As the former CEO of disgraced credit rating agency Equifax testified in front of the Senate on Tuesday (Oct. 4), an icon of wealth and greed was there to steal the spotlight.
While Richard Smith spoke to the Senate Banking Committee, a protestor dressed as Rich Uncle Pennybags (commonly called the “Monopoly man”), the mascot of the popular board game, sat just a few rows behind him, behatted and wielding a monocle.
The advocacy group Public Citizen took responsibility for the gag, noting in a press release that they were in favor of “defending limits on forced arbitration from congressional attack with a special delivery to all 100 U.S. Senate offices: a mock “Get-Out-of-Jail-Free” card for the banks.”
CNN identified the protestor as Amanda Werner, who in response to questions said that Equifax and other institutions “use these ripoff clauses buried in the fine print to ensure that consumers can’t join together to hold them accountable in court.”
Equifax, currently managing the fallout of a massive data breach affecting more than 145 million people, attracted widespread criticism when it offered credit monitoring services for those affected which initially included language limiting plaintiffs’ right to sue.
