Germans have Heartburn

      How do you treat a billion dollar case of heartburn?  That's the question on the minds of lots of Germans, lots of bankers in Germany, and lots of statesmen who have to negotiate with a certain prosecutor from New York: Preet Bharara.  Seems that he found reason to believe that a certain bank was doing business with Iran despite sanctions against such activity.   Hmmm.  You mean us?  Not us, we wouldn't think of it.   We are not Swiss, we are not Greek, and we are definitely not Italian.  No, never.   Well, OK, but we did just a little.  Well, actually more than just a little.   OK, we did a lot but it was an accident.  Ok, we Germans can fess up because we are a proud people that sometimes gets it a little bit wrong.   How much is it going to cost us, this time?
     What?  You must be joking.  That's 1 followed by 9 zeros?  Hmmm hundred grand, a million, and... hey, wait, that's a billion dollars.  That ain't hay.  That's... OK.  We'll pay it.
      So, Germany's Commerzbank AG fell over and agreed to pay a fine, after the State of New York, the US Dept. Of Justice, and the Manhattan District Attorney's Office(Preet Bharara) combined their cases into just 2 instead of 3.    All three offices said the bank had poor money laundering controls in place.  Hmm.  Tsk, tsk.  Makes you wonder just how far Uncle Sam's arms are reaching these days.  I expect soon we'll see a few oligarchs go down this road with Preet.