The issue will not go away. People continue to harp on the fact that no big-name Wall Street executives have been sent to prison. Sure, there have been a few sent away. But the big names that the public holds most directly responsible for the financial crisis have been spared. At this point, few hold any hope that a criminal prosecution against a well-known executive is coming. Lehman Brothers likely represented the best opportunity for such a prosecution and that ship has sailed. 

But the issue will not die. New York magazine has weighed in with a long look at what the lack of such a prosecution means. It says that lack of such a prosecution "haunts" the country, though that may be an overstatement. Deal Book weighed in as well. 

It's fair to say that there has been no sense of closure to the financial crisis. But the fact is that a high profile prosecution that resulted in jail time for an appropriate executive might offer a poor substitution for closure, but real closure will have to wait until the recovery builds up steam and people's pocketbook's recover. Still, it would be nice for regulators to be able to point to the equivalent of Ken Lay, Jeff Skilling and the many other rogues, who ushered in the Sarbanes-Oxley era. They still languish in prison. 

The Justice Department has racked up a few wins. Lee Farkas, who ran Taylor Bean & Whitaker Mortgage Corporation, was sentenced to 30 years. Charles Antonucci Sr., the former head of Park Avenue Bank, has pleaded guilty to stealing more than $11 million. There have been a few eye-catching civil settlements as well. Angelo Mozilo comes to mind. As does the entire SEC CDO case against Goldman Sachs. But at the end of the day, there has been individual of a major financial firm held criminally responsible. 

One has to wonder what the effect of the trial of Ralph Cioffi and Mathew Tannin, formerly of Bear Stearns, had on prosecutors. The two former hedge funds executives were acquitted of charges that they mislead customers about the true state of two Bear Stearns hedge funds. The evidence relied heavily on email, which seemed incriminating but proved to be quite the opposite in the minds of jurors. The acquittal may well have chilled the effort to bring more cases based on email evidence. In any case, perhaps it's now time to move on. People need to make peace with the fact that the big names have escaped jail time. Deal with it. - Jim