocation of their corporation or, in the interest of stockholders who are about to become personally liable, a 50 year probationary period in which revocation of corporation is automatic should any other infraction come to light.
But since the wolves are minding the hen house that’ll never happen… it’ll take French tactics.
Fines as a percentage of revenue. A big percentage. That’ll stop this nonsense.
Revocation of corporate status. A corporation is a status set out in US law. No corporate status, no legal protection for officers or shareholders. All liability falls personally and directly on the owners.
Yeah, seriously, why do people forget this so easily? THE GOVERNMENT GRANTS SPECIAL PRIVILEGES TO CORPORATIONS. Any stipulations, limitations, or exceptions are absolutely fair game. Ideally, we grant corporate charters to promote commerce and benefit society. Nobody has a right to a corporate charter, so if a corporation is harming us, we should terminate it like the pregnancy of a Republican’s mistress.
And made $5 billion on the deal. I imagine it’s like “oh right, now we have to pay off the regulators, I mean the fine.”
Its a shit show. Staff can’t event send a text saying they are sick unless they use an approved business communication channel.
Worst still, if you receive said comms from staff on a non approved channel, eg your personal phone, you have to report it to HR.
There is no way bank’s can operate like that so the regulator is going to be lining their pockets for quite some time.
It is finally time for FOSS banks
Nah. FOSS MONEY!
Cookie Coins!
NFT’s of coins
Nah NFT sounds bad. Money that is bound to the global cookie market is definitely a good thing.
It’s always Wells Fargo with the law breaking.
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We know most banks are scummy but Wells Fargo takes the cake. That bank is always wrapped up in some BS. If WAMU can fail we should go ahead and let Wells Fargo become extinct.
That isn’t a fine. That’s the cutest if doing business to these assholes. I keep saying it, fines need to be calculated on a logarithmic scale based on income and net assets. That goes for everything from a speeding ticket to wire fraud - literally every crime with a fine as punishment.
Don’t need no logarithm :-)
Just 1% of their worldwide year’s revenue for each day when the offence is/was happening.
Chump change for banks. Cost of doing business already sitting with the accounts team.
The banks have heavily invested in a cross platform chat app that’s (in its own words) bridging the gap.
Just wait for the consumer version ready to be pushed by governments.
small player
Tee hee!
how do i summon the auto tldr bot?
U.S. regulators on Tuesday announced a combined $549 million in penalties against Wall Street firms that failed to maintain electronic records of employee communications.
The Securities and Exchange Commission announced charges against 11 firms for “widespread and longstanding failures” to maintain records, including by allowing employees to use unsupervised side channels such as messaging apps WhatsApp and Signal, the regulator said.
Wells Fargo was the biggest U.S. bank cited Tuesday in the sweeping actions.
beep boop, I’m not a bot
Good nonbot
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