Big Bank Executives Skirt Jail Time While Lesser Fish Are Left to Fry

At the sentencing hearing, the defense attorney noted these disparities: An even greater problem with the Government’s seeking a sentence of incarceration in this case is the disparity when compared to other instances of the same offense, or instances involving even more egregious conduct, such as much larger financial institutions conducting business with drug trafficking organizations and terroristic regimes like Iran. Time and time again, the United States Government has offered deferred prosecution agreements (and fines) to financial institutions whose conduct was exponentially more egregious than the conduct at issue here. Mr. Gasparian’s offense, while serious, was still far short of the conduct committed by these other institutions. Any sentence of incarceration in this case would be a loud proclamation that the rich and powerful receive one type of justice, while those less powerful receive another type. However, U.S. Judge John Walker was less than sympathetic. In addition to Gasparian’s prison sentence, G&A Check Cashing company was forced to pay a fine of $1 million and sentenced to two years probation.