Forum Post: Wall Street Executives Will Not Be Prosecuted
Posted 12 years ago on Dec. 5, 2011, 11:30 p.m. EST by enough
(587)
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According to a piece in today's Wall Street Journal:
"A former top U.S. official in charge of investigating the financial crisis said the government has concluded that many inquiries of wrongdoing by financial executives can't succeed as criminal prosecutions."
Securities fraud is a felony.
Absolutely. But if it isn't prosecuted, it doesn't mean a thing. In fact, it encourages the perpetrators to keep defrauding everyone with a pulse and that is exactly what they are doing with impunity.
Exactly - correct !
Total BS--the sellers of those instruments (CMBS, CDOs, etc...) in many cases committed blatant fraud, which is evidenced very clearly in emails and the requisite voice recordings at brokerages. In addition, the buyers of the instruments breached duties of good faith to their clients (whose money they invested in junky crap). DO NOT BELIEVE this,,,,
Time for citizen's arrests?
Maybe it is time for "we the people" to begin issuing warrants for known violators of the existing laws. Maybe there should be a concerted effort to pressure the United States Attorney General to actually do the job they have been given in trust and in the interest of the people of this country.
Start enforcing the laws on Wall Street moguls.
Of course they couldn't, they had manipulated the laws so they couldn't be accused on wrongdoing before this all happened. The wrongdoing is on legislature for allowing these laws to be corrupted without the public being aware of it.
I would agree except that many bankers were arrested, tried, and convicted during the Savings and Loan Crisis in the late 1980s under the laws that still exist today. The crimes committed in the latest crisis are far more extensive and painful to Main Street Americans. I believe the difference is that the politicians, the SEC and the Justice Department are now completely in the tank for the bankers. It could simply be that the scale of the thief and the fraud was and still is so massive that practically all of the executives on Wall Street and beyond would have to be indicted and stand trial. You never see a lynch mob arrested. You only see the victim hanging from the tree.
What is different from then and now where those did get convicted in the 1980's?
In the early 1990s, Charles Keating, who ran the Lincoln Savings and Loan Association, was convicted in both federal and state courts of many counts of fraud, racketeering, and conspiracy. He served four and a half years in prison before those convictions were overturned in 1996. In 1999, he pleaded guilty to a more limited set of wire fraud and bankruptcy fraud counts, and was sentenced to the time he had already served. He got off relatively light. The banksters today have committed similar acts of criminal fraud, which have adversely affected far more Americans than felons like Keating, yet not one of them has been indicted. Instead, they are protected at every turn by federal attorneys who try to blur the line whether any criminal acts have been committed but anyone, who knows the difference between right and wrong, can make the call in a heartbeat.
Securities fraud is still a felony.
How hard is it to prosecute and find these individuals?
It wouldn't be difficult at all. The violations were blatant.
The criminals will simply, go home, relax, and pray to "dear god" that no lynch mobs find out who they are, what they did, or where they live.
Many is not all. Who is being punished? Yes, punished. Only a huge portion of our population and definitely not the perpetrators who wrote mortgages that were not sound and then they sold them.
There will be no peace until the crooks who inflicted so much pain on Main Street Americans are held to account and punished. Our elected officials are running interference for the banksters and think we are okay with that. It is unbelievable how far they bend over to cover for their benefactors.
Surprised? Considering that both parties are paid by these corporates including Obama and the Eric Holder DoJ is only interested in persecuting white citizens.....
Not surprised at all. Wall Street is above the law. There is no way the bankstas are ever gonna be held to account for the crimes they committed and will continue to commit in the future. The law only applies to little people. Pay-to-play rules. Way to go Obama. What a complete sellout.
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There is no need to close legal loopholes. The law against criminal fraud is clear as is the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, which makes it illegal to manipulate our capital markets. The U.S. Justice Department does not want to enforce the laws. It's that simple. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know what's going on.
damn straight. maybe not manipulation of the markets so much as outright securities fraud. the problem is: the "disclosure defense"... as long as they buried in 4 feet of paper a disclosure that says "it may blow up and fail"... then they are not accountable.
Or they use this defense, "I can't recall" and they go free.
Agree.
Jon Corzine can breathe easier.
Yeah, the oligarchs put a ring-fence around the justice system. They can do whatever they want. They are golden. It must be real nice being protected by the president, the congress, the SEC and the U.S. Justice Department. That accounts for the smug arrogant look on their faces. The rabble protesting in the streets are a source of amusement to the banksters and a confirmation that they are omnipotent and untouchable.