NPR - Why Prosecutors Don't Go After Wall Street (Our Justice Dept.!)

[SugarShack]

http://www.npr.org/2011/07/13/137789065/why-prosecutors-dont-go-after-wall-street
(snip)

Why Prosecutors Don't Go After Wall Street

July 13, 2011
When the energy giant Enron collapsed 10 years ago, top executives of the company faced criminal prosecution, and many served lengthy prison terms. In the savings and loan scandal of the 1980s, hundreds of bankers went to jail. But the financial meltdown of 2008 hasn't generated a single prosecution of high-level Wall Street players — even though the Securities and Exchange Commission has brought civil cases against some companies and reached financial settlements. That's a result of new guidelines issued by the Justice Department in 2008, which have allowed prosecutors to take a "softer approach" to corporate crimes. The guidelines — known as deferred prosecution agreements — have permitted financial companies to avoid indictments if they agree to investigate and report their own crimes.

"It's a gentlemen's agreement, and it really allows companies to keep their share prices higher and it helps companies continue to do business with the government, but it's a lot lighter " says New York Times financial reporter Louise Story. "And this was celebrated on Wall Street."

More by Louise Story
Story and fellow reporter Gretchen Morgenson found a memo that the Wall Street law firm Sullivan & Cromwell sent to its clients in 2008 noting the importance of the Justice Department's decision.

" 'It shows that the aggressive days at the Department of Justice were coming to an end or at least decreasing,' " Story tells Fresh Air's Dave Davies. "So this decision was really good news for the banks — and it was interesting that it occurred at the end of the summer of 2008, right when all of these financial crisis cases that might have been made were becoming apparent."

In a recent series of stories, Story and Morgenson have examined the lack of criminal prosecutions against financial executives who profited from the 2008 mortgage crisis.

"There really have been very few criminal prosecutions , and there has been no criminal prosecution of a senior executive from a major bank or financial company related to the financial crisis," Story says.

Civil Cases, Not Criminal Prosecutions

more at link above, and this tells you a little more than you want to know!

[SugarShack]

1. Please kick so everyone will read this. All must accept it is a dem AG! Our attorney!

[aquart]

2. Are they out of their fucking minds?

What bloody demented insanity not to mention sheer laziness is this?

Some asshole issued a piece of paper so the DOJ never has to do a day's work again? No wonder they're hunting growers. They are trying to fill up their empty, overpaid days.

Tell Holder the Hapless that guidelines are not the Word of God. They can be rewritten to conform to decency and common sense. Oh, yeah, and the LAW.

[Fumesucker]

3. K&R, thanks for posting.. n/t

[Tatiana]

4. So, like, can't Obama direct Holder to issue some NEW, TOUGHER guidelines?

What am I missing?

Oh, maybe things have been left at status quo due to Wall Street also owning the current administration as well.

[RC]

5. BINGO! We's gots us a wenner!

Just more proof our government has been bought.

[fascisthunter]

6. its almost as if the wrong people were placed into high positions so nothing gets done

no oversight, and no accountability.

[SugarShack]

7. You're getting it,,,these thugs have been shuffled around since Iran Contra, in every admin.

Obama appears to be an extension of Bush I and II.

[Octafish]

8. Gosh. It looks like the government needs to be investigated under the RICO statute.

Get rid of the crooks -- -n and out of government. As a Democrat, I don't care where the chips may fall.

[Kaleko]

9. It is a criminal conspiracy

between every single branch of government, commerce and the major media to defraud the public.

It's been going on for decades in the US. Yet a majority of Americans still refuse to consider that their leaders must, by necessity, be part of a massive, systemically pervasive conspiracy to rob ordinary citizens of their power.

We deserve what we get. All of us are playing some role in this collective psycho drama where we childishly refuse to know what is otherwise plain to see.

[SugarShack]

10. Indeed it is, and brought to you buy Obama's AG, Eric Holder. Call for resignation!

[Kaleko]

12. They won't resign.

The top tier players are all effectively operating above the law.

Therefore, the system will have to collapse under its own weight. We have entered the phase where US-style capitalism turns on its citizens and cannibalizes its own base.

Good luck to us all. We will need a miracle Black-Swan-type of event (or two or three) to give us a break.

[SugarShack]

13. Of course not....see Weiner. The people can force this though....so keep kicking!

[SugarShack]

11. Thanks for the kicks! This needs to stay up and be read all day. Thanks!