Society handles organized crime by passing laws, prosecuting offenders, and if found guilty, sentencing them to prison. The offenders have every opportunity to defend themselves in court, but they don't get to help decide what's against the law or isn't.

Corporate crime should be handled in exactly the same way, except that businesses use the political process to make as many of their practices legal, and as many of the laws regulating them toothless, as possible.

You see Tom, your entire political philosophy is based on the fact that you like businessmen, that you find them admirable, and almost genetically incapable of malfeasance. You see them as heroic Randian heroes, just barely holding off the abuse and injustices of a mob of greasy lazy, shiftless, bums who just want something for nothing and only want to loot it from those who really deserve and earn it because of their entrepreneurial spirit, innovative minds, and noble work ethic.

I, on the other hand, tend to look at the private sector pretty much the same way you view IPCC bureaucrats, New York Times journalists, humanities professors, Hollywood celebrities, rock stars and professional climatologists.

Maybe its just a class thing.

Oh, and by the way, the problem is not "government influence in economics". It's the other way round.