Practitioners Complain About U.S. Reliance on Thieves Who Steal from Thieves Who Assist U.S. Taxpayers Cheat on Taxes

Practitioners are all atwitter about the U.S. obtaining information -- presumably for consideration of some sort -- misappropriated from offshore banks and using that information to convict or impose serious civil penalties against persons who joined (conspired might be the right word) with the offshore banks to hide income from the IRS. Among the arguments against such use is that the U.S. is then conspiring with those bank information thieves which is perhaps itself a crime or at least reprehensible conduct even though the target of that activity are offshore bank thieves and their U.S. tax cheat depositors. Thinking by analogy, I suppose it is equally reprehensible if the U.S. were to pay drug cartel employees for information on how to convict drug traffickers or grab their bank accounts. But, the question is, whether that type of conduct is reprehensible or the price we pay for a more civilized society. This debate will not be settled here.