if, like most americans overwhelmed by the complexity of our current financial crisis, you know the banks pulled some really shady shit but can't quite put your finger on what exactly it was they did, allow me to present for your delectation a little bank fraud to which everybody can relate.
consider the situation of one veronica gutierrez:
veronica, like many americans living paycheck-to-paycheck, was watching every penny. yet, as careful as (i'm sure) she was, it was inevitable that one day she'd fuck up.
hey, we've all been there, right? i can easily imagine veronica kicking herself when that check came back, knowing it was gonna cost her $22 she didn't have to spare.
what i can't so easily imagine is how veronica must've felt when she got her statement at the end of that month:
confused? lemme help you out: apparently, the good folks who ran one of the richest, most powerful banks in the country were so desperate for every last penny that they developed an algorithm which re-ordered the transactions of their poorest [and, presumably, dumbest] customers in such a way as to maximize the overdraft fees they could extort from them.
was veronica amused? not in the least; nor were the attorneys who made her the lead plaintiff in their class action.
everything i've ever said on this blog about frivolous lawsuits and/or outsized jury awards aside, screw the $66 wells fargo thought they owed veronica--i hope the bitch got $66 fucking million outta the $203 million the jury awarded in the case. and then punitive damages on top of that.
* * * * *
of course, we all know that's not the way it played out; veronica and her co-plaintiffs probably each got next to nothing, while their attorneys all became multi-millionaires, if they weren't already.
bankers, lawyers--whatever, they're all motherfuckers.
