For a very long time, I’ve been critical of the unwillingness of the government to put bankers behind bars. Unless some of these guys end up in jail, another crisis will happen because fines — ultimately paid by shareholders and customers — are not a deterrent to the big boys. And it turns out, no surprise, even fines are not easy to come by because the big boys have protectors.

Tension on even fines appears to be the order of the day:

The internal government documents, which revealed some tension among authorities about how aggressively to pursue the cases, suggest that at least one agency, the Treasury Department, was alert to such concerns. When authorities were being blamed for letting HSBC off the hook, Treasury officials assured top aides to Timothy F. Geithner, then the Treasury secretary, that monetary penalties were coming as “quickly as possible,” according to the documents reviewed by The New York Times.

The agency also contacted and persuaded a news organization to withdraw a report that wrongly blamed Treasury for not indicting HSBC, the documents indicate. (It’s the job of the Justice Department to decide criminal charges, Treasury explained.)

Ultimately, Treasury assessed a record $875 million fine against HSBC, accusing it of allowing Mexican drug cartels to direct money through accounts in the United States. But some critics wanted more, noting that Treasury’s own internal documents cite the bank’s “egregious violations” of money laundering laws as “qualitatively worse” than other banks.

No wonder you can’t jail the crooks.