[Anti-Bubba182]

Pile on that one! Kick him to the curb!

[WVNan]

Wouldn’t it be great if the investigation into Cassano’s dealings took the feds to Soros?

[ken21]

>”They basically took peoples’ hard earned money and threw it away, gambled it and lost everything,” Speier said. <

[classified]

The FBI should go by the rule, NEVER LET A TRIP A BROAD BY THE PRESIDENT GO TO WASTE! Start investigating every nook and cranny while the TEAM and the PRES. is away. They should use this time wisely. Go for the juggler!

[SeaHawkFan]

What about Franklin Raines and Jamie Gorlick at Freddie Mac

[TeleStraightShooter]

ABC said its own investigation determined Cassano set up dozens of companies -- some off-shore -- to keep transactions off AIG books and hidden from U.S. and British regulators.

Huh?, the (D)s have been screaming AIG collapsed due to the lack of regulations.

[bray]

Course congress had nothing to do w/it.

Pray for America

[SirJohnBarleycorn]

Don’t know why it took them so long to open an investigation.

AIG is a public company, and we have strong fraud laws on the books for public companies. In fact, Congress piled some more fraud laws on with Sarbanes-Oxley.

Instead of passing ex post facto bill of attainders and having the president personally demonize these people and send ACORN buses to their houses, we should use the laws on the books in accordance with the Constitution to investigate and punish people in accordance with law.

[Hoodat]

http://www.opensecrets.org/indivs/donor_lookup.php?name=Cassano,%20joseph

Contributor	Occupation	Date	Amount	Recipient
Cassano, Joseph Westport,CT 06880	AIG Financial Products Corp	7/31/08	$2,300	Obama, Barack (D)
CASSANO, JOSEPH WESTPORT,CT 06880	AIG FINANCIAL PRODUCTS CORP/FINCIAL	1/10/08	$2,300	Obama, Barack (D)
CASSANO, JOSEPH WESTPORT,CT 06880	AIG FINANCIAL	11/22/06	$2,100	Dodd, Chris (D)
CASSANO, JOSEPH WESTPORT,CT 06880	AIG/PRESIDENT	3/16/07	$2,000	Baucus, Max (D)
Cassano, Joseph Westport,CT 06880	AIG Financial Products Corp/Fincial	7/24/08	$200	DNC Services Corp (D)

[Steelfish]

“My name’s not Elgin, Merlin, Finn or Larkin!
My secret name is Rumplestiltskin!”

This was the guy who was spinning gold from bales of straw for all of AIG and they all colluded in this and were aided and abetted by their agents in Congress. Taxpayers got the coal.

[Eric Blair 2084]

ABC said its own investigation determined Cassano set up dozens of companies -- some off-shore -- to keep transactions off AIG books and hidden from U.S. and British regulators. Cassano was paid more than $300 million to run the AIG Financial Products Division, through which AIG insured junk quality loans valued at more than $1 trillion, ABC said.

This falls under the category of: Don't believe everything you read in the newspaper, prosecutorial brief by an ambitious prosecutor or police report by a cop who beat the snot out of a citizen. They all have reasons to lie.

This guy is probably guilty of something. Stupidity probably. That's not an indictable offense.

However, this story doesn't explain what happened. Lazy MSM reporter looking for a headline. It's actually pretty simple. AIG had a AAA rating. They issued Credit Default Swaps which were an UNREGULATED type of insurance product to insure big banks against the possible, probable, likely risk of default by loaning hundreds of thousands of dollars for waitresses, illegal immigrants who claimed to make 200k per year on a liar loan in order to buy a house they couldn't possibly afford. AIG collected the premiums to insure 5 trillion dollars worth of loans even though they only had 2 billion in reserves. Who thought this could happen except sane taxpaying American citizens.

The banks didn't care. They sold the loans to someone else like Fannie and Freddie where Barney the homosexual lisping dinosaur was dating some dude in the underwriting department.

Don't hold your breath waiting for Barney or Dodd to convene a congressional subcommittee investigation of themselves.

[P-Marlowe]

Tax law specialist Jack Blum told ABC the deals worked by Cassano's division were "absolutely toxic and most of the people who were dealing in it knew how toxic it was."

I for one am getting pretty sick of the word "toxic."

[LibertyRocks]

I’m glad to hear there are investigations going on. This is how things are supposed to work vs. using the legislature to penalize people for crimes...

I have to say that this had better be an “equal opportunity” investigation on the FBI’s part. When looking at the names and the players one can’t hardly believe that there are not just as many Congresspeople as there are AIG executives (and other Corporation Execs) who are guilty of fraud in one way or another as a result of this bailout...

The FBI itself said that because of the bailout economic crimes would skyrocket. I just hope they have enough agents to protect us from the criminals within our government without putting us at risk for outside threats!

[maggief]

http://www.nytimes.com/glogin?URI=http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/28/business/28melt.html&OQ=_rQ3D2&OP=1c124185Q2FQ3Ar_Q3FQ3AVaLqgaapQ27Q3AQ27mmGQ3Am4Q3AQ27GQ3AQ3Fyqi._qqQ3AQ27Gh_-pQ25Q20ph-

Behind AIG ‘s crisis, a blind eye to risks
Bulletin, The (Bend, OR) - Sunday, September 28, 2008
Author: Gretchen Morgenson The Bulletin

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/financialcrisis/3225213/AIG-trail-leads-to-London-casino.html

AIG trail leads to London ‘casino’
Since 1987 the American financier Joseph Cassano has divided his time between London and Connecticut, where AIG, the world’s largest insurance company, runs a subsidiary called AIG Financial Products.

[theDentist]

”They basically took peoples’ hard earned money and threw it away, gambled it and lost everything,”

Hey!! That sounds like they were treading on Government grounds!

[SkyPilot]

All the big DNC contributors are getting mug shots taken.

Taking people's money and gambling it away?

There are just so many thieves.

[EBH]

The department lost hundreds of billions of dollars and Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., told ABC Cassano "almost single-handedly is responsible for bringing AIG down and by reference the economy of this country."

Many people will become 'useful idiots' of the administration. Congress Critters making statements like Speier's has made here are jumping on the burning bandwagon. Prosecute this guy according LAW, not in the DEMOCRAT's court of public opinion. Which means we should see others taking the perp walk right alongside him.

Absolutely we should seek justice under the LAW, but is there not a buyer's beware clause in purchasing some of these financial instruments? And how does part of the responsibility get laid at the feet of the buyer too? As someone pointed out up thread, what to make of those who committed the crime of fraud in the first place? Meaning those who lied on their loan applications.

You see I view what this guy did as contemptible, but he is not wholly guilty nor innocent. There are a lot of rungs on this ladder that are broken and each contributed to the fall.

Greed, it is all greed when it comes down to basic facts. Greed of how much of a loan I can scam from the bank to how can I scam the market on the failed productivity of the home buyer.

We must use caution in our own judgment and thinking. We must be aware of the propaganda being spewed from by the MSM and Congress. If we are to remain a nation of laws, we must assure that investigations remain in the real Courts and do not make it to the kangaroo court of congressional hearings.

[sitetest]

My understanding is that much of what AIG did in derivatives wasn’t permitted under American regulation, and so the work was done out of their London office, because the Brits were willing to turn a blind eye.

[demshateGod]

Does anyone smell a scapegoat?

[Mojave]

Federal prosecutors and FBI agents are investigating Joseph Cassano, 54, who ran AIG's Financial Products Division, the U.S. network reported... Tax law specialist Jack Blum told ABC the deals worked by Cassano's division were "absolutely toxic and most of the people who were dealing in it knew how toxic it was."

But Jake DeSantis, the executive vice president of the American International Group’s financial products division, claims he didn't know a thing about it in his self serving letter spread around the web. So Jake is either a blatant liar or an incompetent of epic proportions.