Scandal at Treasury: Official Quits Amidst Fraud Scandal

[sabra]

Source: ABC News

Darrel Dochow Allowed IndyMac Bank to Cook Its Books, Investigators Say


The man at the center of a fraud scandal at the Treasury Department has been allowed to quietly quit and retire from his job as a government regulator, despite allegations that he allowed a bank to falsify financial records and amidst outcries from investigators who say the case shows how cozy government regulators have become with the banks and savings and loans they are supposed to be checking on.

Darrel Dochow, the West Coast regional director at the Office of Thrift Supervision who investigators say allowed IndyMac to backdate its deposits to hide its ill health, quit last Friday. Prior to his leaving, Dochow was removed from his position but remained on the government payroll while the Inspector General's Office investigates the allegations against him.

Treasury Department Inspector General Eric Thorson announced in November his office would probe how Dochow allowed the IndyMac bank to essentially cook its books, making it appear in government filings that the bank had more deposits than it really did. But Thorson's aides now say IndyMac wasn't the only institution to get such cozy assistance from the official who should have been the cop on the beat.

Investigators say Dochow, who reportedly earned $230,000 a year, allowed IndyMac to register an $18 million capital injection it received in May in a report describing the bank's financial condition in the end of March.

Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/Economy/story?id=7009596&page=1

[Solly Mack]

1. K&R

[bluescribbler]

2. K&R

The guy should be in prison, not collecting a pension.

[nichomachus]

3. It would take a purge of Stalinist proportions to get all the Bush criminals out of government

He packed the agencies with thieves, religious fanatics, and fascists.

[global1]

7. I Agree - How Many Of The Bush Appointees Are Still Working And Potentially....

undermining President Obama?

[catzies]

19. I'm going to have a little faith in our -Chess-Player-In-Chief, who has been

a few moves ahead of everybody, that this is something he knows, and is working on already. And we'll know what he knows when the time is right.

[Grinchie]

49. I count one in Vilsack, USDA head.

This guy is Mr. Monsanto Fanboy Bootlicker.

The guy is so invisible, without any public voice on forward policy, that it scares me as to what mischief he is up to.

[IthinkThereforeIAM]

54. Can you back that up...

... all I see is invective and innuendos.

[Pastiche423]

58. Tom "Monsanto" Vilsack

http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_15573.cfm

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Vilsack-Monsanto-and-wha-by-Linn-Cohen-Cole-090220-828.html

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/12/17/11022/307

http://www.counterpunch.org/cummins12182008.html

http://la.indymedia.org/news/2008/12/223110.php

http://pameladrew.newsvine.com/_news/2008/12/17/2222546-obama-kills-hope-for-change-naming-vilsack-to-usda

http://iowaindependent.com/8441/advocacy-group-speaks-out-against-vilsack-as-ag-secretary

http://www.otherhealth.com/coffee-shop/10312-monsanto-vilsack-toxic-gmo-crops-not-good.html

http://militarytimes.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1573616

http://www.buzzflash.net/index.php?search=tag:vilsack

If you need anymore, then please google Tom vilsack + monsanto. There's a plethora of "back up".

[Ganja Ninja]

15. A Stalinist purge is exactly what we need.

This is not just a case of a lone bad apple. More likely it was all part of a coordinated effort to bankrupt the country by the Bush/Cheney crime family.

[FormerDittoHead]

17. Yes, call it what you will, let's get started!

Did you know Hitler got out of bed every morning? Don't get out of bed or you'll be like Hitler!

Screw Stalin. Let's get the crooks out of OUR government.

[kegler14]

23. This guy's been around since long before Bush.

Although the Bush administration might be the one that brought him back in.

[Melinda]

45. Bush* promoted this SOB to his position in 2007

Anyone surprised?

[FiveGoodMen]

38. Then let's have a purge of Stalinist proportions

This infection has to be eradicated

[Lilith Velkor]

63. Won't happen.

They''ll be back in power in a decade or two.

But if Obama had the balls to do it, I'd stand and salute him. :patriot:

[kmac3]

52. Bush apointees . . .

Agree with nichomachus ... everyone Bush gave a job to was normally extremely unqualified and primarily a good 'ole boy. Thieves, evangelical fanatics, fascists ... even pedophiles! :puke:

[IthinkThereforeIAM]

53. The appointee problem goes all the way back to Poppy...

...as CIA director and VP under Reagan, getting his sleepers in with career appointments to federal agencies.

[HowHasItComeToThis]

65. BINGO

[writerdad]

59. Don't forget Bob Jones U grads

A law school for creationists...

[tblue37]

61. Pat Robertson's law school is the main one. nt

[HowHasItComeToThis]

64. BINGO

[wackywaggin]

4. One solution,

Drag this thief out of his fancy home, seize all his vehicles and freeze all his bank accounts and credit cards immediately.Let him have his day in court after being transported there from a holding cell at the local county jail, just like they do with any other criminal.

[Ganja Ninja]

20. And lets not leave out the good people a Indymac that were in collusion with him. n/t

[Monk06]

5. Funny how you can do ten years for selling pot. But a white collar crook taking kick backs

gets to take early retirement to avoid
embarrassing the government.

This guy should be in Leavenworth.

[sharp_stick]

16. Isn't that just ridiculous?

How many prisons are filled with non-violent drug users sucking back something like $80/day of tax money? Pricks like this and Madoff should be funding their own damned incarceration and it should not be cheap or in a club Fed.

[Monk06]

18. Re Madoff, here's a guy, a jew actually, who bankrupted the Simon Wiesenthal Foundation !!!!

He was caught trying to send 100 Million
in checks to his relatives and fellow-felons
just before he was arrested.

Yet he walks free, released on his own recognizance
without even having to post bail !!!!

Why the Mossad haven't whacked this guy for cheating
the Simon Wiesenthal Foundation is beyond me.

That is just plain sacrilege and an insult to surviving
holocaust victims.

[mitchum]

25. I am also surprised that the Mossad thugs haven't eliminated Madoff

[old mark]

27. It ain't over yet!.....nt

[earcandle]

31. sue the auditors as well.

[JerseygirlCT]

42. There are definitely some serious discrepancies in our

justice system - and this whole economic melt-down is going to continue to expose them.

Whether, once exposed to the light, they'll actually be acted on is another story, though.

[Grinchie]

50. Makes one think, doesn't it, Monk?

The little guys takes the fall, and gets to generate 10's of thousands of dollars for the for profit Privatized Prison Corporation, and take one less opposing voice out of play for the benefit of the fascists.

[pleah]

6. Why isn't he in jail?

[Robbien]

22. They weakened the rules where it is almost impossible to prove fraud

against a government employee (also banksters/corporatists for that matter).


GOPers have a lot to answer for.

[pleah]

24. I should have known.

sigh, thanks.

[Grinchie]

51. The Supreme Court made sure to that.

They basically made filing a case of collusion or fraud so difficult, that you almost have to have signed confessions from the perpretrators before the case can even be filed.

The Bush administration made sure this legislation was passed well before the scope of the corruption reached their buddies.

[dmr]

8. He looked into Charles Keating's eyes & knew he was a good guy!

From the OP's link:

"He's the person that claimed that he looked into Charles Keating's eyes and knew that Charles Keating was a good guy and therefore ignored all of the professional staff that told him that Keating was a fraud, and he produced the worst failure of the Savings and Loan Crisis at $3.4 billion. Now he's managed more than triple that," said Black, now an economics professor at the University of Missouri in Kansas City, Missouri.

Following the Lincoln scandal, Dochow was demoted and placed into a relatively obscure office, but later, inexplicably was brought back into the Office of Thrift Supervision.

- snip -

While Dochow could end up losing his job, neither he nor his colleagues are expected to go to prison.

"This is criminal with the small 'c'," said Black. "No one within the regulatory ranks may go to jail, but they have done the worst possible disservice to the taxpayers of America."

I don't know, I think jail time should be applied here. He didn't learn any honorable lessons the first time he screwed the American public - the public in which he was entrusted and paid to protect. Hmmm, the taxpayer pays him to screw the public while most likely enriching himself.

I wonder how much he profited from this, and where is it hidden?

[Amonester]

21. where is it hidden? (good question) huh, maybe at the UBS? n/t

[Career Prole]

62. "No one within the regulatory ranks may go to jail"?!

That is ABC's direct quote from "former federal bank regulator" William Black.

The f***ing arrogance of that statement has me wanting stocks brought back!!

Not these stocks...



These stocks!!

[county worker]

9. When it makes them money the investor class wants no regulation if it cost them money they bitch

about lack of regulation.

It's time we forget about the investor class and spend time moving wealth to the working class. Power to the people!

[profitfighter1]

44. fixing it for you

"repatriating" that money to the working class.

[pam4water]

10. Offer the rest of them immunity if they GTFO now?

[The Backlash Cometh]

11. He'll probably get a job at the company next week.

[Ganja Ninja]

12. Probably just the tip of the iceberg.

And I'll bet this is not just a case of one guy that was bought off. I smell the Bush/Cheney crime family.

[Gman]

13. There was talk around the end of last year that they were embedding these people

to be there for the long term. I would think that they should be relatively easy to find them and get rid of them with a grand jury investigation and a special prosecutor.

[emad]

14. And in the UK cops probe more Madoff-like frauds...

Major City frauds uncovered by police

Detectives and SFO reveal inquiry into big 'Ponzi' scheme and several 'mini-Madoffs'

By Robert Verkaik and Mark Hughes
Thursday, 5 March 2009


A spate of Bernard Madoff-style scams that threaten to bring misery to thousands of investors is being investigated by police and the Serious Fraud Office, The Independent has learnt. Bogus investment schemes have been uncovered by investigators focusing on crime resulting from the credit crunch.

One senior officer has called them "mini-Madoffs", a reference to the US fund manager Bernard Madoff, who is accused of profiting from a £30bn pyramid investment fraud – or Ponzi scheme – which paid investors returns from their own money, or cash paid by subsequent investors, rather than from the scheme's profits. The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) is still investigating Mr Madoff's activities in Britain.

In an interview with The Independent, Richard Alderman, the director of the SFO, said he expected other alleged cases of "fraud on investors" to be made public soon. One allegedly involves a "big Ponzi" fraud, similar to that used by Mr Madoff, he added, without revealing further details of the case.

The SFO is also offering advice on how to avoid falling victim to a Ponzi scam. Mr Alderman said: "Clearly, in view of our interest in Bernie Madoff and Sir Allen Stanford , people are talking to us about red flags for hedge funds, because as the stories unravel it is very interesting to understand the structure of what happened and what could have been picked up by people through due diligence."

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/major-city-frauds-uncovered-by-police-1637707.html

[The Backlash Cometh]

29. kick

[Enthusiast]

56. Can't they find a Barney Frank

to blame? :sarcasm:

[AlexDeLarge]

26. Heckuvajob Dochie

Just another nail in the coffin of what used to be a Department with integrity. Add it to the list of agencies (FEMA, FDA, SEC, CSPC, EPA, ...) in the Bush Administration that turned a blind eye to any regulation in order to enrich the rich.

[The Backlash Cometh]

28. You know there's more of him, all over the place.

[avaistheone1]

30. Is Dochow going to be prosecuted or just sit in his penthouse and collect a fat government pension

sponging off you and I? :grr:

[acmavm]

32. Fools like this thought the corrupt republicans would rule forever

so they weren't worried about the crimes they committed for them.

[mod mom]

33. Dochow IGNORED PROFESSIONAL STAFF REGARDING CHARLES KEATING back in '89!

from the article:

Meanwhile, IndyMac customers who lost their savings are demanding answers and are further infuriated after learning Dochow was also the regulator in 1989 who oversaw the failed Lincoln Savings and Loan, a scandal that sent its CEO Charles Keating to prison.


"He's the person that claimed that he looked into Charles Keating's eyes and knew that Charles Keating was a good guy and therefore ignored all of the professional staff that told him that Keating was a fraud, and he produced the worst failure of the Savings and Loan Crisis at $3.4 billion. Now he's managed more than triple that," said Black, now an economics professor at the University of Missouri in Kansas City, Missouri

[EJSTES2005]

34. I thought Indymacs failure was

all Chuck Schumer's fault ? Guess there goes another wing nut talking point down the drain.

[spamlet2002]

35. but oh no, look no further

it'd be wrong to criminalize policy decisions

/concern

[libodem]

36. Morals, ethics, scruples?

What are they just words now? I don't get it? This must be the denial phase that happens in death and dying. How did they get away with that? Why would the want to? And of course the big mature one: how come THEY don't get in trouble and I do? God, this just keeps getting worse the party of Family Values has no corporate sense of right and wrong?
I was just getting used to torture and murder and now it's steal and lie about it, too. What's next ? This is making explaining a little extra-marital hankie pankie to your kid seem like a Sunday school talk. How do you explain this to your children?

[hedgehog]

37. It sounds like Dochow has been around for a while, very contendedly

following the orders of whoever is in charge:

The current episode echoes Dochow's involvement in the collapse of Lincoln Savings and Loan.

In September 1987 Dochow halted an examination of Lincoln, which was meant to determine whether the bank had an adequate capital cushion, at the request of his then-boss, Federal Home Loan Bank Board Chairman M. Danny Wall, according to a congressional investigation. Attorneys for Lincoln and its chief executive, Keating, had threatened to sue the bank board, OTS's predecessor, if the exam went ahead.

When the exam finally happened eight months later, it revealed that Lincoln was engaged in unsafe, unsound lending practices, booking inappropriate income and inappropriately sending money to its holding company. The company was placed in conservatorship soon thereafter and taxpayers eventually spent $2.7 billion bailing it out. Dochow was demoted and sent to a regional job.

Then- Rep. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said at hearings in November 1990 that Dochow had been carrying out the will of his superiors. Schumer noted that Dochow said in a statement that he got the impression the bank board "would like to see the Lincoln matter resolved amicably."


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/22/AR2008122201301_2.html?hpid=topnews&sid=ST2008122202386&s_pos=



I wonder what he did during the Clinton years?

[aquart]

39. If we arrest him, will he testify against his bosses?

I mean, has that crossed our tiny minds?

[FarCenter]

41. M. Danny Wall at GMAC Commercial Mortgage Bank in 2007

According to this record of a $500 contribution to Senator Dodd's campaign.

http://fundrace.huffingtonpost.com/neighbors.php?type=name&lname=Wall&fname=M.+Danny

[Vinca]

40. Just "being allowed to quit" is not an option.

Holder better go after this guy before he offs himself.

[JerseygirlCT]

43. I wonder if shareholders of the bank would have a civil

case against him, too.

Be a bit of justice in seeing him wiped out.

[Hubert Flottz]

46. K&R

But if you steal a thousand dollars you might get ten years in prison...

[Kurovski]

47. K&R.

*Plop* *Plop*

*Plop*

*Plop*

[BlueIdaho]

48. This guy should face a firing squad. nt.

[kmac3]

55. Mind Boggling . . . .

It toally blows my mind how all of these guilty people just resign and go scot free never facing charges or trial. They quit ...it's all over ... they even keep their government pensions which we, the tax payers pay!

Where's the true meaning of justice in this?:wtf:

[robertpaulsen]

57. Looks like Keith Olbermann called this correctly.

"I've said it before and I'll say it again, today we call this the bailout. Tomorrow, we will be calling this why daddy went to jail."

Looks like tomorrow is coming very, very soon.

[Optical.Catalyst]

60. Darrel Dochow allowed IndyMac to cook the books so it would remain in business until the election

He is a criminal who allowed criminal activity to benefit the Republican Party. Dochow needs to go to jail.