Not prosecuting any of the Wall Street criminals was a big failure.

[cali]

One can admire Eric Holder's record on civil rights- it was stellar and still see the terrible job he did regarding these criminal outfits and individuals.

<snip>

For many of these settlements, the DOJ didn’t even bring a civil case, as Dean Starkman explained recently in this magazine. “By imposing a fine without documenting the underlying abuses,” he wrote, “the Justice Department has permitted the banks, for a price, to bury their sins.” Even worse, in the majority of these cases, the banks weren’t required to admit to criminal wrongdoing. That policy has finally begun to change, as shown by the BNP Paribas’s guilty plea in June. But it has taken more than five years to reach this point.
ADVERTISEMENT

Meanwhile, Holder hasn’t even tried to file criminal cases against major banks. In February 2013, the DOJ settled with HSBC for $2 billion after the bank was caught laundering money for drug cartels and Saudi Arabian banks with ties to terrorist organizations. If there was ever a case that deserved criminal prosecution, this was it. But the DOJ took a pass. Faced with bipartisan criticism from Congress, Holder responded, “I am concerned that the size of some of these institutions becomes so large that it does become difficult for us to prosecute them when we are hit with indications that if you do prosecute, if you do bring a criminal charge, it will have a negative impact on the national economy, perhaps even the world economy.” That is, the bank was too big to jail. Holder immediately walked back his comments, but that mindset seems to have played a big role in the department’s decision not to prosecute any Wall Street banks for criminal wrongdoing in relation to the financial crisis.

“Holder came into office in the immediate aftermath of a devastating financial crisis caused by an epidemic of corporate crime and wrongdoing,” Robert Weismann, the president of the regulatory watchdog Public Citizen, said in a statement Thursday. “Five years later, he has failed utterly to hold the perpetrators of the crisis accountable.”

The DOJ’s prosecution of high-level executives has been even worse than its prosecution of banks. In fact, the department has prosecuted zero executives for those crimes. One way to convict Wall Street executives is to flip low-level bankers, as the DOJ is now doing for crimes manipulating foreign exchange markets. But that tactic has not been used to prosecute crimes after the financial crisis.

<snip>

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/119586/eric-holders-legacy-weak-record-prosecuting-wall-street

[Romulox]

1. On the contrary--his first major accomplishment. nt

[Ichingcarpenter]

71. It was part of the deal or agreements

he had to do for the job.

That's why Jamie got free presidential cufflinks.

[H2O Man]

2. Recommended.

It was a huge failure, and the majority of Americans have paid a price for it. The refusal to prosecute criminals, because of their status and power, is difficult to excuse.

[cali]

3. and we will continue- long into the future- to pay a steep price for Holder's failure

It's can't and shouldn't be excused (I realize you weren't suggesting it should be) or forgotten. It's a big stain on the Justice Department and the administration.

[1StrongBlackMan]

10. How would sending a wall street executive have ...

lessened, or eliminated, the price Americans have paid?

[Fearless]

11. We wouldn't be right back in the same situation now with even BIGGER banks

And less regulation.

It would have shown them that there is consequence to their action. Of course, having not done so has shown them that they can proceed as the criminals that they are and continue to destroy the middle class.

[1StrongBlackMan]

13. I beg to differ ...

prison is not a deterrent to most economic crimes (carried out in a corporate environment), there will always be someone to continue the crime ... until it is no longer profitable to do so.

[Fearless]

17. It would have been political suicide to continue to weaken laws if we were sending them to prison.

[1StrongBlackMan]

20. Wait ...

If we send people to prison today; it would have {Edited to correct}been less political suicide prevented the weakening of laws 40 years ago?

I think you have that backwards.

[Fearless]

29. The laws were weakened further after 2008 instead of fixed.

[1StrongBlackMan]

33. Are you suggesting that Frank Dodd weaken wall street regulation? eom.

[Fearless]

43. I am stating the fact that the too big to fail banks are larger now than before the crash.

[1StrongBlackMan]

45. And now the too big to fail banks ...

all have "living wills" that address the too big to fail problem ... thank you Frank Dodds.

[Fearless]

46. Oh really? Bookmarking. We'll talk in a few years.

[1StrongBlackMan]

54. Or you can read the Act. eom.

[Fearless]

73. Watch this... Regarding Dodd-Frank and "Living Wills"

[1StrongBlackMan]

74. I saw that before ...

and it is good that Warren is on the case.

I suspect that Warren has telegraphed what will happen if, say, JP starts to fail ... the fed will exercise its statutory authority (that did not exist prior to DF, BTW) and force a sell off of assets, rather than issue a bail-out.

So I don't see how that supports an argument that regulations have been weakened.

[sendero]

61. It is generally called Dodd Frank..

... and it is a crazy quilt of picayune rules that do nothing about the real problem, which is that we allow FDIC backed banks to play the investment banking casino in a heads-I-win tails-the-taxpayer-loses fashion.

[1StrongBlackMan]

63. You are correct regarding the Act's title ...

You are, also, correct that the Act doesn't go far, or deep, enough. However, to suggest that this administration has weakened wall-street regulation doesn't square with the facts.

[sendero]

64. I would agree with that...

... but then they've really done nothing to prevent a round 2 either. Dodd Frank sure isn't going to, and it's coming.

[1StrongBlackMan]

66. Unfortunately, that remains to be seen ...

granted the casino hasn't been closed (derivatives, CSs, and banks betting against products they created and sell ... er, hedging, continues); but, what remains to be seen is whether the comp/house credit window is still open, or whether Dodd Frank will force the losers to unwind, per their "Living Will."

[Sheepshank]

60. 7...I think it was 7 bank execs that did commit suicide....not the metaphorical political suicide

things were coming to a head...it was bad. Yet the deterrant SITLL isn't working. You think locking some ultra rich dude away who gets out for good behaviour and hires the best attorney to find chinks in the armor that is financial regulatory law is a deterrant? What a joke.

[hueymahl]

58. Bullshit

Criminal punishment as a form of detterent has more effect on "white collar" crimes than than on violent crime. I know, I live in that world. Economic penalties for corporate crime are viewed mostly as the cost of doing business and are factored into the risk-reward analysis when deciding on a course of action. When the actions potentially stray into criminal territory, that serves as a bright stop sign for most (clearly not all).

By not punishing the criminal actions of this generation, you are emboldening 1000's of future crimes because the "bright line" has been pushed farther away.

[cali]

15. isn't one of the major purposes behind criminal justice

to deter future similar crimes?

[1StrongBlackMan]

18. Jailing an individual for what is ...

endemic to corporate culture will not deter that crime (though it will stop that one individual from doing it for a time).

The only way to deter these crimes is to take the profit out of it.

[cali]

23. take the profit out of it, sure, but shouldn't people who have so flagrantly committed

crimes pay for them? Why do YOU believe they should get off?

[jeff47]

27. Ok, let's throw one in prison for, say, 4 years.

After those 4 years, he still has $100M.

I'm pretty sure there's plenty of people who will sign up for 4 years in a low-security federal prison for $100M.

[cascadiance]

16. By purging them from the banking industry it WILL help down the road...

If we get them in prison, they won't continue to screw people over at the banks where they've committed crimes already. And if they leave those banks and go somewhere else, then it will be harder to see the newer criminal operations building up down the road that will screw us again. I have a family relative that worked in one of the notorious places, and she left the company after it got bought out and started at another startup that had what appeared to be an honorable business objective of helping people renegotiate their loans, etc. to avoid foreclosures, but the people in charge were crooks and their acts of nepotism pushed her out after she put in a year with them with not much reward during that time. They will continue to screw people every place they go until they are put in prison for the crimes they committed. The financial sector will continue to be burdened by a criminal element that will hurt our economy and the U.S. in general until the DOJ does its job!

[AgingAmerican]

24. It would deter future crimes

We need to follow the Icelandic model of jailing them for fraud. Doing nothing grants them impunity and assures that it will happen again.

[Lenomsky]

42. Debt 1% of GDP wowzer ..

Thanks for posting.

Wish the UK would look in depth at the Icelandic model.

[rhett o rick]

47. I see your point. Only peons have to pay the price for committing crimes. Holder walks with the

wealthy elite that are above the law. Now he will walk thru the revolving door and get his reward from Wall Street. Funny how the conservatives here in DU support Wall Street corruption. Now they want to continue the corruption by electing H. Clinton-Sachs. Seems to me there is idol worship of the wealthy elites.

[NealK]

50. +1

[Wellstone ruled]

4. Holder was with out a doubt the

selection by those who bankrolled the 2008 election. I look no further than Robert Rubin,Larry Sommers and Rahm Emanuel for starters. The fix was in from day one,and what you see is just how corrupted D.C. has become. If you read Holders back ground and his previous employment,pretty damn obvious what we got. Cover Your Ass Wall Street.

[Enthusiast]

7. The fix was certainly in.

[Rex]

5. Yeah, we got our noses rubbed into someone elses pile of shit.

Holder resigned to go work for Wall Street. He understands the plutocracy all too well. He also understands that the government is no longer in charge anymore.

Can't beat em? Join em.

[Enthusiast]

6. But, Cali, prosecuting Wall Street criminals could damage the economy.

Don't you know anything?

[truedelphi]

8. All of this is intentional. Just the way it will be for our lifetimes.

One Big Money Party.

Who is Eric Holder? Of course he is for civil rights. Big deal. (It would be a worthwhile thing, that he is outwardly for civl rights, but the policies that he is promoting in this country is are denigrating everyone except the top five percent, the rest of us becoming serfs to the system. And one must ask, if he is so about Civil Rights, why does he allow the DOJ agents to join with ICE and DEA to go into poor California neighborhoods, without warrants! and throw people out of their homes, handcuffed and sitting on the curb, because "in California, it is logical to assume that everyone who is poor is making money by growing pot in their backyard." ??? Apparently Holder does not care for states' rights, that people of all color have utilized to help make marijuana legal. He trashed the rights of everyone involved in Prop 215 - all of us.)

And he also got to where he is by his support and toadying for one nefarious international hated criminal, Marc Rich, he of racketeering fame. Eric Holder played messenger guy between Rich and Pres Clinton, helping Rich obtain a Presidential pardon. In return. Democratic Party big wigs saw to it that at some point, Holder would be richly rewarded. Teh Anmericnapeople not so much.

What is that Facebook meme going around right now? To the effect that we all still pretend that The USA is a democracy when actually it is a chartered corportion controlled by international monetary interests, where the average person is not valued but just a serf to be exploited.

[sendero]

62. That Marc Rich...

... the one that the other hero around here, Bill Clinton, pardoned?

Tweedle dee and tweede dum. Vote for whichever you want, but unless your only issue is gay marriage or birth control, its really going to yield the same result.

[truedelphi]

70. Carl Sagan put it verysuccinctly:

I have a foreboding of an America in my children's lifetime when the US is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing indstries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome tchnological pwoers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to assert their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority,.

Carl Sagan

And meanwhile, David Cameron of Great Britain told the UN assembly that far worse than ISIS are those people who dwell on conspiracy theories! Speak the truth, discuss ideas, and find the "terrorist" label pinned on you.

[TRoN33]

9. That is why Wall St. criminals always looking at bank robbers as bunch of plebeian amaeturs.

This is why Wall St.'s love of America are eloquent and tantamount to their advantage, they knows Americans are hopelessly dependent on them and loving it when we desperate to beg for a pay raise. It give them the hard-on and feeling more overlords. I'd bet there are secret laws exists that prevent Wall St. criminals from going to jail.

[el_bryanto]

12. That's 100% correct

When you study what our financial industry was up to in 2004-2008 (and before but it hit a fever pitch in those years) and then stand back and consider that very little was done when they shattered the economy and caused billions to disappear all over the year, I just get very ashamed of our nation.

I am a capitalist - I believe that Wall Street has a role to play in our economy - but when they aren't regulated and when they aren't punished for wrong doing, it is only natural that they will continue to do wrong.

Bryant

[jtuck004]

14. "Stress Test" in which the Treasury Secretary saved the banks on the

backs of everyone else. On purpose. Because it was best for us.

He explained it on Jon Stewart's show, reported here.

Said the plan that was put through was the plan they wanted (not blocked by anyone) and that they could have saved the homeowners and others, "and you would have thanked us at the time". But things would have been much worse. He did not explain that if by "much worse" he meant that the banks would not be reporting record profits as they are now, and 15 million people who were not in poverty when he started his job would not still be, as they are.

Per the ex-Treasury Secretary.

...
When Stewart began describing the situation as a plane full of arsonists on fire and going down, Geithner stopped him. “Well, it wasn’t just the arsonists,” he said. “If it was just the arsonists, you could have let the plane crash, that didn’t matter. The problem is there was a bunch of innocent victims who were on the plane with them.” Namely, the American people.

In that context, Geithner said he was forced to “do the opposite of what seem intuitive and fair” by bailing out the large financial institutions. “You don’t do it for the banks and the bankers,” he said. “You do it to protect them from their mistakes.”

Stewart admitted that Geithner had a “compelling case,” but said the federal government may have gone too far “when you took the arsonists off the plane and got them a massage and steak dinner.”
...

The audience of voters laughed at Geither's face when he tried to spin what happened. It was pathetic.

This will continue to rot this country from the inside until it is addressed.

Mortgage fraud low priority for US, government watchdog says

Four years after President Obama promised to crack down on mortgage fraud, his administration has quietly made the crime its lowest priority and has closed hundreds of cases after little or no investigation, the Justice Department’s internal watchdog said Thursday.

The report by the department’s inspector general undercuts the president’s contentions that the government is holding people responsible for the collapse of the financial and housing markets. The administration has been criticized in particular for not pursuing large banks and their executives.
...
In several large cities, including financial hubs like New York and Los Angeles, FBI agents either ranked mortgage fraud as a low priority or did not rank it at all.
...
here.

[kelliekat44]

19. Not having honest Wall Street bankers and brokers is the big FAIL. Give it a rest and be

grateful that at least billions were recouped and returned to some who were losers. And the criminal prosecutions are not over. The fact the SCOTUS upholds the notion, as do the 1%, that corporations are people makes this a very difficult task.

[cali]

22. wow. that's just... lame.

worst excuse ever.

Not over? There weren't any. And you clearly have no clue as to what you're talking about re prosecutions.

Leave it alone? Because of blind partisanship and adoration? NOT A CHANCE. You make me want to post more on this vitally important lapse.

good job.

[NealK]

51. +1

[Doctor_J]

21. besides showing the one percent that they can do anything they want with no

consequences, it also discouraged a lot of 2008 voters. They realized that Obama's campaign was mostly bullshit.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

25. The Right still claims it was Barney Frank and Nancy Pelosi that cause the collapse...

They claim the fact that the banksters weren't prosecuted is proof they did nothing wrong.

Then they claim the poor banks were FORCED to sell homes to "coloreds" and that was the reason for the collapse.

Then they claim it's proof the Dems don't know what they're doing, "blah, blah, blah, yea Capitalism, blah."

[YoungDemCA]

26. "Failure" implies that there was ever intent to do otherwise

I have yet to see evidence of that.

The State is not designed for the benefit of ordinary people. It is designed to protect private property-the capitalist class. That is its purpose, above all else.

Look at things in that light, and it's not surprising in the least that no one dares touch Wall Street.

[Demeter]

37. the Correct Terminology is "Criminal Dereliction of Duty"

in the category of corruption for $1000....

[CanonRay]

28. Not just a failure...it caused a major weakening of the public's faith in the justice system

I think it was a colossal mistake.

[freebrew]

56. I think of the Enron deal...

as the tipping point of that failure. Few were charged, one guy 'died', another was 'suicided'. My bet is both of these guys are in S. America living it up with the bushes. And the conspirators in California, never heard of again.

Poor people's stuff gets confiscated for lesser crimes. Why do these assholes get to keep the money they stole?

[FlatStanley]

30. There is no question that the Republican vitriole was race based.

However, I judge Holder to be a fairly pedestrian AG. Not great, definitely didn't suck. I would disagree that he established a great civil rights record. Civil rights, like abortion rights, have been scaled waaay back during his tenure.

And his record on Banksters was an abject failure.

[Jack Rabbit]

31. K/R

It wasn't huge. It was gargantuan.

[silvershadow]

32. Grievous decision (or lack thereof). nt

[MohRokTah]

34. Not having a legal framwork to prosecute Wall Street traders was the bigger issue.

We have a legal framework to go after these sorts of crimes now, but nothing that was done was illegal at the time and there is an ex post facto provision in the constitution.

You're holding Holder accountable for the legal mess the Congress left him after decades of deregulation.

[cali]

40. you didn't even read the op. n/t

[hueymahl]

59. I don't even know where to start with that kind of statement

Without spending an hour preparing a response with links the the HUNDREDS of statutes violated by the banks and bankers that were central to the economic meltdown, all I can say is you are dead wrong. And I frankly don't feel like spending the time to educate someone who appears to be willfully ignorant.

[colsohlibgal]

35. Fraud Is Fraud

When Matt Taibbi was still with "Rolling Stone" he talked with one liberal Wall Street insider who said that if we just put a Lloyd Blankfein type in real prison for 6 months all this nonsense would stop.

You can't sell investments to people, pensions, etc, in full faith with one hand while shorting the investments with the other. That's fraud. BTW how in the world did they get the ratings agencies to label those toxic investments AAA? - people at the ratings places should have been prosecuted as well.

[Scuba]

36. According to some posters on this thread, laundering drug money was not illegal. Weird.

[Demeter]

38. but very with the fashion....legality, American style, 21st century.

[stillwaiting]

53. If the financial elite do it it's okay. If one of the 99% do it, lock em up for corporate profits.

Ahhh, the smell of Newmerica in the morning...

[bobduca]

55. There is a fix for that

ignore list

[IDemo]

39. Business Insider - The Real Story Of How 'Untouchable' Wall Street Execs Avoided Prosecution

I strongly encourage all to read the full article at the link. Despite what some are mistakenly suggesting, crimes were committed and there was every reason to prosecute. Except, as Dick Durbin is quoted: "The banks frankly own the place" (DC).

<>

As I documented at length in my 2011 book on America's two-tiered justice system, "With Liberty and Justice for Some," the evidence that felonies were committed by Wall Street is overwhelming. That evidence directly negates the primary excuse by Breuer (previously offered by Obama himself) that the bad acts of Wall Street were not criminal.

Numerous documents prove that executives at leading banks, credit agencies, and mortgage brokers were falsely touting assets as sound that they knew were junk — the very definition of fraud.

As former Wall Street analyst Yves Smith wrote in her book "ECONned": "What went on at Lehman and AIG, as well as the chicanery in the CDO [collateralized debt obligation] business, by any sensible standard is criminal." Even lifelong Wall Street defender Alan Greenspan, the former Federal Reserve Chair, said in Congressional testimony that "a lot of that stuff was just plain fraud."

A New York Times editorial in August explained that the DOJ's excuse for failing to prosecute Wall Street executives — that it was too hard to obtain convictions — "has always defied common sense, and all the more so now that a fuller picture is emerging of the range of banks' reckless and lawless activities, including interest-rate rigging, money laundering, securities fraud and excessive speculation."

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/why-wall-street-execs-werent-prosecuted-2013-1#ixzz3EMxnYGg2

[seabeyond]

41. i agree. nt

[KG]

44. holder brokered the marc rich pardon. he knows which his bread his buttered on.

[cui bono]

48. Also, the problem is the execs didn't care if they caused the banks' ruin,

they still got their bonuses for writing up all those loans. Sickening.
http://www.salon.com/2014/09/07/finally_wall_street_gets_put_on_trial_we_can_still_hold_the_0_1_percent_responsible_for_tanking_the_economy/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=socialflow

[blkmusclmachine]

49. Not prosecuting the Wall Street criminals was a CRIME!!!

DC is a racket.

[Sherman A1]

52. Agreed

I do believe that it most certainly was so.

[Turbineguy]

57. The laws were weakened making what they did not a crime.

[cali]

65. seriously?

what part of this is NOT a crime?

"Meanwhile, Holder hasn’t even tried to file criminal cases against major banks. In February 2013, the DOJ settled with HSBC for $2 billion after the bank was caught laundering money for drug cartels and Saudi Arabian banks with ties to terrorist organizations. If there was ever a case that deserved criminal prosecution, this was it. But the DOJ took a pass. "

[stonecutter357]

67. .

[Man from Pickens]

68. More than a failure

it makes Holder a co-conspirator in their crimes.

[Orsino]

69. A very, very costly one, we will eventually learn. n/t

[woo me with science]

72. kick