Posted on 03/09/2011 11:32:52 AM PST by Chunga85
Early this week, a request for proposal for police-car upgrades by the Special Inspector General of the TARP bank bailout program began circulating in Washington.
That prompted a lot of head scratching around town: Huh? You mean the mild-mannered auditors who mind the taxpayer money in the $700-plus billion TARP program? What do they need police-car upgrades for?
It may come as a surprise to people in the financial industry - it certainly did to me - but TARP's inspector general is not just a financial watchdog. Under its outgoing leader, Neil Barofsky, it has quietly built itself into a full-fledged financial law enforcement agency.
It has 45 investigators who are empowered to carry guns and badges, and 27 vehicles with sirens and lights spread out in its branch offices across the country. TARP agents are empowered to make arrests, and they've done just that 23 times, according to a spokeswoman. The agency says it is engaged in 142 ongoing criminal and civil investigations, and that it has already recovered assets worth $151.8 million.
It's a law enforcement agency with an expiration date, though - by law, the agency expires as soon as all taxpayer dollars under TARP have been repaid, although that could be years from now.
As early as last summer, TARP agents were participating in raids alongside other law enforcement agencies. They worked with FBI agents in a raid on Colonial Bank in Orlando, Florida in an investigation into possible TARP-related fraud. Witnesses saw armed law enforcement officers in the familiar oversized blue "raid jackets" with yellow lettering on the back. But the jackets didn't say "FBI."
Instead, they were stenciled with the words: "Federal Agent SIGTARP."
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
Is there a way to stop all TARP spending immediately and apply the dollars recovered to the debt??
it is just completely absurd...
TARP is about as transparent as a brick wall. I’m working a pet project right now...TARP funds going towards outrageous “Force-Placed” insurance policies. Woooo. Wouldn’t that be fraudy...think about it.
Absolutely true. Who got Wall Street $ in the presidential campaign? Obama. Who gets federal $ in the Obama adminstration? Wall Street.
Who gets screwed? Us.
Nobody, of course. The Banksters are the right "kind" of people, and should be left alone. Bailouts are good, doncha know. Except for GM, of course.
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