An emotional goodbye email

Here's an emotional resignation letter from a Executive VP at AIG

"As most of us have done nothing wrong, guilt is not a motivation to surrender our earnings. We have worked 12 long months under these contracts and now deserve to be paid as promised. None of us should be cheated of our payments any more than a plumber should be cheated after he has fixed the pipes but a careless electrician causes a fire that burns down the house."

I was a initially little uncomfortable with caps on bonuses and compensation for the same reason. We may be punishing the wrong people! Are the US lawmakers now hyper-extending the guilt-by-association argument? Are there ethical and moral issues in not honoring employment contracts?