The price of fraud

Not that I entirely disagree with Margarent Wente's argument that corporate crime needs to be far better prosecuted and punished. But she's far off base in suggesting that it's only in Canada that corporate crooks can buy their way out of serious consequences.

Here's Wente:

(T)hose in business must know Canada is a fine place to fleece the innocent and cook the books. Not for us the crusading prosecutors, the quick indictments, the speedy trials, and the lifetime jail sentences so popular in the United States.

Here, you can be pretty sure the law will take years to catch up to you (if it ever does). In the event you are found guilty, the penalty won't be so bad.

So let's check on the latest prominent white-collar crime story from the U.S. to see just what kind of sentence is being applied for those who "cook the books":

Federal regulators accused Maurice R. Greenberg, the former chief executive of the beleaguered American International Group, on Thursday of overseeing deals that fraudulently overstated A.I.G.’s financial position, claims that came after a four-year investigation.

Mr. Greenberg, 84, will pay $15 million to settle the suit, an agreement that was announced simultaneously as the government described the accusations against him. A former chief financial officer at A.I.G., Howard I. Smith, will pay $1.5 million to settle similar accusations.
...
The S.E.C. said that Mr. Greenberg and Mr. Smith were involved in “numerous improper accounting transactions” that inflated A.I.G.’s earnings from 2000 to 2005. Regulators said Mr. Greenberg publicly boasted about the company’s strength and double-digit growth while concealing its weaknesses through accounting sleights of hand.

“Greenberg and Smith oversaw various improper transactions that presented a false financial picture and allowed A.I.G. to claim success in meeting its performance goals,” Robert S. Khuzami, director of the S.E.C.’s division of enforcement, said in a statement.

Now, I'll readily note that there's a case to be made that both systems are likely painfully underequipped to provide the combination of enforcement and punishment that would be required to properly limit the risk of white-collar crime. But for anybody actually looking to determine where they can pay the lowest price for defrauding the public, the choice between at least receiving a prison sentence and being able to buy one's way out of trouble south of the border would seem to make for a fairly clear conclusion that Canada isn't the most enticing target.

(H/t to John Cole.)