The bank’s chairman, Charles Mitchell, danced around the question of conflicts of interest between his bank’s deposit-taking and securities-underwriting activities. In any case, more attention was paid to the revelation that Mitchell had sold 18,000 bank shares to his wife at a loss to evade taxes.
事实上，在《格拉斯—斯蒂格尔法案》生效之前，佩科拉考察的只有一家商业银行——国民城市银行（National City Bank）。该行董事会主席查尔斯·米切尔（Charles Mitchell）总是在兜圈子，回避“同时从事收储和证券承销业务是否存在利益冲突”的问题。不过，备受公众关注的其实是米切尔将该行18000股股份折价卖给他妻子的避税行径。佩科拉听证把火力集中在少数烂苹果上，使系统性改革变得不那么显眼。