Goldman Sachs Secret Deal With SEC Beggars Belief

[johnnyreb]

24. Gee, Reuters and Forbes guys still have belief to be beggared!

This appears to be the blog referred to:

Yes, the SEC was colluding with banks on CDO prosecutions
By Felix Salmon April 9, 2014
http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2014/04/09/yes-the-sec-was-colluding-with-banks-on-cdo-prosecutions/

Random belief-beggaring stuff from my notes:

February 16, 2011
But a veritable mountain of evidence indicates that when it comes to Wall Street, the justice system not only sucks at punishing financial criminals, it has actually evolved into a highly effective mechanism for protecting financial criminals.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/why-isnt-wall-street-in-jail-20110216

09/06/2011
A year after it was warned that it might be violating federal law, the Securities and Exchange Commission is still breaking the law by destroying records of closed enforcement cases, a lawyer in the agency’s enforcement division has alleged.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/sec-still-destroying-records-illegally-whistleblowers-lawyer-says/2011/09/06/gIQAAD7E7J_story.html

11/29/2011
Judge Rakoff put his finger on a comfortable arrangement that has been going on for many years. A bank commits a fraud and makes a lot of money. The SEC brings a suit for fraud, but settles the case while the bank admits no responsibility and offers a “never again” promise. The judges blesses the agreement. The SEC declares victory. The bank continues with business as usual and commits another fraud. The SEC brings suit and so on, ad infinitum.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2011/11/29/citigroup-gutsy-judge-preoccupies-wall-street/?partner=yahootix

July 7, 2011
Federal prosecutors officially adopted new guidelines about charging corporations with crimes — a softer approach that, longtime white-collar lawyers and former federal prosecutors say, helps explain the dearth of criminal cases despite a raft of inquiries into the financial crisis.
Though little noticed outside legal circles, the guidelines were welcomed by firms representing banks. The Justice Department’s directive, involving a process known as deferred prosecutions, signaled “an important step away from the more aggressive prosecutorial practices seen in some cases under their predecessors,” Sullivan & Cromwell, a prominent Wall Street law firm, told clients in a memo that September.
The guidelines left open a possibility other than guilty or not guilty, giving leniency often if companies investigated and reported their own wrongdoing. In return, the government could enter into agreements to delay or cancel the prosecution if the companies promised to change their behavior.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/08/business/in-shift-federal-prosecutors-are-lenient-as-companies-break-the-law.html?_r=2&pagewanted=1&ref=business

The Untouchables
January 22, 2013
FRONTLINE investigates why Wall Street’s leaders have escaped prosecution for any fraud related to the sale of bad mortgages.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/untouchables/

And just for fun:

Have any criminal court cases been dropped due to loss of evidence in the WTC7 collapse?
Sep, 9 2009
http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread500012/pg1