For banksters like Goldman Sachs, federal criminal settlements are just a cost of doing business. Lloyd Blankfein, CEO and Chairman of Goldman Sachs. (Photo: Fortune Live Media/flickr/cc) After all, Goldman sold tens of billions of dollars’ worth of fraudulent investment packages leading to the settlement. The bottom line is that crime can pay, if it’s big enough. Yeah, the tax issue was pointed out the day it was announced. If corporations are people too, we should be giving them appropriate punishments, including a death penalty of immediate confiscation of all assets and stock. The sale of the assets could benefit schools. Government netting $4b ($5b fine less $1b tax benefit) = subsidy. Can’t explain that! Do I have to lawyersplain everything around here? Ok, SCOTUS ruled in Citizens United case that corporations are basically people. So just think of this corporation as one person, or entity. The vast majority of the employees did nothing wrong and therefore you can’t send them to jail. Think of it this way, a finger pulls the trigger on a gun and kills someone. You wouldn’t send just the finger to jail because it’s part of one person. You’d have to send the whole person to jail. Since the vast majority of that person didn’t pull the trigger, you couldn’t send the whole person to jail for the crime. Same applies here. Make sense?