DOJ Targets Wall Street Execs

In a new policy issued this week, the Department of Justice has shifted focus to prioritize prosecuting individual employees for financial wrongdoing, not just their companies. According to the new protocol, corporations won’t get credit for cooperation in settlement negotiations unless they provide evidence against employees. The policy move is the first by new Attorney General Loretta Lynch, and many see it as a response to the criticism that despite astronomical fines against financial firms, few individuals have been held accountable for activities related to the 2008 financial crisis. “Corporations can only commit crimes through flesh-and-blood people,” Deputy Attorney General Sally Q. Yates wrote in the memo. “It’s only fair that the people who are responsible for committing those crimes be held accountable.”