Letter: Good judgment on Citi settlement

Thanks to Judge Jed Rakoff of the U.S. District Court in Manhattan for questioning the Security and Exchange Commission's settlement with Citigroup after charges of fraud in a mortgage derivatives deal ["Judge nixes Citi settlement," News, Nov. 29]. The judge said the settlement was neither fair, adequate, nor in the public interest, since the SEC didn't provide evidence on which to judge whether the settlement was appropriate. He also said a payment of $285 million was pocket change to any entity as large as Citigroup.

The SEC says it settles these cases because it doesn't have the money or staff to fight wealthy Wall Street firms in court, even though many are repeat offenders. Something is very wrong when banks cause an economic crisis that is barely investigated, fraud is too expensive to prosecute and fines are minimal. Crime certainly does pay, especially if you are a company that is too-big-to-fail in an industry that makes the biggest campaign contributions.