Recruiters Warn Jailing Executives Could Make Money Laundering Less Attractive To Top Talent

WASHINGTON — BofA's executive search team warned Wednesday that jailing executives for money laundering could undermine recruitment, forcing talented candidates to consider other high paying careers where committing felonies could have fewer consequences.

Responding to reports of Bank of America ($BAC) paying a $1.2 billion fine related to money laundering, hiring experts proposed maintaining the standard "no jail time" while keeping penalties payable by shareholders...

“You cannot build a world-class financial institution if your best people are constantly being taken out of the building,” said banking policy director Aspen Uhrig.

“That is what retirement packages are for.”

The proposal formalizes an arrangement refined since the global financial crisis: institutions absorb fines, executives absorb lessons, and families absorb the loss of their homes and/or other consequences... Recruiters credited this approach with maintaining exceptional esprit de corps through several difficult bonus seasons.

Hiring executives acknowledged that the rules may not be applied consistently among all financial firms, especially where crypto-related startups were concerned...

"Systemic misconduct requires continuity of leadership... And an established bank has the infrastructure to easily process a penalty,” explained regulatory affairs counsel Kim Brown.

“At a crypto startup, sometimes the only asset we can reliably seize is the founder.”