Thursday, January 24, 2013

Update: Lanny Breuer quit

The day after the Frontline episode aired, Lanny Breuer resigned and the Department of Justice has said they will not cooperate with the PBS program in the future. But since Lanny has successfully run out the clock and the statute of limitations has expired for any and all frauds leading up to the crash, I'm sure he'll be rewarded with a partnership at a big law firm where he will defend Wall St clients with help from his DOJ contacts.

Here are some more money quotes from Frontline's website:

"We spoke to a couple of sources from within the fraud section of the Criminal Division, and through mid-2010 they reported that when it came to Wall Street, there were no investigations going on; there were no subpoenas, no document reviews, no wiretaps."
...
"We’ve spoken to people inside the Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities Working Group who said that when they began their work in January, February, March of 2012 that they found nothing at the Justice Department in the pipeline, no ongoing cases looking at securitization." No Justice.

And here's a quote from Lanny's recent speech to the Bar Association:

"To be clear, the decision of whether to indict a corporation, defer prosecution, or decline altogether is not one that I, or anyone in the Criminal Division, take lightly. We are frequently on the receiving end of presentations from defense counsel, CEOs, and economists who argue that the collateral consequences of an indictment would be devastating for their client. In my conference room, over the years, I have heard sober predictions that a company or bank might fail if we indict, that innocent employees could lose their jobs, that entire industries may be affected, and even that global markets will feel the effects. Sometimes – though, let me stress, not always – these presentations are compelling.  "

No Justice.   Too big to fail --> too big to jail.

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