Obama Orders Task Force to Fight Financial Crime

[SecularMotion]

Source: NY Times

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama will issue an executive order Tuesday creating an administration-wide task force to crack down on financial fraud following a rise in mortgage scams and high-profile Wall Street trading scandals, an administration official said.

The order will direct the task force to investigate and prosecute financial crimes connected to the past year's financial crisis and to try to deter future fraud, said the official, who declined to be identified.

The stakes are high for the administration, particularly with a weak economy, anger about huge Wall Street bonuses and outrage that securities regulators missed one of the biggest frauds in U.S. history involving Bernard Madoff, who bilked investors of as much as $65 billion in a decades-long scheme.

The administration has long pledged to become more aggressive in fighting financial crime. The task force is set to be announced at a 12 p.m. EST (1700 GMT) Justice Department news conference that will include Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Attorney General Eric Holder.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2009/11/17/us/politics/politics-us-usa-fraud.html

[BR_Parkway]

1. Shouldn't Geithner be one of the one's being investigated?

[Botany]

2. Good new but he can also go after bush & Cheney for lying to start a war,

the jailing of Don Siegelman, illegal spying, rigging elections, and manipulation
of the media by planting stories and paying off "journalists."

[Romulox]

3. LOL!. nt

[Ruby the Liberal]

4. Um, isn't this what the SEC and FBI are supposed to do?

[salguine]

5. That's not a knee-jerk cheer. You obviously want a pony.

[No Elephants]

6. One would think.. Somehow the phrase "bread and circus" comes to mind, though I can't

say exactly why.

Then again, the SEC should have stopped Madoff, even without all the tips about him.

Coming soon to a bureaucracy near you: a task force to eliminate unnecessary task forces.

[hughee99]

7. There is a pressing need for this...

The TARP bankers are finding it very hard to give themselves huge bonuses because of the current climate. What they need is for a government task force to crack down on a bunch of bankers who aren't politically connected, so people feel like the industry is being properly policed, and when people stop paying attention so closely they can go back to business as usual.

[clear eye]

8. Hope you're wrong.

Of course if the WH listened to the top economists, they would have hired a task force to find the least diruptive ways to break up the largest financial institutions and to reregulate all of them. If Congress wasn't wholly bought, they would already be hearings on reregulation, as it's been a pressing need from the start. We are clearly in a crisis of corruption, and it's not all outside the Beltway.

[dixiegrrrrl]

14. They are, however, getting huge stock options and stock

which is doing quite well in this rigged stock market run up.

[hughee99]

15. Yes, but the point is to make any negative publicity

because of it go away.

What they want is a Martha Stewart. Someone high profile enough that the public takes notice, but not tied in with the establishment enough to take everyone down. Someone where the public can say, "If they're going after this person for such a relatively minor amount, you know they're really serious about cracking down". Then the people eventually get tired of hearing about it and the whole issue goes away for a while.

[change_notfinetuning]

9. A task force is the last refuge of some scoundrels. n/t

[PSPS]

10. Well, at least they're not using the shop worn title "blue ribbon committee."

What we really need is another Pecora Commission.

[Zenlitened]

11. K&R. They need to go about this with a lot of fanfare...

... nothing low-key about it.

The message matters right now, and even if results aren't immediate, people need at least some glimmer of hope that the Finance Caste might someday be punished for scamming/gaming/manipulating the system with such disastrous results.

So far, it's ordinary people who've felt all the pain, while the Financial Caste continues in opulence, ease and comfort... overlain with the kind of arrogance and self-admiration that only Privilege can procure.

Which might explain much of the anger and discontent out there on Main Street, wouldn't ya think?

[dflprincess]

12. They also need to push for reinstating the regulations that were rolled back

and allowed the whole disaster to happen.

What happens to the crooks who, thanks to deregulation, didn't break current law but still made out like bandits and left up to clean up their mess as well.

[dixiegrrrrl]

13. So, does that include all the massive money laundering by OUR banks

that Sen. Levin identified back in 01?
Which, of course, The Bush Admin. totally ignored.

His report is fascinating reading, names banks, etc.
And naturally nothing was done.

Anyone who wants a copy ( maybe before it does disappear off the web) can find it as a pdf file, here:

hsgac.senate.gov/psi_finalreport.pdf

edit: spelling

[Iowa]

16. What a farce. Geithner, a man who played a major role in bringing the country to its knees...

...is now going to be involved in cracking down on financial fraud. Obama is a disaster.