“The next time someone tells you that bankers got off scot-free from the financial crisis, tell them they’re wrong. Really. The truth is that lots of bankers are sitting in jail for bubble- and post-bubble era crimes.

“Just not bankers who worked at giant banks. HSBC admitted laundering hundreds of millions of dollars for drug cartels, but no bankers in its employ were prosecuted. Instead, its executives agreed to cough up $1.9 billion to make the problem go away.

“The Obama Justice Department showed no such mercy at Georgia’s Tifton Banking Co., where Gary Patton Hall Jr. was convicted in a book-cooking scheme that cost taxpayers and the bank $2.8 million. Or at Ocean Bank in Miami, Fla., where Danilo Perez was sentenced to 37 months for taking bribes and evading $91,000 in taxes.”

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Read full American Banker article here