Former Regulator: Clear Fraud in Financial Crisis -- Why Isn't Anyone in Jail?

[KoKo]

(Be sure to check out Video Interview,o the left of the article, with William Black the former Investigator. It's more detailed than reading the article)

http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/article/133224/Former-Regulator-Clear-Fraud-in-Financial-Crisis----Why-Isn%27t-Anyone-in-Jail?tickers=BAC,WM,CFC,XLF,JPM

Former Regulator: Clear Fraud in Financial Crisis -- Why Isn't Anyone in Jail?

posted Nov 21, 2008 12:47pm EST by Aaron Task in Newsmakers, Banking


In the aftermath of the corporate scandals earlier this decade, investor confidence was (partially) restored by a parade of "perp walks" of fallen chieftains like Ken Lay, Bernie Ebbers, and Dennis Kozlowski.

But nearly two years into the bursting of booms in housing and mortgage securities, scant few related arrests have been made — and most of those have been focused on individual mortgage brokers vs. major industry leaders.

"There is no poster child because you need to investigate, and you need to bring cases and we haven't done either against the major players," says William Black, Associate Professor of Economics and Law at the University of Missouri — Kansas City and a former federal regulator.

Black, who was counsel to the Federal Home Loan Bank Board during the S&L Crisis and blew the whistle on the "Keating Five" in 1989, says investigations have shown fraud incidence of 50% at (once) major subprime lenders like IndyMac and Countrywide.

But even though the FBI warned of an "epidemic" of mortgage fraud in 2004, they subsequently made a "strategic alliance" with the Mortgage Bankers Association, which serves the major industry players.


In this case, the foxes truly were guarding the hen house.

Black notes it was only this year that the total number of FBI agents devoted to mortgage-fraud investigations rose to more than 200. By comparison, during the S&L and Enron investigations in the 1980s and '90s, respectively, multiple task forces totaling hundreds of agents were employed.

http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/article/133224/Former-Regulator-Clear-Fraud-in-Financial-Crisis----Why-Isn%27t-Anyone-in-Jail?tickers=BAC,WM,CFC,XLF,JPM

[phantom power]

1. The most effective conspiracy is the one everybody is part of.

[KoKo]

2. It's so great to have "Alternative Media!" Check it out..!.

[KoKo]

3. Kick....hope folks can watch the video at the link...

:kick: