Aguirre, listening in the crowd, couldn't believe Khuzami's brazenness. The SEC's enforcement director was saying, in essence, that firms like Goldman Sachs and AIG and Lehman Brothers will henceforth be able to get the SEC to act as a middleman between them and the Justice Department, negotiating fines as a way out of jail time. Khuzami was basically outlining a four-step system for banks and their executives to buy their way out of prison. "First, the SEC and Wall Street player make an agreement on a fine that the player will pay to the SEC," Aguirre says. "Then the Justice Department commits itself to pass, so that the player knows he's 'safe.' Third, the player pays the SEC - and fourth, the player gets a pass from the Justice Department."
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/why-isnt-wall-street-in-jail-20110216?page=1
This is from page 5 of Matt Tabbi's Why Isn't Wall Street in Jail. Although we all know Wall Street runs Washington, it's nice to read the details.
On the other hand, the level of outright corruption, turned into normal business practice seems dangerous in some indefinable way.
CG