They Got Away With It

dojlogoIt there was ever a message from our government, it's this. If someone has enough money and power, they can get away with anything. There will be no consequence and no punishment for the rich and powerful.

Once again, Goldman Sachs gets completely away with it. The Department of Justice, closed the books on pursuing Goldman Sachs. Now this is most interesting, you cannot find the statement, press release, nothing on the DOJ website or anywhere. Some claim the DOJ statement is in Goldman Sachs 10-Q, but no, not there either.

About the only place you can get the DOJ statement, it appears, is ABC News, second hand and not directly uploaded.

Based on the law and evidence as they exist at this time, there is not a viable basis to bring a criminal prosecution with respect to Goldman Sachs or its employees in regard to the allegations set forth in the report.”

“The department and its investigative partners conducted an exhaustive review of the report and its exhibits, independently gathered and scrutinized a large volume of other documents, and tenaciously pursued potential evidentiary leads, including conducting numerous witness interviews,” the Justice Department’s statement continued. “While the department and investigative agencies ultimately concluded that the burden of proof to bring a criminal case could not be met based on the law and facts as they exist at this time, we commend the hard work of those involved in preparing the report and thank the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations for its cooperation in regard to the criminal investigation.

According to Dealbook, it's rare for the DOJ to make any sort of statement on a criminal investigation, yet to do so, yet not make the statement publicly available is also strange.

Guess who else isn't doing anything about Goldman Sachs? The SEC. They too ended their investigation into a $1.3 billion subprime mortgage deal and are not going to take any action. Again, no press release, this news comes literally from Goldman Sachs.

Separately, Goldman Sachs announced early Thursday that the Securities and Exchange Commission had ended an investigation into a $1.3 billion subprime mortgage deal, taking no action. The move was an about-face for the commission, which notified the bank in February that it planned to pursue a civil action.

Senator Carl Levin, whose committee issued a mammoth report on Goldman Sachs, clearly proving criminal activity, sounds incensed from his statement on the lack of DOJ action:

Our investigation of the origins of the financial crisis revealed wrongdoing and failures among mortgage lenders, banking regulators, credit rating agencies and investment banks. One of those investment banks, Goldman Sachs, created complex securities that included “junk” from its own inventory that it wanted to get rid of. It misled investors by claiming its interests in those securities were “aligned” with theirs while at the same time it was betting heavily against those same securities, and therefore against its own clients, to its own substantial profit. Its actions did immense harm to its clients, and helped create the financial crisis that nearly plunged us into a second Great Depression.

Those are the facts the subcommittee found. Whether the decision by the Department of Justice is the product of weak laws or weak enforcement, Goldman Sachs’ actions were deceptive and immoral. That’s why I and others fought so hard to include tough new conflict-of-interest provisions in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law, to help ensure that Wall Street could no longer engage in such blatant behavior.

Yesterday’s announcement makes it even more important that regulators implement Dodd-Frank with rules that do not water down it down, and that they enforce those rules with vigor. The integrity of our financial markets and the strength of our economy demand that we make sure that actions such as Goldman Sachs’ and other recently discovered misdeeds by financial institutions are ended.

The original hearing on Goldman Sachs exposed Abacus synthetic CDOs as being stuffed with toxic assets and sold to unsuspecting suckers investors.

Of course Goldman Sachs is now using the DOJ statement as some sort of validation for stuffing CDOs with toxic, worthless, subprime mortgage assets and selling them to muppets.

The DOJ has been so MIA, the conservative group GAI, put together a study on the lack of criminal prosecutions against the banks. Conservative or not, the DOJ has routinely given the banksters a free pass.

  • The Department of Justice has not filed a single criminal charge against any top executive of an elite financial institution.
  • Attorney General Holder, Associate Attorney General Thomas Perrelli, Associate Attorney General Tony West, and Deputy Associate Attorney General Karol Mason all came to the DOJ from prestigious white-collar defense firms, where they represented the very financial institutions the DOJ is supposed to investigate.
  • Top DOJ officials played prominent roles in his 2008 campaign.
  • Holder co-chaired the campaign with Tony West, the DOJ’s third highest official. Ÿ No other modern administration has staffed the DOJ with big money fundraisers. Holder bundled $50,000 for Obama’s 2008 campaign, while Perrelli, West, and Mason all bundled $500,000 for the campaign. West also helped raise an estimated $65 million in California.
  • Washington’s “Revolving Door” is at work in the DOJ. Top Justice officials came from and returned to law practices where they defend the financial institutions the DOJ is tasked with prosecuting.

Zerohedge put up a table of Chuck Schumer's campaign contributions. At the top of the list is Goldman Sachs. New York Senator Charles Schumer is on the Senate Banking, Finance and Judiciary committees.

What is also astounding is the lack of outrage from most financial sites. The Progressive site Our Future covered the most details on the lack of prosecutions from the DOJ. It seems all political flavors of the uncorrupted are calling out the Justice Department.

The Justice Department's argument for inaction seems to come down to this: Bank cases are complicated. They're hard to win. We don't want to try. And it has repeatedly used an argument that's also been made by the President and Treasury Secretary as well, as they've tried to explain away the inactivity: that bad banking behavior isn't necessarily criminal behavior. That claim's been repeated many times, especially in the context of "ABACUS" and other Goldman Sachs misdeeds contained in the Coburn/Levin report.

But it's not true. It's already illegal to lie to clients, to knowingly conceal important information from in order to get their money under false pretenses, or to withhold materially important information from shareholders. And yet that flimsy argument seems to lie at the core of the DOJ's explanation for once again declining to pursue the evidence wherever it may lead.

Former NY Attorney General Elliot Spitzer sums it up best to express our disgust at the lack of criminal prosecutions:

I can say what we are all thinking: Really? Are you kidding me? Wall Street continues to get away scot-free? The Justice Department prosecutes Roger Clemens for perjury—spends countless resources, hours, and energy worrying about steroids in baseball—yet seems incapable of making cases against the big Wall Street firms that engineered the greatest lies, frauds, and scams in our economic history. I am as outraged, disappointed, and furious as you are. Have they no backbone, shame, or sense of what justice is all about? It does nothing for my already waning faith in this Justice Department.

Ya got that right Elliot. The lack of justice for financial crime of the big banks is symptomatic of America's real problem. Government has become so corrupted at this point it's hard to imagine the United States ever recovering and returning to her former days of strength and glory.

Meta: 

Comments

I laid out RICO case earlier, but look at what they do prosecute

I'm always up for a good laugh, and given the fact that even simpletons refuse to prosecute the RICO case I laid out here previously, let's examine what will be prosecuted courtesy of the NY prosecutors and The NY Times.

There was a full-page story about some woman, former Internet entrepreneur, who was being prosecuted by the NY Special Prosecutor (drug prosecuting group that covers NYC's counties so no juridictional issues) along with her accomplices. What did she do? Was she laundering money for Mexican cartels like Wells Fargo or HSBC or Standard Chartered have been shown to do and always settle civilly so no business officials ever spend one day in jail or lose one dollar? Was she helping finance terrorism through drug proceeds? Was she illegally importing and exporting weapons? Was she helping the ruling Burmese government launder tons of cash that they make daily in their global/state-run meth business (the same govt. the Dept. of State is easing sanctions on)? Nope.

This woman was busted for advertising prescription pain killers on craigslist! She was busted after her ads, surprisingly, were noticed by someone in law enforcement who apparently didn't want to work too hard. And then several buys took place! Now she and her accomplices (one of whom also sold a gun to an undercover) are now facing state prison! Yippee, law enforcement going after the baddest of the bad! But hey, if banksters and CEOs were really breaking laws, wouldn't their paid-for puppets in the DOJ and SEC go after them too? Come on, nothing worse than paid-off officials that would pretend to act like honest officials - that's true betrayal. Once they're bought, they stay bought. Always visit the DOJ and look at what they are investigating and prosecuting - it'll make you smile because it's so ridiculous given the massive crimes they purposely ignore.

Watch "Breaking Bad." Do you really think there are DEA and FBI and Treasury agents and US Attorneys never sleeping, thinking 24/7 about busting the masterminds even after they get one honcho? It's good TV for a reason. Do you think the Treasury/FinCEN is dreaming about busting entire banks like Wells Fargo because they are truly corrupting the global financial system and corrupting entire governments and societies? About destroying banks that work with Iran and help finance its govt., despite the fact that Iran is literally attacking our troops and civilians across the globe? Seems to me that's a clear case of aiding our enemy, no? Working with the enemy when the enemy is attacking us, what word describes that? Without the big criminals, cartels and killers would be sitting on tons of cash and unable to finance precursors, buy farms and labs, buy transportation and experts, buy politicians and law firms, buy judges and police, and buy protection in DC and elsewhere. TV vs. reality, and yet actors play the better part.

So, look around you, if you are getting angry, you are entitled. If you follow the laws and rules prescribed and you struggle because of being an honest American while the criminals and unethical elites get richer and richer at your expense, then you should be getting more and more disturbed. Think about how violated you feel when you get searched going through a simple airport screening yet DHS is okay with people and companies financing terrorists, terrorism, and other criminals. If you are subject to laws that the corrupt can avoid precisely because they make money through crime and corruption and find puppets willing to serve them, then you should be disgusted. If you aren't annoyed and disgusted, then you're probably one of the 1% or truly corrupted and have no business ever talking about laws, ethics, hard work, justice, or democracy - you truly don't understand the concepts. Now if you are one of those corrupt individuals, go down to Juarez or go live in the neighborhoods in the US utterly destroyed by the violence you help create and nurture and don't look to anyone else for help or protection - you created the mess, you profited from it, now live it every day and spout your talking points to your new neighbors, they won't be as tolerant of lies or bull**** as you're used to and you won't be coddled like you are in your buddies' TV stations. Go visit the people mourning personal losses due to terrorism and explain why you need to make millions more to help terrorists because a $10 million salary just ain't enough. And make sure you wear your American flag lapel pin, because that will surely wipe your sins and crimes away.

Jon Corzine, MF Global campaign contributions for Obama

This is incredible, MF Global John Corzine is bundling campaign contributions for Obama. He should be in jail.

Hand puppets don't bite the hand up their a**es

The rule of being a good puppet in either party is that you don't bite the hand up your rectum. That would just be wrong. No matter what party you belong to, a good puppet knows where its allegiance lies. And that's why puppets are treated well and get so rich throughout their lives, they don't dare bite that all-powerful hand. One hand controls the puppet, and the other gives the puppet the goodies like money and jobs for the puppet's unqualified friends and relatives. Puppets must read what their told, do what their told, and ignore what their told. Punch and Judy were more educational, cheaper, and more honest than these puppets.

The law is taking on a cartel - the "soda cartel" (direct quote)

This is from July, 19, 2012, at the same time banks were breaking many, many laws making billions from real cartels and still are. Directly from nyc.gov, a quote from the Manhattan Borough Pres:

"If public health is our goal and obesity our enemy, we must be creative and aggressive to fight and win this war. That's why I commend Mayor Bloomberg for drawing a line in the sand and taking on the soda cartel which is driving the obesity epidemic in this country."

Soda cartel? Win this war? Line in the sand? Is this SNL or Monty Python? Now they're creating new wars and new cartels to avoid anything that will affect the 1%'s pocketbooks? They are slightly creative, not bright, but slightly creative.

What's the next thing to be banned without a vote by the people? Not using a TBTF bank? Beer? Darts? Workouts that might injure people like martial arts, boxing, yoga, swimming, ice skating? Sports of any kind? Too little or too much exercise? Hobbies like skydiving or mountain climbing? Watching too much TV? Eating too little or too much? The "wrong kinds" of music? Talking about banksters and corruption? New wars, new enemies, new distractions. Leave us alone and stop creating distractions, we know what you're not doing and why.

police state NYC

He should also mention how he hates poor people and they need to go live over there in the Bronx, take the train in as "the help". Of course he loves immigrants, can't get enough, else where is he gonna get that super cheap labor to be their nannies and wash their cars? NYC sounds like a police state for the super-rich. Rail on fat people and empty calorie soda, but hey, don't mess with my foie gras!

Eric Holder Has No Balls

Hey, I didn't say it, Matt Taibbi did. I do think all flavors of the political spectrum want Holder out at this point, he seems to have real issue with doing his job as a general rule.