The SEC and DoJ (and who else I don’t know), let the big banks get away with planned fuckery in the various markets. Once the bank scams a billion from the people the government swoops in with criminal action, but no criminals ever go to jail because that isn’t part of the plan. The government then fines the bank the predetermined sum of (let’s say) 300M. Bank pays government, government puts payment in slush fund. The bank pays the court fee’s or whatever and walks away with 700M. Then lawyers do a class action civil suit under the guise of helping the individuals that got financially screwed in the deal. They win a 300M settlement of which 75M goes to the law firm, another 50M is divided amongst fees and such, and the 175M remaining goes to the people that got screwed. They get like $12 each. Bank walks away with 400M.