Liberal cronyism within the Obama administration is alive and well.

With government encouragement, Bank of America bought Countrywide and Merrill Lynch during the 2008 financial crisis. This entailed taking on their assets and liabilities.

In 2014, the Justice Department and Bank of America reached a settlement meant to adequately address violations that arose from the crisis for those entities. The settlement was a whopping $16.6 billion bill to settle the mortgage fraud penalty.

It was reported Wednesday that Bank of America was able to skirt the entire $16.6 billion and clear their record with a mere $84 million in donations.

That’s donations, folks.

As reported by the Washington Examiner:

The bank wasn’t exploiting any loophole. It’s a key part of the deal the Justice Department offered to get it to settle in the first place. For every dollar the bank has given the nonprofits — none of which were victims of fraud themselves — it has claimed at least two dollars off the settlement. The deal ensured the Obama administration that a certain part of the settlement funds would go to friendly liberal groups, bypassing the normal congressional appropriations.

Among the groups receiving the money were Hispanic civil rights group the National Council of La Raza ($1.5 million), the National Urban League ($1.1 million) and the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America ($750,000).

In other words, the consumer relief the penalty was meant to provide went to anybody but the consumers.

“’This is nothing short of a shakedown and another example of how the Obama administration is rigging the system to benefit their political allies. Instead of directing settlements directly to victims or returning the money to the U.S. Treasury, President Obama set up a slush fund for community organizers and other liberal activists. This is outrageous,’ said Rep. Sean Duffy, R-Wis., chairman of the Financial Services Committee’s Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee.”

Similar language has been drafted into agreements for Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, and Goldman Sachs.

The Obama administration will surely go down as the most corrupt administration in our short, national history – at least until the next administration takes over.