Forum Post: March to 1 Hogan Plaza. Corruption at the Manhattan Prosecutor's Office Unleashed Wall Street Greed
Posted 13 years ago on Nov. 8, 2011, 10:50 p.m. EST by vets74
(344)
from New York, NY
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
If you follow direct power, then Washington and its lobbying money corrupt everything.
If you FOLLOW THE MONEY, however, the Manhattan prosecutor's office comes off as a criminal enterprise, providing protection for Wall Street's financial royalty.
Non-prosecution of large-scale financial crimes has been going on for 20 years. More than anything else in government, this co-conspiracy with Wall Street is what opened the door for $7-trillion in theft 2003-2011. Together they caused the Depression of 2008.
The office is managed professionally. Very little is done by accident.
Today the office is managed by senior attorneys: Ctrus Vance, Jr., Daniel R. Alonso, Caitlin J. Halligan, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, Adam Kaufmann, Erin M. Duggan, Leroy Frazer, Jr., Hilary Hassler, Lillian “Lee” Llambelis, Jeannette Molina, Chauncey Parker, Frederick J. Watts.
Problem is, this office stopped prosecuting big time Wall Street.
Back in the 1980s and very early 1990s the so-called "S&L Crisis" received enthusiastic support from local prosecutors including in Manhattan. Some 3800 were prosecuted and sentenced to prison. 2,500 institutions failed, counting S&Ls and banks.
Wall Street didn't like that. Things were changed.
The first Dot.com fraud cycle (1992-1995) came through and Wall Street stole some $35-billion out of New York. Fewer than 2 dozen people were prosecuted. (That's the mess described in Michael Wolfe's book, "Burn Rate.")
So encouraged, a second Dot.com fraud cycle (1998-2000) stole $500-billion. The major sell-side brokerages were in there like pigs at a trough. The tally at the end was 4 people prosecuted -- half of that from the $4-billion WinStar scam.
Then the mortgage scams (2003-2008) ran up $2-trillion in total frauds. That could not have happened with Wall Street firms doing their due diligence work instead of acting as co-conspirators with the criminals in mortgage broker operations. Additionally, Wall Street discovered a new vessel for massive Common Law fraud (2005-2011) -- the $5-trillion of pension and investor theft related to Credit Default Swap contracts. Essentially, the well establish legal term "synthetic" was misapplied and the three major ratings agencies were bribed to publish "AAA" bogus approvals.
Nobody prosecuted. Not one.
By 2009 everyone in finance knew that Wall Street had stolen and participated in frauds totaling $7-trillion dollars.
These specific thefts are exactly what caused the Depression of 2008.
Not "Freddie" and "Fannie" which contrary to hate-radio claims, never once issued mortgages. Not government spending. Not even the arrival of debt related to combining the two credit-card wars and cutting taxes.
Theft of the $7-trillion destroyed the housing market. Damage to pension and investment accounts reduced Middle Class demand for goods sharply.
None of it should have happened if the Manhattan prosecutor's office had prosecuted Wall Street fraud.
It's not Federal. It's not bank regulations. Not SEC security and the SOX disclosures. Not wire fraud, where they're careful. Not Federal jurisdiction.
It is local. But this prosecutor's office works for Wall Street.
Protecting Wall Street royalty is the top priority. This has reached extremes -- a refusal to apply state criminal law. One example was the DUI hit-and-run killing of Florence Cioffi and subsequent prosecutor's deal (January 2008 - July 2009.)
Flo tried to hail a cab over on Water Street about 6 blocks from Zuccotti Park. She was hit by an SUV going 60 m.p.h. and died some hours later. The driver was a Wall Street CEO. He served 16 days in Rikers and paid a $350 fine. You can look it up.
This prosecutor's office appears to value Wall Street royalty rather differently from the 99%.
Please, before heading off on a cross-country trek to Washington on the 23rd of November, would it be possible to protest this Manhattan prosecutor's office at 1 Hogan Place?
Allowing Wall Street to carry out very large-scale crimes began there.
If we're going to protest, let's make sure to protest the crooks.
Thank you.
I think we have to take money away from the government. We have to OUTLAW lobbying. Each person gives $1.00 ontheir tax return for presidental races, half is given to the dems the other to the repuls. Then thats all the money they get they cannot take money from anyone. We have to STOP all the big money buying our politicons.
Actually we need to return to Eisenhower's approach and do competent revenue collection.
Not Reagan. Not Bush.
Killing the Bush tax cuts for the top 1% -- the top priority.
"I LIKE IKE" -- particularly for the tax code.
I have to be honest I read a lot of these forums to try and get a since of where this movement is going and I think its going exactly the way the 1% wants it to. If we post 500 posts a day and each receives about 50 or 60 comments are we really discussing things or getting anywhere. I don't claim to know it all and that is the point. For a political party to go into office and believe that they know exactly how to better the economy is ridiculous. Yes they may have some great ideas, but why not consider what the general public has to say. Oh that's right because it doesn't matter what we think. I don't claim to know everything, but collectively I think WE can figure it out.
I am just suggesting that we narrow the posts down to general topics that people can discuss. For example, this could be used as a post on a forum under the category of Corporate Greed. We should have topics on economy, education, healthcare, etc. That way we can read 5000 or 6000 posts relating to one topic. If WE want to be taken seriously we have to narrow our focus and give tangible ideas. For example, We can have free healtcare if 5% of our taxes goes to provide utilities to run these hospitals. In return we can reduce the fed tax by 5%. I am just stating tangible examples, once again I am not claiming to know everything just giving my suggestions. To be honest that there is so much corruption on Wall Street that the whole system has to be elimanated and regulated.
No Leadership
This is set up as a "leaderless" pile of humanity. Fun way to do a beach party. Not so much for achieving political effectiveness.
Typical b-school list of leadership tasks:
I'd add 11. Enforce quality standards -- because "No quality control, no quality."
Trying to walk 20 miles a day starting November 23rd in New York ??? That is not up to the Q/A test. Expect Fox News to film every second of it. Anybody who has hiked can tell you where that project ends up.
No leadership, no results. The much more common approach is to select leaders and form work groups. That's easy and it works.
You know who else values Wall Street royalty over you and I, a man named Barack Obama, he resides at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington DC. Will march there? Why not, it's nicer weather in DC than NY. I get the feeling that this protest doesn't want to go after crook numero uno. Whether its Obama, Bush Jr., Clinton, Bush Sr. Reagan or Carter, none of the presidents of the US during my lifetime have really represented me, and as long as the energy of this movement concentrates on an abstract idea like "the fat cats on Wall Street" there will be no change. None zip zero.
That's silly.
Politics and strong rule of law start at home. For Wall Street that's Manhattan Island.
I don't even know what you're talking about, but I do know that the White House & Co. are just as much to blame for sinking our economy as Wall Street, the sad part is we vote for who goes in the White House, now whose the sucker, wall street or you and me.
Depression of 2008
The Depression of 2008 started in December of 2007 when the fall-off in employment tipped over. By the time Obama came into office, in January 2009, the economy was losing 779,000 jobs in the one month.
www.bls.gov/opub/ted/images/2010/ted_20100216.png
Those losses were impacted immediately by the Stimulus Package that had been implemented in September 2008, before Obama came in. Obama implemented the second phase of that Package.
The White House managed to get us back to positive jobs growth.
Also, the deficit results from doing tax cuts AND running two wars. Dummies did that.
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You make an excellent case. People should give it consideration.
Thank you.
R.I.P. Florence Cioffi -- Wall Street's most infamous killing
www.dailykos.com/story/2011/01/25/938781/-RIP-Florence-Cioffi-Wall-Streets-most-infamous-killing