When will Bad Bankers go to Jail?

When will bad bankers go to jail?

Wall Street lies in tatters, but we're still waiting for the prosecutions
that might reassure investors that the system works.

One key issue: Were risk-taking bankers criminals? Or just dumb?

By Michael Brush
MSN Money

In the second year of a massive market meltdown that cost the world an estimated $50 trillion in 2008,
there's something sorely missing -- besides all the money.

When do the bad guys start going to prison?

Investors hoping for a cleanup on Wall Street are still waiting for the Ken Lays, the Dennis Kozlowskis or
at least the Martha Stewarts of the mortgage collapse to emerge.

Otherwise, the takeaway might be that nothing illegal happened and that economy-rocking losses caused
by risky, overleveraged loans are just the way things work -- and then investors won't trust the market again for years to come.

Hang on, say former prosecutors who have connections inside the branches of law enforcement handling these kinds of cases.
The prosecutions are on the way.

Lawyers are buzzing --
"The financial-fraud unit of the U.S. Attorney's Office in Manhattan is humming," says Steven Feldman,
a former assistant U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of New York.

"From everything I can tell in talking to my former colleagues, they are working very hard," says Feldman,
now a criminal-defense attorney with New York law firm Herrick, Feinstein.

"I think you will see federal prosecutors kicking into high gear soon," agrees Mark Ressler,
a former federal prosecutor who is now a criminal-defense attorney with Kasowitz Benson Torres & Friedman in New York.


Who will take the hit ?

These attorneys don't say and probably don't know.

But FBI Director Robert Mueller recently told Congress that the bureau had launched more than two dozen
investigations into Wall Street companies such as Bear Stearns, Credit Suisse Group, and Lehman Bros.,
as well as mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and insurer American International Group.


They're looking into:

-The details of Ponzi schemes run by scam artists like Bernard Madoff.

-Hedge fund managers who allegedly talked up their funds to avert panic withdrawals
while privately acknowledging things looked ugly.

-Whether top executives at some of the key players in the financial mess made promises to
customers or shareholders that they knew were impossible to keep.


So what's taking so long?

The FBI only recently shifted resources away from counterterrorism to investigations of white-collar crime,
says former Assistant U.S. Attorney Karl Buch, now a criminal-defense attorney.


link to 3 page story

they won't because they got obama elected.

KK wrote:

they won't because they got obama elected.

Seems to me like the money changers have owned every prez we've had at least since Kennedy.

java wrote:

KK wrote:

they won't because they got obama elected.

Seems to me like the money changers have owned every prez we've had at least since Kennedy.

actually since Andrew jackson. he was the first one that stood up to them

KK wrote:

java wrote:

KK wrote:

they won't because they got obama elected.

Seems to me like the money changers have owned every prez we've had at least since Kennedy.

actually since Andrew jackson. he was the first one that stood up to them

He was definitely a one-of-a-kind prez.

java wrote:

KK wrote:

java wrote:

KK wrote:

they won't because they got obama elected.

Seems to me like the money changers have owned every prez we've had at least since Kennedy.

actually since Andrew jackson. he was the first one that stood up to them

He was definitely a one-of-a-kind prez.

not too polished but got stuff done