CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- The oath of allegiance in America dates back to Valley Forge and calls for the defense of the Constitution "against all enemies, foreign and domestic."

But what exactly constitutes a domestic enemy?

How about a force that caused millions of Americans to lose their jobs and homes with millions more losing equity in their pensions and housing values?

That's exactly the economic onslaught that Wall Street investment banks together with predatory lenders wrought upon our country through unregulated derivatives, market manipulation and unbridled greed.

Worst among them was Citigroup, which just this year celebrates its 200th anniversary with a Madison Avenue marketing blitz designed to hide their legacy of corporate corruption.

So deep has Citicorp's reach been into illegal activity that it is impossible to list but a fraction of their countless corrupt and unlawful activities over the years.

In just the past 15 years, Citigroup has been involved in money laundering and conspiracy at the highest level of the Mexican government (1998), a $3 billion settlement for complicity in their role with the Enron scandal (2001), and a $400 million settlement for biased financial research used to deceive their own investors (2002).

Citigroup also paid a $2.6 billion settlement for its role in the WorldCom banking and accounting scandal (2004), and another $75 million settlement associated with its role in the Global Crossing telecommunications bankruptcy (2005).

During this same period, Citigroup was also involved in a European bond scandal that centered on manipulating various government bond markets and was suspended from Japanese retail banking operations for "suspicious transactions, including money laundering."

Citigroup is also the bank that exposed the United States taxpayer to massive losses during the financial crisis of 2008 requiring three separate bailouts totaling $45 billion initially.

But due largely to its dealings in subprime mortgage loans and consolidated debt obligations, Citigroup ultimately received $476 billion in cash and financial guarantees saving the too-big-to-fail Wall Street bank from bankruptcy.

Today, it is even bigger than before and poses a greater systemic risk to the nation's economy.

Its corruptive special-interest reach on Capitol Hill continues, too, as its PAC campaign contributions still buy silence as to its wrongdoing as well as compels members of Congress to press for further deregulation.

And there is no greater example of this wanton influence than Rep. Shelley Moore Capito.

Capito acquired a position on the House Financial Services Committee despite her husband's position, at the time, as a Citigroup Salomon Smith Barney executive.

The blatant conflict of interest becomes apparent when considering the fact that the committee is charged with the regulatory oversight of the nation's banks and they still refuse to disclose her husband's three bank salaries.

Rather than place their investments into a blind trust, the Capitos, along with her chief of staff, during the financial crisis actively traded in Citigroup stock, making them subject to investigative reports and even a book on insider trading.

So in 2008, when millions of Americans were economically devastated due to no fault of their own, Capito and her husband managed to realize a capital gain of up to $50,000 in Citigroup stock trades.

In the meantime, Citigroup's continued mismanagement has resulted in its credit rating being downgraded again to Baa2, two steps from junk grade.

Swint, a commercial property broker in Charleston, is the Democratic nominee for West Virginia's 2nd Congressional District seat.