Credit Suisse Gets Off Easy
Joe Nocera, NYT
MAY 23, 2014
The sham continues.
Back in the fall of 2009, in the wake of criticism that it was failing to prosecute executives of the companies that had brought the financial system to the brink of disaster, the Justice Department established the Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force. Its purpose, said Justice, was “to hold accountable those who helped bring about the last financial crisis.” It promised to “prosecute significant financial crimes, ensure just and effective punishment for those who perpetrate financial crimes, recover proceeds for victims” and so on.
A year later, its mortgage fraud effort — “Operation Stolen Dream,” it was called — had collared 1,500 criminal defendants, “with nearly $200 million in civil recoveries ordered.” Or so said the Justice Department.
But a closer look told another story. The vast majority of defendants prosecuted for mortgage fraud were small-fry — people who had lied on liar loans, for instance, or small-time independent mortgage brokers. As often as not, the “victims” they were supposed to repay were the banks that had accepted, with a wink and a nod, their liar loan applications. Top executives of companies like Countrywide or New Century or Lehman Brothers evaded serious consequences. Fundamentally, the Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force was an exercise in public relations.
(More here.)
MAY 23, 2014
The sham continues.
Back in the fall of 2009, in the wake of criticism that it was failing to prosecute executives of the companies that had brought the financial system to the brink of disaster, the Justice Department established the Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force. Its purpose, said Justice, was “to hold accountable those who helped bring about the last financial crisis.” It promised to “prosecute significant financial crimes, ensure just and effective punishment for those who perpetrate financial crimes, recover proceeds for victims” and so on.
A year later, its mortgage fraud effort — “Operation Stolen Dream,” it was called — had collared 1,500 criminal defendants, “with nearly $200 million in civil recoveries ordered.” Or so said the Justice Department.
But a closer look told another story. The vast majority of defendants prosecuted for mortgage fraud were small-fry — people who had lied on liar loans, for instance, or small-time independent mortgage brokers. As often as not, the “victims” they were supposed to repay were the banks that had accepted, with a wink and a nod, their liar loan applications. Top executives of companies like Countrywide or New Century or Lehman Brothers evaded serious consequences. Fundamentally, the Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force was an exercise in public relations.
(More here.)
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