AG Holder: DOJ Nearing Decisions on Probes Involving Financial Firms and 2008 Market Crash

[Hissyspit]

Last edited Tue Aug 20, 2013, 11:11 PM - Edit history (1)

Source: Wall Street Journal

@BreakingNews: Attorney General Holder: DOJ nearing decisions on probes involving financial firms and 2008 market crash - @WSJ http://t.co/NTu5PEHJIa

LAW
August 20, 2013 7:23 PM
Justice Department Plans New Crisis-Related Cases

Attorney General Is Preparing to Announce 'Series of Significant Matters'

By Devlin Barrett

Justice Department Plans New Crisis Cases

Attorney General Holder says he is preparing to announce a 'series of significant matters' tied to the economic meltdown.

Read more: http://www.us.wsj.com/articles/a/SB10001424127887323423804579025262544041336

[DisgustipatedinCA]

1. I'll come back to this location to eat my words if I'm wrong

But I expect NOTHING of use from Eric Holder. Maybe we'll get a Blue Ribbon Panel. Maybe prosecutors will get GUIDELINES for future financial cases. But I'm ready to bet a paycheck that Ken Lewis isn't about to get handcuffed and indicted.

[Jackpine Radical]

3. Let's make it a potluck.

You bring the hats & I'll bring the crow. (Hell make that Old Crow.)

Nobody goin' ta jail. No criminal convictions.

Holder will however issue a very stern letter of warning.

[Salviati]

10. Maybe he'd take it seriously...

...if we told him that the wall street banksters were all high out of their gourds when they melted down the economy...

[Jackpine Radical]

11. Only if we can convince him they're high on something

that you don't snort with rolled-up Franklins.

[Brigid]

34. Actually, this is true.

According to the film "Inside Job." Check it out if you haven't already.

[Kennah]

21. I'll cook up some mashed potatoes

I predict a stern letter, issued with a glare.

[roguevalley]

40. holder will do nothing. his doj is defending bush right now.

[cstanleytech]

2. It will probably be just some BS fine when what is needed is a breakup of the big banks. nt

[gopiscrap]

4. Nail their asses!

[Doctor_J]

5. The Onion?

After 5 years they're close to making a decision on whether or not to start some serious inquiries?

Seriously, maybe if Holder announces a few hundred indictments, a few of the millions of 2008 new voters who thought they were voting for change will come roaring back to the polls next year.

[FreakinDJ]

37. ^^ This Guy ^^

[bunnies]

6. hmmmm.

Red meat for the base? Better make it a nice, juicy, cut!

[bemildred]

7. Let the butt-covering begin. nt

[Wilms]

8. I'm all ears, Eric.

Wow. Sounds like he may have realized that there are some really bad people out there.

Who knew?

[zeemike]

9. It took 5 years to make a decision

to make a decision...yes I am sure things will happen alright...
What a joke that is.

[forestpath]

12. Ooh, oooh, an old fashioned WRIST SLAPPING about to commence!!!!!

(To be administered with a wet noodle.)

[Kelvin Mace]

13. have they found a scapegoat yet?

Some underling without the political clout to avoid being made an example of?

As some other have said, "I would love to be wrong but..."

[railsback]

14. Everyone here seems to think that taking on mega giant corporations with unlimited funds is easy

Especially multi national corporations with entities all over the world. Its not like Holder can take them to court and say something like, 'Well, we think the NSA could be spying on everyone without warrants because they have the capability to do so..' These giants have armies highly paid lawyers. Its ludicrous to think that the DOJ could just throw together a case like this in a matter of a few short months. If Holder is ready to take some of these people on, then that's because he's gathered as much evidence as possible to make the strongest case possible, and yes, that could have taken several years to accumulate.

[shraby]

15. Another post that deserves a recommend. I can give you a thumbs up though

[Brigid]

35. We have our thread winner.

[slipslidingaway]

16. Anything against Bush/Cheney yet? Do you remember Obama saying ...

in regards to Bush 'if anything presents itself we'll take action?'

Obama and his economic advisers backed the Bush bailout from the very beginning, imagine if questions had been asked back then.



Put me in the skeptical camp that anything will ever come of this.

[railsback]

18. There is an unfortunate reality to all this

and that is our whole economic system is tied up in these mega corps. They have their fingers in EVERYTHING. There was too much of a risk of a total global meltdown if we let the chips fall where they may. I can totally understand why the Obama administration wasn't willing to take that chance, with hundreds of thousands losing their jobs every month.

[slipslidingaway]

20. And the result was that financial power was consolidated even further ...

we'll see how allowing the large to become even larger works in the years to come and if there is any actual consequence behind the current story.

Still remain in the skeptical camp.

[railsback]

22. Skepticism is a good thing

[slipslidingaway]

36. Sure is! n/t

[MFrohike]

17. Or

Skepticism could be warranted due to the president's own whitewashing of blatant criminality and Lanny Breuer's repeated refusal to prosecute because of too big to fail.

We'll see how serious Holder is very soon. We've seen him give Goldman a huge pass and not even pretend to slap HSBC on the wrist. What will we see next?

[MannyGoldstein]

24. Hard to know if you don't try

And Holder, by his own admission, was reluctant to even try because they are very, very important companies.

HSBC people almost certainly could have been thrown in jail for money laundering, but Holder didn't try. Because HSBC is very, very important. (Important to his career after AG, indeed, Holder no doubt wants some of the action that Bill, Larry, Timmy and the rest have gotten for their superb service.)

But people like Aaron Swartz... THOSE people Holder goes after with an iron fist.

[jtuck004]

25. Uh, they don't have unlimited funds. The government does. And have you forgotten

the S&L scandal. Corporations investigated, people thrown in jail. 'Course, the President didn't start out by telling them that he was the one between them (them being large donors to the Democratic Party) and the pitchforks (the pitchforks being the people who were about to have 10 million families yanked out of their homes and thrown into the street).

Oh yeah, and since the funding was cut and the people dismissed, the forensic accountants at the FBI have never been replaced, which was a serious impediment to any investigation.

And lest one try and pass that fairy tale about how everything would have crashed if we didn't support criminals in their ongoing criminal conspiracy on the backs of hard-working American families, about 100 million of whom are stuck living at less than 200% of the poverty line for the foreseeable future because we are paying those bastards instead of investing in our people, they might want to read up on William Black's work, since he DID help put the crooks from the S&L in prison, prosecuted on the basis of control fraud.

Here's one link to get that googly finger warmed up... http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=590806

Just sayin'. This stupid argument has been made by the crooked fucking bankers and their slimy friends and apologists since their crooked scheme percolated itself to the surface, and I am tired of hearing it. It's like the plantation owner telling the people he owns how life would be so much harder w/o his or her munificence, which is a large load of crap. That we elected people who try to pass this lie just tells me how utterly devoid of working brain tissue we have become.

[Doctor_J]

28. Ah, yes, the "He's a president, not a king" defense

Thanks, I'd almost forgotten that one.

[Sunlei]

19. hate it, have to logon to read WSJ. charge people with crimes and recover the trillions stolen!

[MannyGoldstein]

23. He'll bring a couple of good cases against third-tier folks

Maybe a single shaky case where a C-level person is a co-defendant.

[brewens]

26. I wish for some perp walk cuff & stuffs! But you can wish in one hand and shit in the other and

see which one fills up first! No need to bother. I know which hand would fill up first!

[Squinch]

27. Let me guess: It's the teachers' fault, right?

Ain't nothing going to happen to the guys who did it.

[Doctor_J]

31. either the teachers or Greenwald

Terrorists all

[winter is coming]

29. Bring forth the sternly worded letters!! n/t

[truebluegreen]

43. GMTA.

[delrem]

30. oh jeez - a quote from the article:

"John Coffee, a law professor at Columbia University who studies white-collar crime and securities fraud, said the Obama administration “has been appropriately criticized for being excessively equivocal and slow to respond” to the financial crisis. But he said Mr. Holder’s remarks suggest “he is responding to the temper of the times.”

Nevertheless, Mr. Coffee said, he expected the five-year statute of limitations on many white-collar crimes may bar a successful prosecution of a number of precrash abuses."

sigh

By the way, I hit a firewall when clicking the link but when I googled the title of the article and clicked the link to WSJ I got in.
That trick gets past a lot of other firewalls too, like at Haaretz.

Re. the issue, I'll take *any tiny thing* as better than enabling these criminals. Wow, what a low bar....

[Doctor_J]

32. so he waited for the statute of limitations to expire before starting the

inquiries. Clever.

[delrem]

33. He's also scheduled to be leaving his post in approx a year.

[Rex]

38. Great! We've only been waiting for 5 years.

Sounds great!

[Safetykitten]

39. 5 years. Think about that. 5 fucking years.

[BillyRibs]

41. This is the responce I expect from the DOJ.

[truebluegreen]

42. I sense a sternly-worded letter in the offing.