Banks hit with $549 million in fines for use of Signal, WhatsApp to evade regulators’ reach::Wells Fargo, a relatively small player on Wall Street, racked up the most fines Tuesday, with a total of $200 million in penalties.

  • 👁️👄👁️@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    184
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    Private speech is never the problem and should absolutely be encouraged as a human right. The problem here is them avoiding regulators and should get fucked for that alone, that’s the crime here. Signal and Whatsapp should not be mentioned at all and this is an attempt to push “encryption bad” narrative.

    • treadful@lemmy.zip
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      45
      ·
      1 year ago

      Yeah, the issue is evading records keeping requirements. The issue is not encrypted communications.

      These articles make me pucker my asshole. Like it could be that thing that sends us down that slippery slope.

    • FlumPHP@programming.dev
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      34
      ·
      1 year ago

      I worked at a firm that was regulated and audited by the SEC. The standard lesson from the compliance department was always to have potentially problematic conversations out loud instead of in email or Slack. They never needed encryption to avoid regulators.

    • broguy89@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      14
      ·
      1 year ago

      I see this as a “yes, Signal is secure, look, they used it and are getting away with it too” narrative.

    • hackitfast@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      8
      ·
      1 year ago

      I thought about that already. It’s absolutely intentional, because you already know that they’ll keep using those apps, and even if they were illegal, they would keep using them and just get another fine, which is obviously not something that bothers them. It’s to prevent normal people from having any privacy.

  • db2@sopuli.xyz
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    97
    arrow-down
    3
    ·
    1 year ago

    It’s cost if doing business for them though, the “fines” are a farce, just protection money paid to a gang.

    • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      53
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      1 year ago

      they really need to start with forfeiting all profits. and then maybe a percentage-based fine on top of that.

      make it really painful, in the only place these people can be hurt.

      • db2@sopuli.xyz
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        7
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        1 year ago

        They’ll just pass it along to the customers though, that would have to be made very illegal first… and even then they’d probably do it anyway and blame it on the tellers. In the sea of illegal things Wells Fargo has already done that wouldn’t even make a ripple.

    • SatanicNotMessianic@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      30
      ·
      1 year ago

      I feel like they need to apply charges like conspiracy and fraud against the individuals responsible. When I worked in national security oriented roles, the standard response when being asked to break the law (eg reveal classified info) was to say “I could do that, but I look really bad in orange.”

      If the individuals being asked to commit violations and crimes were held individually responsible more often, people would be less likely to do it.

      White collar crime costs the economy far more than other kinds of crime, and that’s due to a lack of enforcement caused by misaligned priorities.

    • Overzeetop@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      8
      ·
      1 year ago

      The obvious first step is revocation and personal barring for life every single person who participated in the communication from holding a SEC license. The second is jail time for anyone who did it willfully. The third is revocation of their corporation or, in the interest of stockholders who are about to become personally liable, a 50 year probationary period in which revocation of corporation is automatic should any other infraction come to light.

      • db2@sopuli.xyz
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        But since the wolves are minding the hen house that’ll never happen… it’ll take French tactics.

      • Overzeetop@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        1 year ago

        Revocation of corporate status. A corporation is a status set out in US law. No corporate status, no legal protection for officers or shareholders. All liability falls personally and directly on the owners.

        • SwingingTheLamp@midwest.social
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          edit-2
          1 year ago

          Yeah, seriously, why do people forget this so easily? THE GOVERNMENT GRANTS SPECIAL PRIVILEGES TO CORPORATIONS. Any stipulations, limitations, or exceptions are absolutely fair game. Ideally, we grant corporate charters to promote commerce and benefit society. Nobody has a right to a corporate charter, so if a corporation is harming us, we should terminate it like the pregnancy of a Republican’s mistress.

  • meseek #2982@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    41
    ·
    1 year ago

    And made $5 billion on the deal. I imagine it’s like “oh right, now we have to pay off the regulators, I mean the fine.”

    • Oneobi@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      6
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      1 year ago

      Its a shit show. Staff can’t event send a text saying they are sick unless they use an approved business communication channel.

      Worst still, if you receive said comms from staff on a non approved channel, eg your personal phone, you have to report it to HR.

      There is no way bank’s can operate like that so the regulator is going to be lining their pockets for quite some time.

  • Mojojojo1993@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    30
    arrow-down
    5
    ·
    1 year ago

    Oh no. In other news banks keep breaking the law and using our money to pay fines.

    Remove banks. Leach on society that provide nothing. Yet they are the reason we can’t frolic in the meadows.

      • Mojojojo1993@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        Crypto is currently run and maintained by the banks. Blockchain could be the answer if it wasn’t under the thumb of the banking elite.

        Nothing of value can happen until the old die.

        • chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          I don’t think that’s true for the most part, care to elaborate? Which banks can stop me from sending which cryptocurrencies?

          • Mojojojo1993@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            1 year ago

            You wouldn’t send crypto from a bank. I know that my banks. 3 of them refused to buy crypto. So that for a start.

            Also jp Morgan and other huge conglomerates have massive holdings in and against Bitcoin. So it’s not for the poor’s. It’s bring manipulated by the mega wealthy.

            • chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              2
              ·
              1 year ago

              You wouldn’t send crypto from a bank.

              Right, that’s the point, you don’t need a bank to send or receive it, banks aren’t involved in that process at all.

              I know that my banks. 3 of them refused to buy crypto.

              They don’t do this because they run crypto, they do it because they don’t want you to be able to use crypto.

              It’s bring manipulated by the mega wealthy.

              True, but that just means if you try to play the market you’re likely to get burned. That’s separate from whether they’re an alternative to the problems posed by banks. In this case the article is about banks having poor transparency and record keeping so they can get away with shit. Crypto has great transparency, not just to the government but to anyone who cares to look at a record of every transaction. Banks don’t want that for the obvious reasons.

              • Mojojojo1993@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                2
                ·
                1 year ago

                You need to use fiat to purchase crypto. Suppose you could mine it. Banks are though. Most sites I use require verification now and banks are involved in that process.

                I’m aware of that but they are heavily invested in Bitcoin and making money from it. They don’t want it to succeed but they do what monies from exploiting it.

                I’m aware. Not crypto but blockchain has impeccable transparency. Every politician and business should show a paper trail of what they spend our money on.

                Auz has receipts of what their tax is “spent” on. Be great to force that through but they control the laws so far chance

  • Etterra@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    11
    ·
    1 year ago

    That isn’t a fine. That’s the cutest if doing business to these assholes. I keep saying it, fines need to be calculated on a logarithmic scale based on income and net assets. That goes for everything from a speeding ticket to wire fraud - literally every crime with a fine as punishment.

    • NeoNachtwaechter@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      1 year ago

      Don’t need no logarithm :-)

      Just 1% of their worldwide year’s revenue for each day when the offence is/was happening.

  • plebonix@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    9
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    1 year ago

    Quantum computers accessible only to the rich and powerful can’t get here soon enough…

    • snek_boi@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      1 year ago

      Are you saying that quantum computers could help the rich encrypt their communications better?

      • Beliriel@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        1 year ago

        Haha the only thing a quantum channel does is verifying if a message has been altered (looking at a message alters it).
        Actual encryption that prevents the Shor algorithm from having a linear running time have been around for quite some time now and can be easily run on normal machines. NIST is just taking its sweet time to decide on one.

    • Deiv@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      18
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      U.S. regulators on Tuesday announced a combined $549 million in penalties against Wall Street firms that failed to maintain electronic records of employee communications.

      The Securities and Exchange Commission announced charges against 11 firms for “widespread and longstanding failures” to maintain records, including by allowing employees to use unsupervised side channels such as messaging apps WhatsApp and Signal, the regulator said.

      Wells Fargo was the biggest U.S. bank cited Tuesday in the sweeping actions.

      beep boop, I’m not a bot

    • Disgusted_Tadpole@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      Exsúrgat Deus et dissipéntur inimíci ejus: et fúgiant qui odérunt eum a fácie ejus. Sicut déficit fumus defíciant; sicut fluit cera a fácie ígnis, sic péreant peccatóres a fácie Dei. Júdica Dómine nocéntes me; expúgna impugnántes me. Confundántur et revereántur quaeréntes ánimam meam. Avertántur retrórsum et confundántur, cogitántes míhi mála.

  • shadowspirit@geddit.social
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    6
    ·
    1 year ago

    We know most banks are scummy but Wells Fargo takes the cake. That bank is always wrapped up in some BS. If WAMU can fail we should go ahead and let Wells Fargo become extinct.