Financial crisis panel urges prosecutions of industry figures

[kpete]

Source: McClatchy

By Greg Gordon | McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — The congressional panel examining the root causes of the nation's financial crisis voted to refer to state and federal prosecutors a wide range of potential criminal wrongdoing by financial industry figures and corporations, people involved in the deliberations said Tuesday.

The politically divided Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission is likely to detail the referrals on Thursday in releasing its final report, based on testimony from more than 700 people in coast-to-coast hearings and a review of millions of pages of documents.

It couldn't be learned which financial executives and companies were subject of the referrals to the Justice Department and state attorneys general. The panel investigated the roles of, among others, subprime mortgage brokers and lenders; Wall Street giants that bought, repackaged and resold the loans; bond ratings agencies; and a huge insurer that wrote protection on dicey bonds, enabling a U.S. housing bubble to swell until it burst, crashing the global economy.

Two people who had roles in the deliberations, speaking on condition of anonymity because the report is still confidential, said that the panel voted on a number of the Justice Department referrals months ago.

"And we've done some more," one of these individuals said.




Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/01/25/107430/in-report-financial-crisis-panel.html