Michael Hiltzik: Lawbreaking corporations have wriggled off the hook for years. Biden can fix that

We know what to do with individual criminals who repeatedly break the law: We throw the book at them. Three-strikes laws in effect in California and at least 27 other states subject repeat offenders to enhanced sentences up to life in prison.

Corporations, not so much. The roll of American businesses brims with major corporations that have been found to have violated federal and state laws over and over again, sometimes more than 100 times.

Often they settle federal charges by paying a few million dollars in fines and penalties and promising not to repeat the crimes (sometimes without admitting or denying them) in return for a deferred- or non-prosecution agreement, providing they keep their noses clean.

Then they break the law again. Allegedly.

The best example of how to ride this merry-go-round comes from JPMorgan Chase. As I reported last year, JPM paid the government a record $920 million in penalties for an eight-year-long plot to rig financial markets.

Dan M.