Welcome to the Fascist States of America

By Rob C.

Art by Christopher Weyant

Once upon a time in America, if you committed a crime—especially one that involved fraud, bribery, mass negligence, or poisoning entire communities—you were prosecuted.

That era is over.

Today, if you’re a massive corporation or a wealthy financier with friends in high places, you don’t go to jail. You don’t even go to trial. Instead, you enter into a Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA) or a Non-Prosecution Agreement (NPA)—a get-out-of-jail-free card lovingly handed to you by the U.S. Department of Justice.

Let’s be clear: these aren’t settlements. They’re sweetheart deals that let criminal enterprises keep doing business as usual, with the DOJ’s rubber stamp.

The Art of the DPA: A Corporatist Fairy Tale

Remember Enron? After their spectacular collapse in 2001—caused by mind-melting fraud and manipulation—DOJ officials could have dismantled the financial con game at the heart of Wall Street. Instead, they launched a handful of prosecutions and quietly began a tradition of slaps on the wrist for the next generation of white-collar crime syndicates.

Then came General Motors. In 2014, GM knowingly sold cars with faulty ignition switches that killed at least 124 people. What was their punishment? A deferred prosecution agreement and a $900 million fine. No executives went to prison. Nobody at the top was held accountable. The company walked away with a little financial ding and a public relations apology.

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Boeing? Same story, even deadlier. After two 737 MAX crashes killed 346 people, Boeing reached a DPA with the DOJ in 2021. The fine? $2.5 billion—most of which was already earmarked to compensate airlines, not victims. No one at Boeing went to jail. Their CEO walked away with a golden parachute worth over $60 million.

John Oliver put it best in his latest segment: “DPAs are like saying, ‘Yes, you did something that killed hundreds of people, but instead of facing consequences, you’ll promise to be good—and we’ll call it justice.’”

But this goes so much farther than just those three companies.

A Quick Tour Through Corporate Crime Disneyland

• HSBC, one of the world’s largest banks, was caught laundering hundreds of millions for Mexican drug cartels and terrorist organizations. Their punishment? A DPA in 2012. Nobody went to jail. Their profits continued and so did their money laundering.

• Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson have both faced multiple NPAs and DPAs for illegal marketing, kickbacks, and fraud—raking in billions while paying settlements that barely dent their quarterly profits.

• Goldman Sachs? After its role in the 1MDB scandal—one of the largest financial frauds in history—they paid a fine and signed a DPA. No execs went to jail. Of course not.

• And Jeffrey Epstein? Not a corporation, but a Wall Street cash machine and prolific sex trafficker. His 2008 non-prosecution agreement—signed by Trump’s future Labor Secretary, Alex Acosta—granted immunity not just to Epstein, but to “any potential co-conspirators.” It was the legal equivalent of burning evidence in front of the victims' faces.

How Did This Happen?

Simple. The Department of Justice has been captured by corporate interests. Instead of prosecuting crimes, they “negotiate” with criminal enterprises. The logic goes: a prosecution might destabilize the economy. So better to let these companies pay a modest fee, agree to “internal reforms,” and carry on raking in profits—even if it means more deaths, more fraud, more environmental destruction.

This logic has allowed corporate America to operate like an untouchable aristocracy. If you dump toxic waste in drinking water, lie to regulators, or knowingly sell lethal products, you don’t go to jail. You write a check. If you're lucky (and they always are), you don’t even admit wrongdoing.

But shoplift a pack of hotdogs from a Walmart? You might get tackled and tased by officers, arrested, and serve years in jail.

Justice For Sale

Let’s be blunt: if you're a powerful corporation, a politically connected executive, or a Wall Street banker with deep pockets and deeper secrets, you don’t need to obey the law. You just need to sponsor it.

If you kill 346 people with a faulty plane, or launder money for terrorist groups, or peddle opioids to millions while pretending you didn’t know what was happening — you’ll be invited to the negotiation table at the DOJ.

But if you’re a whistleblower, a protester, or a poor person of color caught with a dime bag of weed — the full weight of the American justice system will come crashing down on your head.

This isn’t a democracy.
This isn’t even capitalism.
This is state-sanctioned fascism — where the merger of corporate power and government protection is complete.

Welcome to the Fascist States of America.