Barry Ritholtz today usefully repeats a point he made earlier this month in connection with an Andrew Ross Sorkin column about the SEC's proposed settlement with Citigroup and the court's refusal to go along with it.

And that is that shareholders of companies run by corrupt management are supposed to be punished.

I first heard complaints about the supposed paradox in holding shareholders of such companies responsible for the sins of managers in connection with the frauds of Enron, Worldcom and other dodgy companies that led to the Sarbanes Oxley Act, and for some reason went brain dead on the subject along with so many other so-called financial journalists.

Of course shareholders should suffer. They failed to exercise their responsibility as owners to oversee management. Tough luck, guys. Maybe next time you'll do a better job.

None of that is to say that the managers themselves shouldn't pay a price for financial fraud. To the contrary.

Nor does concern for such shareholders' pain take into account the problems that flow outward from such corruption.

SarbOx redux, anyone? Or how about another financial crisis?