[vmception]

When looking at other large investment banks, I think he would have succeeded

Whether it was HSBC’s opium trading

Or JP Morgan Chase’s fraudulent securities offering for a water company that decided to operate as a bank

There are lots of examples of maneuvering towards legal legitimacy

It really just depends on where your ambitions lie and what consequences you are willing to risk.

(note: all those banks are now results of many mergers and hardly represent their oldest branches)