It's not a conviction of BP, Transocean or Halliburton; none of the companies has even been indicted in the Macondo/Deepwater Horizon oil blowout that killed 11 workers, spilled a gazillion barrels of oil killing untold numbers of marine life and coating miles of coastline with oil and dead animals. Reports have noted numerous cost-cutting shortcuts that BP and its contractors made which led to the disaster, but intentionally cutting corners and dismissing safe operating procedures, and thereby killing people and ruining the environment is just business as usual in the oil business. BP has been fined, but no one now seems to have any prospect of going to jail.

So far, only little people have been indicted for allegedly making 'false claims' for damages from the oil spill. One man is accused of falsely receiving almost $10,000, and another woman may have received less than $2,000 when she did not legally qualify for the money.

This isn't a case against Wall Street. Making an insane salary for crashing your company and the nation's economy with it is perfectly legal.  Dick Fuld, who a few years ago was rendered compensation of over 1/2 billion ($500,000,000.00-five hundred million) for leading Lehman Brothers into bankruptcy, and who apparently lied to Congress over the amount of his compensation, has not been indicted or fined for malfeasance.  The taxpayers and Helicopter Ben are there to provide trillions or whatever it takes in 0% money to the Street until they are on their feet again, up to the same old business of making billions in compensation, for mismanaging the nation's cash box. If Fuld was ever fined, what remains of Lehman Brothers would probably pay his legal bills and he would keep the $500 million. And its not the case of Joe Cassano, the guy who crashed AIG, and got paid tens of millions for doing it. He is off the hook. No crime there.

No, the case the Fed's just slam dunked was of a 29 year old student who bid up the price of some Utah oil leases at the end of the Bush administration, in the hope that some of the leases would never be sold or developed, as he felt they would despoil some scenic Utah wildlands near National Parks or Monuments. The crime? Falsely filling out some federal forms and not having a few millions to actually buy the leases. The penalty? Up to 10 years in jail and $750,000 in fines are possible.

The damage from the false lease bids? Well, nobody got killed, no oil was leaked, no, nothing but a slight speed bump in oil drilling in Utah. Maybe some leases that cost more than would have been spent.  Almost half the leases planned were dropped anyway by the Obama administration due to complaints from the National Park Service. Some scenic lands may be saved for now from oil derricks and spills. The oil will still be there. The final sentence for Tim DeChristopher has yet to be made.

The lesson in American justice from all this? Justice is like speech in America. The more money you have, the more you get, be it speech or justice, if you can call it justice at all.