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Obama's 'Untouchables:' How The Most Powerful Wall Street Execs Escaped Prosecution
Business Insider ^ | 01/23/2013 | Glenn Greenwald, The Guardian

Posted on 01/23/2013 8:50:40 AM PST by SeekAndFind

PBS' Frontline program on Tuesday night broadcast a new one-hour report on one of the greatest and most shameful failings of the Obama administration: the lack of even a single arrest or prosecution of any senior Wall Street banker for the systemic fraud that precipitated the 2008 financial crisis: a crisis from which millions of people around the world are still suffering.

What this program particularly demonstrated was that the Obama justice department, in particular the Chief of its Criminal Division, Lanny Breuer, never even tried to hold the high-level criminals accountable.

What Obama justice officials did instead is exactly what they did in the face of high-level Bush era crimes of torture and warrantless eavesdropping: namely, acted to protect the most powerful factions in the society in the face of overwhelming evidence of serious criminality. Indeed, financial elites were not only vested with impunity for their fraud, but thrived as a result of it, even as ordinary Americans continue to suffer the effects of that crisis.

Worst of all, Obama justice officials both shielded and feted these Wall Street oligarchs (who, just by the way, overwhelmingly supported Obama's 2008 presidential campaign) as they simultaneously prosecuted and imprisoned powerless Americans for far more trivial transgressions.

As Harvard law professor Larry Lessig put it two weeks ago when expressing anger over the DOJ's persecution of Aaron Swartz: "we live in a world where the architects of the financial crisis regularly dine at the White House."

(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Crime/Corruption; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: banks; banksters; executives; illegitimategov; mafia; obama; prosecution; prosecutions; wallstreet
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1 posted on 01/23/2013 8:50:54 AM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

Simple....two words, actually three: Campaign Contributions and Kickbacks.....


2 posted on 01/23/2013 8:51:40 AM PST by Gaffer
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To: SeekAndFind
Does anyone actually think a GOP President would have gone after any wrong doing?

Reagan was the last Pres to hold any Wall Street crooks somewhat accountable.

There is no GOP outrage against financial malfeasance today.

3 posted on 01/23/2013 8:58:13 AM PST by Theoria
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To: Gaffer

Face it - the Current Regime now occupying the kWhite Hut is a criminal enterprise.

On so many levels.


4 posted on 01/23/2013 9:02:48 AM PST by alloysteel (Bronco Bama - the cowboy who whooped up and widened the stampede.)
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To: Gaffer

Face it - the Current Regime now occupying the White Hut is a criminal enterprise.

On so many levels.


5 posted on 01/23/2013 9:03:16 AM PST by alloysteel (Bronco Bama - the cowboy who whooped up and widened the stampede.)
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To: alloysteel

Any trials would have lead to disclosure of the complicity of politicians and bureaucrats with the fraud. After all, Fannie and Freddie and the FHA were busy buying lots of these loans and then issuing CDO’s. The Govt knew that these securities were suspect..they wrote the rules that allowed them.


6 posted on 01/23/2013 9:06:35 AM PST by Oldexpat
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To: alloysteel

Believe it. Although that would be giving the Mafia a bad name. I prefer to think of it as Obama is King Pimp from the MacDaddy Pimp and Gang Ball who has won the prize (again).


7 posted on 01/23/2013 9:06:40 AM PST by Gaffer
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To: Theoria

I remember some of the Enron people going to prison.


8 posted on 01/23/2013 9:07:22 AM PST by 1rudeboy
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To: SeekAndFind

Looking for the wrong crooks. While big bankers hold some culpability for the financial crisis, the biggest criminals responsible are Bill Clinton, Andrew Cuomo, and Janet Reno. Greenwald and the other cluck are both bigtime leftists who’d likd nothing more than to divert the public’s gaze away from the real chief perpetrators to Obama’s Wall Street cronies who were second-tier crooks compared to Slick Willy and his pals.


9 posted on 01/23/2013 9:11:46 AM PST by driftless2
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To: SeekAndFind

Jon Corzine should spend the rest of his natural life in prison for stealing $1.6-billion in customer-segregated funds.


10 posted on 01/23/2013 9:12:32 AM PST by E. Pluribus Unum (TYRANNY: When the people fear the politicians. LIBERTY: When the politicians fear the people.)
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To: 1rudeboy
I remember some of the Enron people going to prison.

Or blowing their brains out or euthanizing themselves.

11 posted on 01/23/2013 9:16:06 AM PST by E. Pluribus Unum (TYRANNY: When the people fear the politicians. LIBERTY: When the politicians fear the people.)
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To: Theoria
Reagan was the last Pres to hold any Wall Street crooks somewhat accountable.

And he was VERY wise to do so, as it reinforced everybody's confidence in Capitalism, the risk/reward paradigm, the moral hazard, and other basic rules of the road.

Obama on the other hand is creating a growing impression that Capitalism is a rigged game, with CEO's and Wall Street types becoming fantastically wealthy while the little guy gets SCROOOD, and the transgressions of the rich are overlooked. Which is in my view according to plan, as he is trying to get 51% of us to give up on Capitalism.


12 posted on 01/23/2013 9:25:01 AM PST by Buckeye McFrog
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To: alloysteel
Face it - the Current Regime now occupying the kWhite Hut is a criminal enterprise.

Face it - the federal government has become a criminal enterprise!!!

13 posted on 01/23/2013 9:34:14 AM PST by varon (USA Nationalist)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

He was the first one I thought about. Since Obammma got re-elected, the statute of limitations will run out and he’ll walk free instead of hang freely.


14 posted on 01/23/2013 9:37:41 AM PST by BipolarBob (Happy Hunger Games! May the odds be ever in your favor.)
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To: Gaffer

Two words:

Full disclosure. Ain’t nobody ever going to do a day in jail.


15 posted on 01/23/2013 9:38:10 AM PST by VRW Conspirator (Sometimes it takes calamity to lead to serenity - FReeper RacerX1128)
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To: SeekAndFind

Did anyone really expect the bankers to be put on trial?


16 posted on 01/23/2013 9:38:10 AM PST by count-your-change (you don't have to be brilliant, not being stupid is enough)
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To: SeekAndFind

Saw the broadcast last night on PBS. No mention of Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac nor of Chris Dodd or Barney Frank. And Lanny Breuer works for Eric Holder who works for Obama. The same characters that are involved in Fast & Furious.


17 posted on 01/23/2013 9:47:24 AM PST by Hotlanta Mike ("Governing a great natiorn is like cooking a small fish - too much handling will spoil it." Lao Tzu)
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To: SeekAndFind

“we live in a world where the architects of the financial crisis regularly dine at the White House.”
Obama&Co have proved that to be true.


18 posted on 01/23/2013 9:56:22 AM PST by Vaduz
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To: SeekAndFind

WALL STREET PROSECUTIONS UNDER OBAMA: ZILCH
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2920917/posts

In Financial Crisis, No Prosecutions Of Top Figures
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2704778/posts

Gun prosecutions under Obama down more than 45 percent
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2969934/posts

too busy redistributin’ out thar.


19 posted on 01/23/2013 9:58:53 AM PST by TurboZamboni (Looting the future to bribe the present)
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To: SeekAndFind

It was a good program. That DoJ attorney Lanny Breuer is a joke. After all of that evidence, still not enough to take to a jury? Give me a break. Obvious that the Admin told him to stop the investigation. Odd that Sen. Kaufman and Phil Angelides actually came off looking good.


20 posted on 01/23/2013 10:05:11 AM PST by Lou Budvis
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