Will “Fred the Shred” Lose His Knighthood?

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tdp2664 InvestorPlace The Occupy Wall Street movement repeatedly called for the bankers responsible for the worst economic meltdown since the Great Depression to be brought to justice. While that has not happened yet, the British government may be about to take a step in that direction. Pressure in the U.K. is mounting on the government to strip the knighthood of Fred Goodwin, the former CEO of the Royal Bank of Scotland (NYSE: RBS ). This would be a rare but not unprecedented step. Robert Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe with an iron fist for decades, lost his honor a few years ago. A committee of civil servants will make the final call on whether Goodwin, blamed for RBS' collapse, will retain his knighthood. Goodwin, known as "Fred the Shred" for his devotion to cost-cutting, was knighted in 2004 for his "services to banking." At the time, he was hailed as a genius for transforming the sleepy Scottish financial-services firm into the world's fifth-largest bank through acquisitions, including the Netherlands’ ABN AMRO and Citizens Bank in the U.S.