海角大神

The Justice Department has just obtained聽聽showing thatJPMorgan Chase, Wall Street鈥檚 biggest bank, has been hiring the children of China鈥檚 ruling elite in order to secure 鈥渆xisting and potential business opportunities鈥� from Chinese government-run companies. 鈥淵ou all know I have always been a big believer of the Sons and Daughters program,鈥� says one JP Morgan executive in an email, because 鈥渋t almost has a linear relationship鈥� to winning assignments to advise Chinese companies. The documents even include spreadsheets that list the bank鈥檚 鈥渢rack record鈥� for converting hires into business deals.

It鈥檚 a serious offense. But let鈥檚 get real. How different is bribing China鈥檚 鈥減rincelings,鈥� as they鈥檙e called there, from Wall Street鈥檚 ongoing program of hiring departing U.S. Treasury officials, presumably in order to grease the wheels of official聽Washington? Timothy Geithner, Obama鈥檚 first Treasury Secretary,聽is now president of the private-equity firm Warburg Pincus;聽Obama鈥檚 budget director Peter Orszag is now a top executive at Citigroup.

Or, for that matter, how different is what JP Morgan did in China from Wall Street鈥檚 habit of hiring the children of powerful American politicians? (I don鈥檛 mean to suggest Chelsea Clinton聽got her hedge-fund job at Avenue Capital LLC, where she worked from 2006 to 2009, on the basis of anything other than her financial talents.)聽

And how much worse is JP Morgan鈥檚 putative offense in China than the torrent of money JP Morgan and every other major Wall Street bank is pouring into the campaign coffers of American politicians 鈥� making the Street one of the major backers of Democrats as well as Republicans?

罢丑别听, under which JP Morgan could be indicted for the favors it has bestowed in China, is quite strict. It prohibits American companies from paying money or offering anything of value to foreign officials for the purpose of 鈥渟ecuring any improper advantage.鈥� Hiring one of their children can certainly qualify as a gift, even without any direct benefit to the official.

JP Morgan couldn鈥檛 even defend itself by arguing it didn鈥檛 make any particular deal or get any specific advantage as a result of the hires. Under the Act, the gift doesn鈥檛 have to be linked to any particular benefit to the American firm as long as it鈥檚 intended to generate an advantage its competitors don鈥檛 enjoy.

Compared to this, corruption of American officials is a breeze.聽Consider, for example,聽Countrywide Financial鈥檚 generous 鈥淔riends of Angelo鈥� lending program, named after its chief executive,聽Angelo R. Mozilo, that gave discounted mortgages to influential members of Congress and their staffs before the housing bubble burst. No criminal or civil charges have ever been filed related to these loans.

Even before the Supreme Court鈥檚 shameful 2010聽鈥淐itizens United鈥� decision 鈥� equating corporations with human beings under the First Amendment, and thereby shielding much corporate political spending 鈥� Republican appointees to the Court had done everything they could to blunt anti-bribery laws in the United States. In 1999, in 鈥淯nited States v. Sun-Diamond Growers,鈥� Justice Scalia, writing for the Court, interpreted an anti-bribery law so loosely as to allow corporations to give gifts to public officials unless the gifts are linked to specific policies.

We don鈥檛 even require that American corporations disclose to their own shareholders the largesse they bestow on our politicians.聽Last year around this time, when the Securities and Exchange Commission released its 2013 to-do list, it signaled it might formally propose a rule to require corporations to disclose their political spending. The idea had attracted more than 600,000 mostly favorable comments from the public, a record response for the agency.

But the idea mysteriously slipped off the 2014 agenda released last week, without explanation. Could it have anything to do with the fact that, soon after becoming SEC chair last April, Mary Jo White was聽pressed by Republican lawmakers聽to abandon the idea, which was fiercely opposed by business groups.

The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act is important, and JP Morgan should be nailed for bribing Chinese officials. But, if you鈥檒l pardon me for asking, why isn鈥檛 there a Domestic Corrupt Practices Act?

Never before has so much U.S. corporate and Wall-Street money poured into our nation鈥檚 capital, as well as into our state capitals. Never before have so many Washington officials taken jobs in corporations, lobbying firms, trade associations, and on the Street immediately after leaving office. Our democracy is drowning in big money.

Corruption is corruption, and bribery is bribery, in whatever country or language it鈥檚 transacted in.