Reflection from the Technology Bubble

During the technology bubble in the late 90's, some investments banks created a theoretical profit and loss statement based on the performance of their IPOs. Because many deals doubled or tripled during the craze, some of the profits were astronomical.  The sales force was encouraged to "request" that buyside clients' trading commissions be two to three times the theoretical profit.  Following that metric produced projected annual sales credits that were above what the firms normally paid.  So, sales management and the investors worked out a deal.  To generate the desired ratio, institutional clients would pay trading commissions about the standard rate i.e. instead of a normal $0.05 per share, the commission would be $0.10 per share.  The bank's sales management cleared this with the legal and compliance department.  After the investigation, legal and compliance admitted to signing-off on this arrangement but thought it was only for a few firms.  It did not know that it would apply to many firms.  In the end, sales management was fined and suspended for a few months.  I do not know if anything happened to legal and compliance.