Big dirty money : the shocking injustice and unseen cost of white collar crime / Jennifer Taub.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Taub, Jennifer, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

White collar crimes--United States.

White collar crimes.

United States.

Commercial crimes--United States.

Commercial crimes.

Physical Description:

xxxvi, 298 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

[New York, New York] : Viking, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, [2020]

Summary:

"There is an elite crime spree happening in America, and the privileged perps are getting away with it. Selling loose cigarettes on a city sidewalk can lead to a choke-hold arrest, and death, if you are not among the top 1%. But if you're rich and commit mail, wire, or bank fraud, embezzle pension funds, lie in court, obstruct justice, bribe a public official, launder money, or cheat on your taxes, you're likely to get off scot-free (or even win an election). When caught and convicted, such as for bribing their kids' way into college, high-class criminals make brief stops in minimum security "Club Fed" camps. Operate the scam from the executive suite of a giant corporation, and you can prosper with impunity. Consider Wells Fargo & Co. Pressured by management, employees at the bank opened more than three million bank and credit card accounts without customer consent, and charged late fees and penalties to account holders. When CEO John Stumpf resigned in "shame," the board of directors granted him a $134 million golden parachute. This is not victimless crime. Big Dirty Money details the scandalously common and concrete ways that ordinary Americans suffer when the well-heeled use white collar crime to gain and sustain wealth, social status, and political influence. Profiteers caused the mortgage meltdown and the prescription opioid crisis, they've evaded taxes and deprived communities of public funds for education, public health, and infrastructure. Taub goes beyond the headlines (of which there is no shortage) to track how we got here (essentially a post-Enron failure of prosecutorial muscle, the growth of "too big to jail" syndrome, and a developing implicit immunity of"-- Provided by publisher.

If you're rich and commit mail, wire, or bank fraud, embezzle pension funds, lie in court, obstruct justice, bribe a public official, launder money, or cheat on your taxes, you are likely to get off scot-free. When caught and convicted, high-class criminals make brief stops in minimum security "Club Fed" camps. Taub details the scandalously common and concrete ways that ordinary Americans suffer when the well-heeled use white collar crime to gain and sustain wealth, social status, and political influence. She shows how profiteers caused the mortgage meltdown and the prescription opioid crisis, they've evaded taxes and deprived communities of public funds for education, public health, and infrastructure. -- adapted from jacket

Contents:

Preface: Crime scene

Defining white collar crime

Harm beyond measure

Corporate crime waves and crackdowns

Victims in the shadows

Mutually assured immunity for the upper class

Forgiveness for the fortunate

Whistleblowers and journalists

A contagion of public corruption

Suspicious minds

Tax and punish

The six fixes

Epilogue: Crime after Trump.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 231-283) and index.

Other Format:

Online version: Taub, Jennifer. Big dirty money

ISBN:

9781984879974

1984879979

OCLC:

1157844593

Publisher Number:

99985358606