Sen. Kaufman: We Are Going After Lehman Brothers Over Accounting Shenanigans(VIDEO)

It's a veritable crime sweep. Senator Ted Kaufman (D-Del.) confidently tells Aaron Task of Tech Ticker that "the FBI agents and the prosecutors are going after these guys" -- that is, the possible fraud behind Lehman Brothers "Repo 105" accounting.

Lehman's balance sheet shenanigans, however, may only be the tip of the iceberg.

The prosecutions won't be easy, Kaufman said. "[Lehman is] very complex. They clean up after themselves very well, and they hire the very best attorneys. But we are going to do it." He added that $175 million has been set aside to fund SEC/FBI investigations and to go after Wall Street.

"You read about what went on, and you just shake your head," he said. "If it isn't fraud, it should be fraud."

Here's more from Sen. Kaufman:

"There cannot be two laws in the land, especially in an area that cost the American people so incredibly much, by having almost another Great Depression.

WATCH:

WATCH Part Two at Yahoo Tech Ticker

Comments

[MichaelLittleBig]

04:59 PM on 03/26/2010

NO surprise here, everyone one on Wall Street had an accounting game.
Recent books like the" Sell Out" give the details.
Senator Kaufman is a day late and a dollar short.
The Wall Street Bankers are smarter than the regulators-Ask Madoff.

[TJCole]

10:58 AM on 03/26/2010

Why is this story buried in the business section...?

[Margo Arrowsmith]

07:08 AM on 03/26/2010

There are two prisons in this country that are maximum security AND empty. One in Illinois and another in Montana or Wyoming. They are both asking to house the Gitmo prisoners, well, they can't both win.

So here's my idea. Put the Gitmo prisoners in one of them.

Then use the most secure one for the ones that are an even greater threat to America and the world, all those bankers and stock brokers who committed fraud. There are getting to be so many of them, I am sure they will soon fill the whole place.

But put them away.

[mfyourmomscalling]

04:23 AM on 03/26/2010

what disturbs me the most is the senates lack of doing ANYTHING about the FRAUD ,DECEPTION ,PONZI SCHEMES AND MORE FOR OVER A WHOLE YEAR!!!!! A YEAR !!!!!! THIS IS WHY I HAVE LOST FAITH IN THIS SYSTEM AND I WILL VOTE EVERYONE OUT THAT I CAN !!

HERE IS A EXAMPLE OF HOW OUT OF TOUCH MY SENATORS ARE

OK I HAVE COUNTED I WROTE 1846 LETTERS TO MY SENATORS WITH NOT ONE BEING ANSWERED >>YOU HEAR ME RIGHT NOT ONE LETTER AND YOU WONDER WHY I AM STEAMING MAD !!!

I CAN TELL YOU THIS THEY DON'T HAVE A CHANCE IN HELL GETTING MY VOTE !!!
THEY DON'T REPRESENT THE PEOPLE THEY REPRESENT THE CORPORATIONS AND THAT MY FRIENDS IS JUST PLAIN WRONG !!!!

END THE FED
ELECTION DAY IS COMING CROOKS

[imsosure]

02:24 AM on 03/26/2010

If only the rules and laws were enforced this wouldn't be a problem. Enforce the rules and prosecute those for violating them, it's a process that's been around for centuries and, It Works!

[Mafdet]

10:50 PM on 03/25/2010

I don't know how anyone can ever be charged with fraud again if Ken Lewis can't.

And by the way. Andrew Cuomo was filing criminal charges against Ken Lewis one day and the next, it all went away. What was up with that?

[sonofsamphm1c]

09:21 AM on 03/26/2010

Gee, all he needed was evidence. Big problem - finding actual evidence.

[martin2]

09:06 PM on 03/28/2010

Before he got this job he was a political appointee administrator thanks to Dad.
He is no Spitzer. Basically incompetent.

[InfinteShibumi]

10:45 PM on 03/25/2010

And to think I felt sorry for these guys!

[LITU]

10:28 PM on 03/25/2010

All these lawyers running around, and no one can define fraud?

[whitemale08]

09:17 PM on 03/25/2010

Kaufman is not serious, for if he was he would announce a Pecora Commission to look at all the gambling casinos on Wall Street including Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, BoA...all of 'em.

All of these gambling houses were practicing the same fraudelant accounting which is why no one 'blew-the-whistle' until it was obvious that there was no more 'cash flow' to be had from this Ponzi scheme.

The whole Wall Street/City of London empire of worthless derivatives and credit-default swaps crashed just like a typical Ponzi scam - there was nothing 'complex' about its crash.

That's why there were plenty of people, who don't even work on Wall Street, knew this was going to happened when Greenspan fueled the fire for derivatives after the '87 crash.

In fact, Wall Street/City of London had been WARNED so much that they lobbyed Congress to de-regulate themselves so they could keep the Ponzi game going all the way to the end.

We have to admit that the entire Federal Reserve System is hopessly bankrupt and should be put into RECEIVERSHIP IMMEDIATELY along with Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and the rest with their hundreds of trillions in worthless derivatives and credit-default swaps stuck on their 'off-balance' sheets.

There is not enough MASSIVE AUSTERITY CUTS in the world to pay for that useless debt, so CANCEL IT!

[PS9]

08:31 PM on 03/25/2010

When the Good Senator starts to speak out about the fact that his home state is one big tax avoidance scheme I will listen to what he has to say about other corporate affairs.

[adamnb]

07:49 PM on 03/25/2010

If it was fraudulent in Enron's case, where execs were jailed, why not in Lehman's case?

[magibrotherhood]

09:33 PM on 03/25/2010

the administration is hesitant to really investigate Lehman.....Timmy would have to be indicted.

[sonofsamphm1c]

10:38 PM on 03/25/2010

Investment Bank.

Geithner would never be indicted for Lehman Brothers.

[Freenation]

07:44 PM on 03/25/2010

Bravo

[US1st2009]

07:44 PM on 03/25/2010

dick fuld received nearly half a billion dollars in total compensation from 1993 to 2007 to obliterate 158 year old lehman brothers. banksters get away with billions in their personal offshore tax free accounts and the best justice money can buy. we need a revolution in US justice!

geithner and goldman need to be INVESTIGATED, PROSECUTED, and CLAWED BACK for financial terrorism along with fuld, rubin, summers, bernanke, dimon, speyer, stephen friedman, prince, weill, chais, picower... They all KNOW the public will forget via the sunami of cascading information that no common person can process. after all they own or finance the major media outlets. most are fed alumni.

some of us have been screaming about this for years but the public hoped it would just blow away. what blew away were their mortgages, 401Ks, health care, schools, and the middle class.

as a critical pin-hole view into the world of NY finance manipulating our congress, administration, tax dollars and economy for their personal benefit read 4/26/09 NY Times article "Geithner, Member and Overseer of Finance Club" By JO BECKER and GRETCHEN MORGENSON and the accompanying graphic "Mr. Geithner’s World." research how they control the fed.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/27/business/27geithner.html?_r=1&em=&pagewanted=all

it's about time we quit being cowed sheep. this is OUR country and OUR tax dollars being stolen in the greatest REDISTRIBUTION of wealth in history; UPWARD to the wealthiest few.

[FoxIslander]

07:08 PM on 03/25/2010

...they wont go after this...it's endemic throughout the financial sector...the same book cooking is everywhere...Goldman, BoA, Chase...it's all smoke and mirrors...where would you stop?

[mfyourmomscalling]

06:48 PM on 03/25/2010

WHAT ABOUT THE FEDS SHENANIGANS !!!!!! WHAT ABOUT THAT THAT'S OK RIGHT BECAUSE WE DON'T KNOW WHAT !!! THEY DO RIGHT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

[wanderingsalmon]

10:01 PM on 03/25/2010

Were your parents by chance cousins?