Continuing Wall Street Control of DOJ

"The Justice Department on Thursday announced the arrests of nearly 500 people in what it billed as a nationwide 'takedown' of mortgage scams, many of them directed at homeowners in financial distress. ... Federal officials said they have identified losses of $2.3 billion stemming from hundreds of mortgage-fraud cases. High-profile convictions of Wall Street investment bankers have eluded authorities. On Thursday, Attorney General Eric Holder tried to showcase smaller cases. 'If you want to gauge the efficacy of this task force, you can't focus on simply what has happened with regards to the large institutions on Wall Street,' he said', my emphasis, Thomas Catan at the WSJ, 18 June 2010, link:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704289504575312691317663972.html.

"It involves 1,215 criminal defendants in cases that uncovered more than $2.3 billion in losses. ... Hundreds of FBI agenst are working on the task forces with other law enforcement agencies to combat a type of crime that poses 'a risk to our economic stability' as a nation, FBI Director Rovert Mueller said at the news conference", Pete Yost at the Houston Chronicle, 18 June 2010, link:

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/7059319.html.

"Since taking office at the height of the financial crisis, President Barack Obama has promised to hold Wall Street accountabel for the meltdown. Attorney General Eric Holder reinforced that message in November when he vowed to prosecute Wall Street executives and others responsible for the crisis. ... His [DOJ] took steps to fulfill that promise this week when it arrested the ex-chairman of one of the nation's biggest mortgage firms--the largest crisis-related criminal case--and announced 1,215 people have been charged with mortgage fraud since March 1. But that success masks difficulties in the highest-profile probes: those of Wall Street banks. ... And law enforcement sources say no such charges are imminent. ... Justice officials say Holder did not over-promise and that the task force is targeting all financial fraud, not just on Wall Street. ... The shortage of Wall Street prosecutuions is not for lack of effort. ... But investigators are encountering obstacles in what they call their top-priority cases, which souces saud include probes of JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, UBS, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and the former Lehman Brothers", Jerry Markon at the Houston Chronicle, 18 June 2010, link: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/7059317.html.

More DOJ guerilla theater. Why not Eric? When I see Lloyd Antoinette Blankfein sentenced to 30 years for securities fraud, I might consider the DOJ is fighting securities fraud. Maybe. Let's apply my "Blankfein Test" and see if I would have bothered with the 1,215 arrests in question. $2.3 billion / 1,215 = $1.9 million a person. I would have selected some of them and ignored the rest. As they total $2.3 billion, I consider pursuing them in the aggregate, a waste of DOJ resources.

Quoted without comment.

Will Alan Greenspan and the other Fed Heads get indicted? What going on? The DOJ pursues these peanuts to turn firms like Vampire Squid into victims! Did any of these 1,215 peanuts get TARP money? Nonsense. I think the DOJ is running around in circles trying to figure out which peanuts working for these "top-priority" firms are safe targets.