[img]2283|right|Jeff Cooper||no_popup[/img]Reporting this morning on the largest one-bank government-assessed penalty in history, USA Today, in its page one news story, wrung its hands exasperatedly because no single man or woman emerged as a villain to assuage the public’s alleged need to quench its thirst for revenge.
And, suggested the newspaper, baldly, B of A seems to be getting away with taxation murder.
City Councilman Jeff Cooper, a banker, responded to the penalty assessed for selling toxic mortgage securities during the runup to the mid-decade recession.
USA Today found three problems with the Justice Dept.’s whopping or former bakfine of Bank of America of $16.65 billion:
• “No present or former bank officials were identified as responsible for specific wrongdoings.”
• “There is nothing to stop the nation’s second largest bank from deducting billions of the payments from its tax returns.”
• “There are no details on investor losses or bank gains.”
“Funny thing is,” Councilman Cooper told the newspaper, “B of A thought it was getting a great deal in 2008 when it purchased Countrywide Financial Corp. for $4.1 billion
“But now they have surpassed $60 billion in penalties.
“I don’t see Bank of America as the bad guy,” said Mr. Cooper, who works for a rival bank.
“They just made the worst decision in the history of business, and they are stuck holding the bag.”
In Mr. Cooper’s view. “Countrywide and its executives are the true bad guys. They condoned much of the illegal activity that has forever changed the landscape in the mortgage lending business.”
Mr. Cooper said this morning that he hopes “most of the penalty money goes back into the communities who suffered the heaviest damage from this debacle.”
