Feds Focus on Foreclosure Fall Guys

[marmar]

from In These Times:



Feds Focus on Foreclosure Fall Guys
BY Leonard C. Goodman


If you follow the press releases coming out of the U.S. Attorney’s Office here in Chicago, as dutifully reported on by local and national media, you may believe the Justice Department is pursuing an “aggressive, coordinated and proactive effort” against the perpetrators of mortgage fraud. Headlines include: “Federal Investigation Leads to 14 Defendants Charged for Mortgage Fraud” (August) and “U.S. Attorney (Patrick Fitzgerald)’s Financial Crimes Folks Strike Again in $10.5 Million Mortgage Case” (June).

But different views of the performance of our federal fraud enforcers are out there. In Rolling Stone, Matt Taibbi reports that the Securities and Exchange Commission has been captured by the financial criminals it is charged with investigating. He writes, “Somewhere along the line, those at the SEC … fell and hit their head on a big pile of Wall Street’s money.”

In interviews on National Public Radio, William K. Black, litigation director of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board during the S&L mess, lamented that the major culprits of today’s crisis have gotten off scot-free.

How does one reconcile the reports from Taibbi and Black with the press releases touting tough-on-fraud prosecutions? Look no further than at whom the federal prosecutors in Chicago are targeting. ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/11941/feds_focus_on_foreclosure_fall_guys

[midnight]

1. Those who were suppose to be doing the watching tripped...

And now with Elizabeth Warren out of the way.... It's business as usual.. Blame the powerless.

[xchrom]

2. Recommend

[fasttense]

3. We no longer have Justice in America. We are no longer ruled by laws.

300 million Americans are ruled by the whims of corporations and the excessively wealthy.

Money and power are America's new Christian Gods.

The weakest among us are merely prey for the idle rich and powerful.

The last paragraph says it all:

"The pathetic truth is that the moneyed interests own at least two branches of our federal government—the ones that make the laws, and the ones that enforce the laws. And when federal officials need to send out press releases about their “aggressive, coordinated and proactive effort” to prosecute financial crimes, you can bet that it will be the poor and politically powerless who get clobbered."

The only solution is a revolt.

It starts here:

17 Sept the prolonged occupation of Wall Street http://www.adbusters.org/blogs/adbusters-blog/occupywallstreet.html

6 October the prolonged occupation of Washington DC http://october2011.org/welcome