... With all the turmoil of the financial crisis, you may have forgotten about the book-cooking that went on at Fannie Mae. Government inquiries found that between 1998 and 2004, senior executives at Fannie manipulated its results to hit earnings targets and generate $115 million in bonus compensation. Fannie had to restate its financial results by $6.3 billion.
[They Left Fannie Mae, but We Got the Legal Bills, 5 Sep 2009, NYT]
Me? I keep thinkin' the Enron collapse is the model to keep in mind, and that fraud at Fannie & Freddie ain't the end of the story.
Has anyone suggested serious fraud investigations of the Big Banks and other Wall Street giants? Citi, Wells Fargo, Goldman/Sachs???
Tho' I don't feel like looking for the source right now, a recent article - somewhere - detailed the cozy relationship between the Wizards of Wall Street & rating agencies. For large $$$ fees, the rating agencies would rate various investment instruments as AAA - based solely on information provided by the clients! ... a neat little scheme repeated over and over.
Enron, WorldCom, & Tyco - these oughta be the relatively easy-to-understand models our supposed "regulators" study... and they - our supposed "regulators" - really oughta start asking, "Is there fraud?"
It's an easy question to ask.
Lock Him Up
2 hours ago
The one thing the neocons do well is learn from their mistakes. Nixon had to resign because he opened his mouth and they caught him in a lie. Reagan and all the others from then on have convenient amnesia. The S&L meltdown got numerous banksters tossed in jail, they change the law so they can do the same thing and haul away the loot, notice they are ready for a double dip as none of their loopholes have been filled my Obama. Enron taught Wall Street to regulate the regulators so they can get off scott free too.
ReplyDelete