Out of the, you know, two people who read this damned thing. via Consumerist:
Citigroup's "account sweeping program" automatically removed positive balances from customers' credit card accounts, Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. said. For instance, if a customer double-paid a bill by mistake or refunded a purchase for credit, that positive balance was then taken from the customer without notification, Brown said.
In the words of a Citibank executive, “Stealing from our customers is a business decision, not a legal decision.” The same executive later said that the sweep program could not be stopped because it would reduce the executive bonus pool.
Step back and read that second paragraph again. Some executive
justified stealing because it would
REDUCE HIS FUCKING BONUS!!!!!! I read this story and was so totally gobsmacked I almost fell out of my chair. Where the hell were the accountants? And the worst thing about it is, as someone pointed out the comments on Consumerist, the execs stole, lined their own pocket with bonuses, and the refunds and fines are coming out of the company coffers. People who had nothing to do with this might lose their jobs or their life savings if the stock tanks.
Sometimes I just want to give up and not give a shit anymore. Then I read about people
like these, who drove across the country to rescue dogs they'd never met and knew nothing about, and I think there might be hope for humanity yet. As Jimmy
Tock said in
Life Expectancy, "Where there's cake, there's hope. And there's always cake."
