This item showed up in the local paper today and, while it’s from an AP report that is also available via the internet, I thought scanning this from the paper was well worth the effort since this particular version of the headline seemed to capture the essence of the story so well.

The obvious parallel here is to the many crimes related to mortgage backed securities and derivatives perpetrated by Wall Street in recent years for which there have been only a few “slaps on the wrist”. My guess is that the fines paid by Wall Street firms of a couple hundred million dollars here and a half billion dollars there are in roughly the same proportions to this Nigerian man’s $2 million penalty / $145 million heist.