Will those who led the financial system into crisis ever face charges?

[Jefferson23]

When federal prosecutors presented their evidence against real estate agent Yevgeniy Charikov and three others accused of bank fraud and money laundering in Sacramento, California, they had every reason to believe they had a pretty good case. They wove a story of brazen criminal greed, piecing together a scam in which the four lied on mortgage documents, set up straw buyers to purchase homes at inflated prices, and then walked away from the residential loans, leaving lenders $710,000 in the hole.

Then Bill Black took the stand for the defense and he made the jury laugh.

It was August 2014, and by then many if not most potential jurors likely knew that major financial institutions had been implicated in residential mortgage-backed securities fraud that played a big role in the global collapse of financial markets in 2008. But now the bankers themselves were in effect put on trial. Defense lawyers projected a flier on the screen in the courtroom that indicated the mortgage company the conspirators were accused of bilking was itself involved in the overall scheme.

The flier had been circulated by the alleged fraud victim, GreenPoint Mortgage Funding. A subsidiary of Capital One Financial Corp., GreenPoint specialized in making loans without verifying a borrower’s ability to pay—”stated income loans” in the language of regulators; “liar’s loans” in the wake of the 2008 financial collapse.

http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/article/will_those_who_led_the_financial_system_into_crisis_ever_face_charges

[tularetom]

1. You're kidding, right?

We waited four or five years for Eric Holder's justice department to charge these crooks before it dawned on us that nothing was ever going to happen and that there would be no consequences.

Republicans won't do anything about it. Neither will Hillary Clinton. Senator Sanders may try but he will be battled at every step of the process.

[Jefferson23]

3. Nope, no joke..I believe the question is rhetorical in nature. n/t

[longship]

2. First in the dock, Joseph Cassano of AIG FP!

Then, right behind him, Dick Fuld of Lehmann, and Jaimie Dimon of JP Morgan, and the rest of the line forms at the left. Somehow Howie Hubler needs to find his way into the dock as well.

Throw them all in prison for a long, long time.

BTW, Cassano exposed AIG to so much risk by selling credit default swaps on mortgage bonds that the entire company collapsed. And AIG was a very, very big company. Too big to fail, so they bailed them out with 80 billion dollars. And somehow Joseph Cassano avoided life in prison.

[Jefferson23]

4. +1. n/t

[valerief]

5. Not as long as they own the government. nt

[Jefferson23]

6. Dick Durbin: Banks "Frankly Own The Place"

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/29/dick-durbin-banks-frankly_n_193010.html

[valerief]

8. Yep. Reminds me of Sutton's law. Why do you rob banks, Willie Sutton? Because that's where

the money is.

The banks have the money to buy Congress, SCOTUS, and the executive branch and all state and local officials. And they do, as needed.

[Jefferson23]

10. What I'm hearing in defense of taking money from these characters is fuckling stunning.

A new low since 2007.

[99th_Monkey]

7. Not if Hillary is elected. That much is clear.

Hillary Clinton Doing Back-to-Back Finance Industry Fundraisers Just Before Iowa
http://www.democraticunderground.com/12511071681

[Jefferson23]

9. Yea, but that is ok, Obama took money from WS too and went on to pass Frank-Dodd., she said.

I have to wonder if they believe that we accept that on its face as a credible means
to ignore what did not take place under Obama's DoJ?


They play to the uninformed and or the willfully blind.

[99th_Monkey]

14. "play to the uninformed and or the willfully blind. " <--down to a science, they have it. n/t

[7wo7rees]

11. Sad to say, probably never.

Wish it not to be true. Why we support Sanders.

[jeff47]

12. No. The statute of limitations has passed for most of what they could be charged with. (nt)

[Jefferson23]

13. The OP is more involved than the rhetorical question in said title. n/t

[geek tragedy]

15. being responsible for a disaster is not a statutory criminal offense

and if anyone's going to be honest, the list of people responsible for the crisis is pretty damn long . . .

[Jefferson23]

16. Are you stating there was no legal means to charge the executives? n/t

[geek tragedy]

17. I'm saying that you need to be able to prove beyond a reasonable

doubt, based on legally admissible evidence, every single element of a defined statutory offense in order to get a conviction.

In the cases of Wall Street big shots, these are very, very smart and cunning people who get--on the front end--advice from very, very smart and cunning lawyers on how to avoid leaving a paper trail to support a criminal conviction.

People do not get convicted because justice requires it.