National Public Radio’s Marketplace provided an answer to the question of why no bank executives went to jail for their roles in the financial crisis of 2008.
“People didn't get prosecuted during the financial crisis or high level executives simply because of a lack of commitment, competence, and courage by the political leaders in the Department of Justice. That's what I observed. That's what I saw. That's what I felt. And that's why I left the Department of Justice.” — Paul Pelletier, former senior prosecutor in the U.S Justice Department Criminal Division’s Fraud Section
Part of the story has to do with Eric Holder:
In 1999, when Holder was deputy attorney general in the Clinton administration, he wrote a memorandum titled “Bringing Criminal Charges Against Corporations.” The memo states that prosecutors should take “collateral consequences” into account when “conducting an investigation, determining whether to bring charges, and negotiating plea agreements.” The memo got more attention after the 2008 financial crisis when it became clear that big bank executives would not face criminal prosecution.
If you can’t go and listen/read the whole thing, this following says it all (emphasis added):
Chairman of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission
The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission was created by Congress and the White House in 2009 to investigate the causes of the financial crisis. According to Angelides, the commission sent 11 separate criminal referrals — recommendations to investigate or prosecute — involving multiple high-level executives and companies to the Justice Department.
“It is one of, I think, the very disappointing legacies of the financial crisis. The simple fact is the Department of Justice never mobilized the resources to thoroughly investigate the wrongdoing that occurred in the runup to the financial crisis. And having failed to investigate, and never then applied the resources and the will to prosecute — it remains an enigma to me.”
If you do go and listen, there is a good chance that your blood will boil. For all that I admire Obama, this is a major fail on his part; it deeply corrodes his legacy and will go a long way to making him NOT one of the great Presidents.
Friday, Mar 1, 2019 · 2:22:52 AM +00:00
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Arun
What has upset me so much? I think it is that it is increasingly evident, at least to me, that the Trump family corruption is deep and longstanding, and would have continued un-investigated and un-prosecuted had Trump not made the mistake of becoming POTUS.
How many other Trump=like scumbags are prowling around in New York City alone, with total impunity? I find it hard to imagine that Trump is unique in his corruption. Since when did white-collar-crime be so overlooked? Clearly, since a long time ago.
And then the Marketplace story, its third part, I hear in full today, and it is clear that Obama didn’t lift his little finger to change any of this. And that made me sad and boiling mad.
I think the only cure for this country is a political system that enables working class people — who haven’t yet made it big economically speaking, kind of like AOC — to capture a significant share of the political power, without getting beholden to monied interests. Even a wonderful-as-a-person and dignified-as-President Obama is nowhere near adequate.