Big fish, little fish: Why the executives behind the financial crisis aren’t facing jail time but Charlie Engle is serving 21 months for a liar loan
Video - Joe Nocera on PBS Need to Know - April 30, 2011
New York Times columnist Joe Nocera discusses the case of Charlie Engle, one of the "little fish" who went to jail for lying on a mortgage application, while many of the "biggest fish" responsible for the financial crisis have escaped prosecution.
Biggest Fish Face Little Risk of Being Caught
By Joe Nocera
Late last week, word leaked out that Mr. Mozilo, who had co-founded Countrywide Financial in 1969 — and, for nearly 40 years, presided over its astonishing rise and its equally astonishing fall — would not be prosecuted by the Justice Department. Not for insider trading. Not for failing to disclose to investors his private worries about subprime loans. Not for helping to create a culture at Countrywide in which mortgage originators were rewarded for pushing fraudulent loans on borrowers.
In its article about the Justice Department’s decision, The Los Angeles Times said prosecutors had concluded that Mr. Mozilo’s actions “did not amount to criminal wrongdoing.”
Just months earlier, the Justice Department concluded that Joe Cassano shouldn’t take the fall for the financial crisis either. Mr. Cassano, you’ll recall, is the former head of the financial products unit of the American International Group, a man whose enthusiasm for credit-default swaps led, pretty directly, to the need for a huge government bailout of A.I.G. There was a time when it appeared that there was no way the government would let Mr. Cassano walk. But it did.
And then there’s Richard Fuld, the man who presided over Lehman Brothers’ demise. Though he was the subject of an investigation shortly after the Lehman bankruptcy, it appears that prosecutors are moving on.
Most of the other Wall Street bigwigs whose firms took unconscionable risks — risks that nearly brought the global financial system to its knees — aren’t even on Justice’s radar screen. Nor has there been a single indictment against any top executive at a subprime lender.
May 5, 2011 at 1:18 AM
Reader Comments (13)
Carlin is right. It's a club and you ain't in it...meanwhile, debt mounts, middle class is now in poverty, essentially, and the media does not illuminate any of this...
http://firechief.com/leadership/incident-command/lodd-criminal-charges-wildland-201101/
[snip]
It is important to note a significant difference between this case and the Thirtymile Fire case. Specifically, the incident commander in the Cramer Fire was not actually present on the fireground as the Thirtymile Fire supervisor was, yet he still was criminally charged with the deaths of the two firefighters.
http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2011/05/04/have-lying-mortgage-bankers-met-their-match/?source=yahoo_quote
I can't wait to see the next episode of Mounted in Alaska.
Club FED and it's corsaged court of bailout Queens launder senior capital for the "powers that abuse" ("powers that be" seems too cliche for some).
Protection payments in the form of hedged campaign contributions may not make it to the front page of Pravda, but as all good Komrades know, bribes pay off in the end. Those who do not ante up don't get to play in the cartel casino.
http://letthemfail.us/archives/8815
Never left the campus, just took a smoke break for a few weeks...had to do it after reading Taibbi's MorganStanley wives/TALF article that set me off. UNBELIEVABLE! Please try to place that on the home page so more people can read it and realize just how corrupt our "Republic" has become...Jefferson is truly rolling over in his grave...
And spring is well received, but the record rain is not...
Naughty boys & girls in goverment, to much rain, dead black birds, dead fish, high wind twisters, to much water, fire's where its to dry.................people in power taking advantage of the little people................
I have to wonder if God is just a little......." Piss'ed Off" ........at the people of the earth...? & the sign is right in front of our face. The best part is that the ones that dont have-a-clue, wont be on the steps with me going to "Shake His Hand"........!
DB, I'll see ya on the steps......................!
Yes Josie...lehman's auditors are under investigation...as for fuld, and erin callan, i'm guessing nothing will happen there at this point...gasparino gave an update a few months ago saying they were probably going to be left alone...
here you go josie...