Internet Anthropologist Think Tank: Why NO prosecution of Wall St banks?

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    Saturday, April 16, 2011

    Why NO prosecution of Wall St banks?

    Interesting question, Wall St Banks made Trillions
    selling sub-prime mortgages as "AAA" paper.

    Knowing it was FRAUD.
    Created the recession /Depression we are in
    now.

    Causing thousands of Americans to loose
    their homes and jobs.

    Running scam foreclosure courts defrauding
    home owners of their property and homes.

    Mr. Geithner:
    Mr. Geithner worked with the Treasury Department on a large bailout fund for the banks and led efforts to shore up the American International Group, claimed prosecutions would shake the market.


    But several years after the financial crisis, which was caused in large part by reckless lending and excessive risk taking by major financial institutions, no senior executives have been charged or imprisoned, and a collective government effort has not emerged. NONE.


    This stands in stark contrast to the failure of many savings and loan institutions in the late 1980s. In the wake of that debacle, special government task forces referred 1,100 cases to prosecutors, resulting in more than 800 bank officials going to jail. Among the best-known: Charles H. Keating Jr., of Lincoln Savings and Loan in Arizona, and David Paul, of Centrust Bank in Florida.


    Former prosecutors, lawyers, bankers and mortgage employees say that investigators and regulators ignored past lessons about how to crack financial fraud. WHY?


    Justice Dept: ( Obama controls them )
    Justice Dept. pulled FBI off Wall St bank investigations.
    As the crisis was starting to deepen in the spring of 2008, the Federal Bureau of Investigation scaled back a plan to assign more field agents to investigate mortgage fraud. That summer, the Justice Department also rejected calls to create a task force devoted to mortgage-related investigations, leaving these complex cases understaffed and poorly funded, and only much later established a more general financial crimes task force.


    “This is not some evil conspiracy of two guys sitting in a room saying we should let people create crony capitalism and steal with impunity,” ( BS, it is, G ) said William K. Black, a professor of law at University of Missouri, Kansas City, and the federal government’s director of litigation during the savings and loan crisis. “But their policies have created an exceptional criminogenic environment. There were 
    no criminal referrals from the regulators. 
    No fraud working groups. 
    No national task force. 
    There has been no effective punishment of the elites here.”


    WELL SOME BODY IS PROTECTING THE BANKS.





    The SEC:
    Even civil actions by the government have been limited. The Securities and Exchange Commission adopted a broad guideline in 2009 — distributed within the agency but never made public — to be cautious about pushing for hefty penalties from banks that had received bailout money. The agency was concerned about taxpayer money in effect being used to pay for settlements, according to four people briefed on the policy but who were not authorized to speak publicly about it. JEEZE, BAIL OUT THE CRIMINALS WITH TAXPAYER MONEY AND 
    LET THEM GO FREE.


    To be sure, Wall Street’s role in the crisis is complex, and cases related to mortgage securities are immensely technical. Criminal intent in particular is difficult to prove, ESPECIALLY IF YOU DON'T INVESTIGATE THEM.


    But legal experts point to numerous questionable activities where criminal probes might have borne fruit and possibly still could. BUT DOJ TELLS, FBI NO INVESTIGATIONS.


    OBAMA???


    Charges:
    Investigators, they argue, could look more deeply at the failure of executives to fully disclose the scope of the risks on their books during the mortgage mania, or the amounts of questionable loans they bundled into securities sold to investors that soured.
    Prosecutors also could pursue evidence that executives knowingly awarded bonuses to themselves and colleagues based on overly optimistic valuations of mortgage assets — in effect, creating illusory profits that were wiped out by subsequent losses on the same assets. And they might also investigate whether executives cashed in shares based on inside information, or misled regulators and their own boards about looming problems.
    Merrill Lynch, for example, understated its risky mortgage holdings by hundreds of billions of dollars. And public comments made by Angelo R. Mozilo, the chief executive of Countrywide Financial, praising his mortgage company’s practices were at odds with derisive statements he made privately in e-mails as he sold shares; the stock subsequently fell sharply as the company’s losses became known.
    Executives at Lehman Brothers assured investors in the summer of 2008 that the company’s financial position was sound, even though they appeared to have counted as assets certain holdings pledged by Lehman to other companies, according to a person briefed on that case. At Bear Stearns, the first major Wall Street player to collapse, a private litigant says evidence shows that the firm’s executives may have pocketed revenues that should have gone to investors to offset losses when complex mortgage securities soured.

    DOJ: Obams is their boss:
    But the Justice Department has decided not to pursue some of these matters — including possible criminal cases against Mr. Mozilo of Countrywide and Joseph J. Cassano, head of Financial Products at A.I.G., the business at the epicenter of that company’s collapse. 
    Representatives at the Justice Department and the S.E.C. say they are still pursuing financial crisis cases ( HALF ASSED, NO FBI FUNDING  ), but legal experts warn that they become more difficult as time passes. DUH.
    “It’s consistent with what many people were worried about during the crisis, that different rules would be applied to different players. It goes to the whole perception that Wall Street was taken care of, and Main Street was not.” Looks like Wall St Banks can buy off justice.

    United States attorney: Los Angles:
    As nonprosecutions go, perhaps none is more puzzling to legal experts than the case of Countrywide, the nation’s largest mortgage lender. Last month, the office of the United States attorney for Los Angeles dropped its investigation of Mr. Mozilo
    Comptroller of the Currency:
    Comptroller of the Currency HAS BEEN AWOL, BUT THEM THEY ARE CREDIT CARD COMPANIES BITCHES, THEY ALLOW CRIMINAL USURY, 460% INTEREST RATES ON
    PAY DAY LOANS AND 30% ON CREDIT CARDS, STUFF FBI USED TO PUT MAFIA IN PRISON
    FOR.
    CURRENTLY IF THE CREDIT CARD COMPANIES ARE CHARGING ILLEGAL FEES, COMMITING A CRIME, YOU HAVE TO SEND THEM A REGISTERED LETTER AND TELLING
    THEM THEY ARE COMMITING A CRIME AND STOP. IF YOU DON'T SEND THEM THE NOTICE
    THEY GET AWAY WITH ILLEGAL CHARGES. 
    WTF
    Investigations:1,837 cases a year down to 75
    The university’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse indicates that in 1995, bank regulators referred 1,837 cases to the Justice Department. In 2006, that number had fallen to 75. In the four subsequent years, a period encompassing the worst of the crisis, an average of only 72 a year have been referred for criminal prosecution. SMELLS LIKE COVER UP TO ME.
    The Office of Thrift Supervision:
    The Office of Thrift Supervision was in a particularly good position to help guide possible prosecutions. From the summer of 2007 to the end of 2008, O.T.S.-overseen banks with $355 billion in assets failed.
    The thrift supervisor, however, has not referred a single case to the Justice Department since 2000, the Syracuse data show. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, a unit of the Treasury Department, has referred only three in the last decade. WALL ST BANKS GIVEN OK TO COMMIT CRIME, ENTIRE GOVERNMENT LOOKS
    THE OTHER WAY, DOJ ORDERS FBI OFF THE CASE.
    The comptroller’s office declined to comment on its referrals. But a spokesman, Kevin Mukri, noted that bank regulators can and do bring their own civil enforcement actions. But most are against small banks and do not involve the stiff penalties that accompany criminal charges. WALL ST CALLS THEM THEIR BITCHES, HEAD
    OF COMPTROLLERS OFFICE NEEDS TO BE REPLACED, SOME ONE NOT ONE OF WALL ST
    BITCHES.
    “We saw that people were getting bad loans,” Mr. Gnaizda recalled. “We focused on Countrywide because they were the largest originator in California and they were the ones with the most exotic mortgages.”
    Mr. Reich:
    Mr. Gnaizda suggested many times that the thrift supervisor tighten its oversight of the company, he said. He said he advised Mr. Reich to set up a hot line for whistle-blowers inside Countrywide to communicate with regulators. “I told John, ‘This is what any police chief does if he wants to solve a crime,’ ” Mr. Gnaizda said in an interview. “John was uninterested. He told me he was a good friend of Mozilo’s.” WHAT THE HELL, AND NO INVESTIGATIONS?
    In a January 2010 memo, Brad Bondi and Martin Biegelman, two assistant directors of the commission, outlined their recommendations for investigative targets and hearings, according to Tom Krebs, another assistant director of the commission. Countrywide and Mr. Mozilo were specifically named; the memo noted that subprime mortgage executives like Mr. Mozilo received hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation even though their companies collapsed.
    However, the two soon received a startling message: Countrywide was off limits. In a staff meeting, deputies to Phil Angelides, the commission’s chairman, said he had told them Countrywide should not be a target or featured at any hearing, said Mr. Krebs, who said he was briefed on that meeting by Mr. Bondi and Mr. Biegelman shortly after it occurred. His account has been confirmed by two other people with direct knowledge of the situation.
    WE NEED AN INVESTIGATION OF REGULATORS CRIMINAL ACTIVITIES.
    FDIC: and Republicans:
    Mr. Angelides denied that he had said Countrywide or Mr. Mozilo were off limits. Chris Seefer, the F.C.I.C. official responsible for the Countrywide investigation, also said Countrywide had not been given a pass. Mr. Angelides said a full investigation was done on the company, including 40 interviews, and that a hearing was planned for the fall of 2010 to feature Mr. Mozilo. It was canceled because Republican members of the commission did not want any more hearings, he said. .
    Tell them what you think on twitter: Clickable:

    And the Republicans refused to pass unemployment
    benefits unless these Bank Billionaires got $700 billion
    tax cut.
    An F.B.I. Investigation Fizzles, DOJ kills it. OBAMA???
    Justice Department: 
    The Justice Department in Washington was abuzz in the spring of 2008. Bear Stearns had collapsed, and some law enforcement insiders were suggesting an in-depth search for fraud throughout the mortgage pipeline.
    The F.B.I. had expressed concerns about mortgage improprieties as early as 2004. But it was not until four years later that its officials recommended closing several investigative programs to free agents for financial fraud cases, according to two people briefed on a study by the bureau.
    The study identified about two dozen regions where mortgage fraud was believed rampant, and the bureau’s criminal division created a plan to investigate major banks and lenders. Robert S. Mueller III, the director of the F.B.I., approved the plan, which was described in a memo sent in spring 2008 to the bureau’s field offices.
    “We were focused on the whole gamut: the individuals, the mortgage brokers and the top of the industry,” said Kenneth W. Kaiser, the former assistant director of the criminal investigations unit. “We were looking at the corporate level.”
    Days after the memo was sent, however, prosecutors at some Justice Department offices began to complain that shifting agents to mortgage cases would hurt other investigations, he recalled. “We got told by the D.O.J. not to shift those resources,” he said. About a week later, he said, he was told to send another memo undoing many of the changes. Some of the extra agents were not deployed.
    A spokesman for the F.B.I., Michael Kortan, said that a second memo was sent out that allowed field offices to try to opt out of some of the changes in the first memo. Mr. Kaiser’s account of pushback from the Justice Department was confirmed by two other people who were at the F.B.I. in 2008.


    A year later — with precious time lost — several lawmakers decided that the government needed more people tracking financial crimes. Congress passed a bill, providing a $165 million budget increase to the F.B.I. and Justice Department for investigations in this area. But when lawmakers got around to allocating the budget, only about $30 million in new money was provided. And the FBI didn't get even the $30 mil.
    I'M TOO DISGUSTED TO GO ON BUT IT DOES TIME AND TIME AGAIN
    KEY PEOPLE WERE GOTTEN TO JUSTICE SUBVERTED, INVESTIGATIONS STOPPED
    OR PULLED, AT EVERY TURN THE WALL ST BANKS WERE PROTECTED IN THEIR
    CRIMINAL ACTIVITIES, OBAMA IS THE ONE IN CHARGE NOW,
    WHAT YOU GONA DO? MORE COVER UPS.

    OBAMA AMERICA IS WATCHING.
    Are the Wall St Banks subject to the American
    criminal justice system, or exempt from criminal liability?
    How long will this administration look the other way
    while the Wall St Banks rob Americans of jobs and homes
    with impunity? 
    Tell them what you think on twitter: Clickable:

    Democrats: 
    @ @ @
    @ @
    @ @@ 
    @ @
    MORE HERE
    Senate Investigation confirms all:
    http://warintel.blogspot.com/2011/04/senate-investigation-of-wall-st-banks.html

    Gerald ( Center ) floor NYSE

    The telling piece of Paradigm Intel which points to conspiracy is EVERY Agency,
    EVERY Regulator, has failed to investigate, if it would have been a few
    that could be incompetence , but the failure to investigate at every turn,
    and blocking FBI investigations, withdrawing agents and cutting funding
    by the DOJ points to a much deeper problem. Will this continue on Obama's
    watch?
    The comprehensiveness of the paradigm "NOT TO INVESTIGATE" is
    very problematic, and dangerous, THERE IS A NEW MAFIA, WITH
    POWER UNMATCHED BY THE OLD MAFIA. UNIMAGINED UNCONSTRAINED
    POWER TO CORRUPT.
    THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ARE NOT RUNNING THE GOVERNMENT,
    WALL ST BANKS ARE.



    Gerald
    Series 3 & 7 
    Anthropologist
    ad Magnum
    .
    And my Analysis, Paradigm Intel and OSINT:

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