"And that's why you're here, Tom. Now what's this about 'ninja loans' Fredo keeps saying we should get into?"
Posted on 03/16/2017 5:33:10 AM PDT by TangoLimaSierra
Recently dismissed U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Preet Bharara, is suddenly being celebrated as an aggressive warrior in the fight against Wall Street corruption. Really? You could’ve fooled me. Perhaps I was in a coma when a string of big bank executives were arrested and sent to prison.
No, what actually happened is one of the most powerful attorneys in the nation came up with a mealy-mouthed, cowardly rationale for why he let these financial thieves off the hook.
Crain’s reports:
Bharara was nowhere to be found when it came to charging the top executives whose actions led to the collapse of Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch and AIG, and who made all manner of misleading statements to cover up how sick their firms were. Goldman Sachs executives sold institutional investors a mortgage-backed security that sales staffers described as “one shitty deal.” Where was Bharara when it mattered most?
We don’t have to wonder for too long because the prosecutor explained his actions—or lack thereof—at a Crain’s forum three years ago. Bharara said at the time that he didn’t think he could win a case against Wall Street top dogs because they had hired advisers assuring them what they were doing was legal.
“What you do have to prove is criminal intent,” he said. “And it’s very difficult if a bank president has in his hands a letter or opinion from a law firm or accountant saying, ‘If you do X, Y and Z when you sell these mortgage-backed securities, you’re good.’
“Now it may make you angry,” he told the audience. “But if you have the opinion, it is a very difficult thing [for a prosecutor] when they say, ‘I asked my lawyers to do the best they could to tell me what I’m supposed to do.'”
Read those statements again. The leading white-collar prosecutor in the country said that advice from the right lawyer or accountant is tantamount to a get-out-of-jail-free card.
Jesse Eisinger, a Pulitzer Prize–winning business reporter, will soon have a book out explaining how federal prosecutors lost their nerve to bring Wall Street leaders to justice. Its title is The Chickenshit Club.
Now that sounds like a book worth reading.
Sounds exactly like FBI Director Comey when he let H. Clinton off, you have to be able to prove criminal intent.
The securities laws are very complex, but what they amount to is that you have to disclose risks in the prospectus. I actually downloaded and read parts of the prospectus for the famous Abacus SIV that was at the center of The Big Short. The prospectus clearly states all the risks - this is a Cayman Islands corporation no assets other than very risky mortgages, you will probably not be paid all the interest, you may not get your principal back, etc, etc. Nobody read it.
Preet is a Democratic operative - failed on the Clinton Foundation investigation, failed on investigating DeBlasio and Cuomo, and he’s a very close friend of Schumer’s (was his counsel).
Good riddance.
Pretty sure one would be hard pressed to find an accounting firm that would say writing a bunch of no-doc mortgages to unqualified borrowers is financially sound.
All cultures are equal, and all borrowers are equal.
To say otherwise would be "judgmental," and possibly rassist.
Unfortunately, this guy is correct.
Intent is everything in these proceedings. Hiring the lawyers to get legal advice shows there was “no intent” violate the law.
What have is two problems. First, the laws are so complicated that they tie themselves up in contradictory knots. Second, the Federal Government is far too intertwined with these companies - led their investors take the risk, and let them succeed or fail on their own merits. Anything “too big to fail” needs to be broken up under anti-trust laws.
Funny how that criminal intent didn’t apply to Dinesh. According to his previous rationale, Dinesh only needed to say, “I lost track of how much money I donated.”
Every taxpayer should see “The Big Short” and watch it too the end. Very sobering - Oh and the big fin guys are doing the same $hit again.
"And that's why you're here, Tom. Now what's this about 'ninja loans' Fredo keeps saying we should get into?"
You do NOT have to have intent, “ignorance of law excuses no one”
Now that is a slanted list if I ever saw one. Was he ever investigating the Clinton foundation ? Wasn’t it being run from Brooklyn ?
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/441815/clinton-foundation-investigation-district
Beat feet Preet!
That is not what is at issue. The question is whether it is against criminal law. The answer is no. Foolish behavior is not illegal, and if you chose to do stupid things the police will not arrest you.
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