Prosecutors Pass On Major Wall Street Players

Newsweek:

Ever heard of Sky Capital? Probably not. The CEO of that rinky-dink Wall Street firm and five of his employees were indicted this week over what the Securities and Exchange Commission described as a "trans-Atlantic boiler room scheme" to defraud investors. Maybe you have heard of Angelo Mozilo, the perpetually tanned former head of Countrywide Financial who faces civil fraud charges that he and two others knew many of their subprime loans were "toxic," as Mozilo allegedly described them in e-mails. Mozilo says he's innocent. Prosecutors believe he was one of many middlemen who fed one of the greatest confidence games of all time--the subprime-mortgage-backed securities scam--perpetuated by Wall Street.

Read the whole story: Newsweek

Comments

[wndrwrthg]

If the government refuses to deal with, that means that they leave it to the people. The people may do whatever they wish.

[OpposingViewpoint]

The prosecutors may know more than they are telling. Marilyn Barrett posted this on Huffpo back on December 30th:
A 60 Minutes episode that aired several months ago focused on the Commodities Futures Modernization Act of 2000 (the "Act") and the substantial role it played in our current economic crisis. The Act allowed financial institutions to engage in high-risk derivative transactions and credit default swaps without any regulatory oversight by the SEC or the CFTC. And they did so to the tune of an estimated $50 to $80 trillion dollars -- until many of these institutions became "too big to fail" and were rewarded with substantial infusions of government largess. Not only did the Act prohibit the SEC and CFTC from regulating these transactions, it also prohibited states from enforcing existing gambling and bucket shop laws against Wall Street, which, as 60 Minutes pointed out, appears to be Congressional recognition that these financial instruments were nothing more than high-stakes gambling for the upper class and illegal or at least prosecutable.

So, are these guys protected by the legal protections built into the CFMA Of 2000? If so, it appears we have only one group of folks to blame and once again they are located on Capitol Hill.

Read More: Commodities Futures Modernization Act Of 2000, Congress, Derivaties, Economy, Financial Crisis, Gotcha Leglisation, Political, Politics News

[ObamAtomic]

Ha,to big too fail,too big too jail.
What else is new?

[ObamAtomic]

Ops!Ha,to big too fail, to big too jail.
What else is new?

[layman]

Too gutless to prosecute.

[YankinCanada]

How about a progressive march? Heck the Iranians are showing more guts than we have.

[YankinCanada]

Labor Day.

[jumperpin]

Oh well. Back to pitchforks.

[AKJM]

You bet
This and we read that they are floating junk securities again. I don't understand.

[Truelee]

This is outrageous!!! If they don't jail these criminals then I want 100% plus interest of my tax money back. The criminal intent is no different from any other crime. These people knew exactly what they were doing, they even filled departments with very smart employees to cook up the scam; they must be treated equally under the law. To do less is unpatriotic and it will not restore trust back into Wall Street and the financial services industry.

[fcsakes]

I want my money back and my children's money and my grandchildren's money and all their children's money. Together, we are too big to fail.

[AuntieChrist]

It's too bad they weren't selling pot:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-kirk-marijuanajun15,0,4381974.story

Then again, they may not have served their entire sentence:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A18868-2004Oct8.html

America.

[sosi]

Wall Street married to Washington by lobbyists is crony capitalism. The destruction of US continues...

[anothervoice2]

The Obama Administration's reluctance to at least call for tough new regulations that would limit the lame defense of "I did not know the risk" is baffling. Maybe these crooks have a legal defense for the past criminal (yes, it is still criminal because they all knew it. just no smoking gun perhaps in an email or memo). If there are tough new regulations, at least there is a legal deterrent going forward. And greedy bankers may think twice about blindly pushing such faulty financial instruments.

[militantlibrarian]

But they didn't rob us with a gun, they used a fountain pen!

[noweknow]

A robbery is a robbery. Gun and pen are just the tools they use.

[MANK]

HIllary supporter but voted Obama to give him a chance. Regretting not following my first thought...pass on voting the first time in 40 years.

[YankinCanada]

and what would she have done any different?

[Foutsy]

For the record, I hate Obama....but if he really wanted to capture the hearts of all Americans, including myself he would go after all these guys with ruthless aggression. I am a free market capitalist at heart, and if you know anything about how we feel these guys need to go down.

[proggirl]

This is not singular to this administration. This has been a dominant mindset for decades. When a lower class individual is arrested, that person is treated very roughly and rudely in many cases. When an upper class individual is arrested, that person is deferred to, almost to the point of authorities apologizing for daring to put them in custody. Odd since many of the offenses of the upper class criminal hurt far more people.

[noweknow]

I totally agree. There's also a racial dimension to this injustice.

[Palemoon]

If I was Obama and someone uttered the words "too big to fail" or "too big to prosecute", I'd fire that advisor immediately and probably go so far as to charge them with treason.

This type of stuff in this article goes against everything our forefathers, and America, stands for. THIS is exactly the type of thing they feared most. Franklin was right, we only have a republic so long as we can hold onto it. It's pretty clear that ride is now over, that dream is forever gone.