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trumad

(41,692 posts)
Sat Jun 2, 2012, 09:01 AM Jun 2012

Uhhh Mr. Holder---- How about starting from the top?

<snip>
Perhaps you remember Charlie Engle. I wrote about him not long after he entered a minimum-security facility in Beaver, W.Va., 16 months ago. He’s the poor guy who went to jail for lying on a liar loan during the housing bubble.

There were two things about Charlie’s prosecution that really bothered me. First, he’d clearly been targeted by an agent of the Internal Revenue Service who seemed offended that Charlie was an ultramarathoner without a steady day job. The I.R.S. conducted “Dumpster dives” into his garbage and put a wire on a female undercover agent hoping to find some dirt on him. Unable to unearth any wrongdoing on his tax returns, the I.R.S. discovered he had taken out several subprime mortgages that didn’t require income verification. His income on one of them was wildly inflated. They don’t call them liar loans for nothing.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/02/opinion/nocera-the-mortgage-fraud-fraud.html?_r=1&hp

8 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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rfranklin

(13,200 posts)
1. What is shameful is noted in the last paragraph of Joe's column....
Sat Jun 2, 2012, 09:08 AM
Jun 2012

Think back to the last time the federal government went after corporate crooks. It was after the Internet bubble. Jeffrey Skilling and Kenneth Lay of Enron were prosecuted and found guilty. Bernard Ebbers, the former chief executive of WorldCom, went to jail. Dennis Kozlowski of Tyco was prosecuted and given a lengthy prison sentence. Now recall which Justice Department prosecuted those men.

Amazing, isn’t it? George W. Bush has turned out to be tougher on corporate crooks than Barack Obama.


http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/02/opinion/nocera-the-mortgage-fraud-fraud.html?_r=2&hp

bigtree

(85,915 posts)
2. Skilling and Lay weren't indicted until July 2004 - story broke in 2001
Sat Jun 2, 2012, 09:16 AM
Jun 2012

. . . took some time to develop a case for prosecution.

 

rfranklin

(13,200 posts)
5. I am aware of that but what about currently?
Sat Jun 2, 2012, 09:40 AM
Jun 2012

That's the point that Joe Nocera is making...nothing much so far.

 

MannyGoldstein

(34,589 posts)
8. I was goofing - hilighting the contrast
Sat Jun 2, 2012, 10:26 AM
Jun 2012

There seems to be no interest in prosecuting *major* financial malfeasance today.

bigtree

(85,915 posts)
7. there some low level indictments of mortgage group officers, I believe
Sat Jun 2, 2012, 10:06 AM
Jun 2012

. . . possibly building and squeezing some folks to get at the higher-ups, like in Enron.

Who can say . . . but Holder has indicated that he's not just sitting still in investigating where he believes crimes have occurred. I don't think it's unusual to have time elapse between the crimes and prosecutions without as much of a peep until the indictments, so, I'd have to be a Justice Dept. insider to know what's coming next. I'm not one who buys into the argument that the Justice Dept. isn't interested in prosecutions. I don't think it's untoward or anything, though, to be impatient with the time elapsed without any clear indication anything substantial is going to come from Obama's Justice Dept.. I'm just not as much of a pessimist as some folks, and, I definitely do not subscribe to the charges that there's some insider-type conspiracy to shield anyone, either. So, here we are.


from a summary search . . .

President and CEO Eric A. Bloom indicted on federal fraud charges - accused in alleged $500 million fraud scheme before collapse of Sentinel Management in 2007
http://northbrook.patch.com/articles/northbrook-man-indicted-on-federal-fraud-charges

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