Posted on 03/01/2011 7:18:05 AM PST by SeekAndFind
'Not a single financial executive has gone to jail, and that's wrong," bellowed Charles Ferguson at Sunday night's Academy Awards. Is it really?
Consider the source: "Inside Job," Ferguson's Oscar-winning documentary on the financial collapse of 2008, proudly features Eliot Spitzer -- who, as New York's attorney general, went on a tear against the big brokerages and their executives over various alleged crimes. In the film, Spitzer discusses how he uncovered various misdeeds, and claims the feds could have used their investigative powers to bring the bad guys to justice before it all blew up.
But why didn't Spitzer do it? He had even more expansive powers than the Justice Department or the Securities and Exchange Commission. New York's Martin Act gives the state AG a lower threshold than the feds to charge either firms or individuals with fraud.
Yet Spitzer's record was middling at best: He brought some good cases, but all the ones against the big banks were civil, not criminal -- and he ultimately settled for headlines and a modest fine.
Some of his targets, such as Sandy Weill, the former CEO of Citigroup, were never charged with a crime or even a misdemeanor. Others, like former New York Stock Exchange Chairman Dick Grasso, ultimately beat back charges in court. And former AIG CEO Hank Greenberg settled with the SEC in a manner that made the shock value of Spitzer's initial accusations appear wildly overstated.
In fact, for all his bluster and legal might, Spitzer didn't put one Wall Street miscreant at a major firm in jail. The one time he actually tried, he lost in court.
The point is, what looks like a crime -- at least as presented by a publicity-hungry AG or an agenda-driven filmmaker -- often isn't one.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Nobody went to jail because of ‘discovery’..............
—”Attorney General” usually can be translated as “Aspiring Governor”—leads to a need for publicity—
I’m not getting the WHY?... part...
Will someone please tell Charles Ferguson who the current President is, and who appointed the current Attorney General.
That way, next time Ferguson starts a rant about officials doing nothing, he can actually name names.
/* BEGIN RANT
Sent to jail!!? They got a trillion dollar bailout. Because the whole deal is basically a complicated syndicate designed to rip off the taxpayer. That’s what they do. That’s all they do.
END RANT */
MARK
Now we're to believe MERS was operating from a cave in Tora Bora and all the robo-signers were Taliban members.
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Did you actually read the entire 111 page report or just Gertz’s column? If you didn’t read the actual report I can understand your comment. The report is a Defense Dept analysis of what other outside influneces MIGHT have occurred that enhanced what happened.
Your MERS comment is intellectually childish. A major part of the analysis was the Oil price increases three years ago and how much of it was possibly driven by Middle Eastern money buying up contracts to raise the value of their reserves.
The second part of the analysis concerns Bear Raids on financial stocks that were vulnerable, like Bear Stearns.
The third part is speculation about dumping Treasuries and driving down the dollar. If you’ve forgotten there was a scandal where $135 Billion of Treasuries in bearer form that were conuterfeited, but luckily found on a border inspection outside the country.
I suggest you ACTUALLY READ the whole document. It is not Pie In the Sky.
I confess. I didn’t read the report. However, I’m still a kid at heart and reserve the right to make childish statements.
Breaking News: JPMorgan May Need Another $4 Billion For Legal Losses
W took Paulsen’s advice and screwed the tax payers out of billions of dollars so Paulsen’s buddies (and W’s) could be paid off. Just for listening to Paulsen made it hard to defend W when liberals called him stupid. So, if anyone should have gone to jail it should have started at the top.
I like you’re rant... let me add:
and people (inside fixers) like Franklin Raines and Jamie Gorelick walked away from their roles and responsibilities at Fannie Mae having “earned” (looted) $120MM and $40-50MM, respectively. I guess Mr. Raines was pressed to give-back about $20MM, so I’m sure he feels very put-upon. And both, I’m sure, are still sitting on boards and providing easy access to “those in power” for more “fixing”.
Of course, Fannie Mae was providing an important “social good” with their Alt-A lending. /sarc
And GWB, ever the squish even admitted that he had to ‘destroy the free market to save it’ or some facsimile of that idea. I’m OK with putting GWB on the stand as long as many other gov crooks from at least the last 3 administrations are also investigated.
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