Last I understood, the Security and Exchange Commission and the Attorney General are maintained by appointees of President Barack Obama. However, with the recent rash of top financial executives being caught with their hands in the cookie jar — to date, out side of a few scapegoats, none have been brought up on criminal charges and few if any are serving prison time.
It appears that the reason for the lenient treatment is that President Obama lacks the testicular fortitude to treat certain criminal segments of our society as the crooks they are because they frequently contribute to his and other top-shelf Washington politicians campaign coffers.
When Wall Street steals a trillion dollars, the SEC quickly settles with the violators by imposing a fine and then exonerates and shields them from criminal charges. Start with prosecutions in the SEC. Where did those people work and where are they working now?
Politicians and the Obama Justice Department will have to answer a major question regarding the financial crisis. Namely, almost three years after the Lehman Brothers fiasco, why aren’t top executives of Wall Street banks being prosecuted or serving prison time?
Historically, from the savings and loans scandal of the 1980s to the Enron scandals, which resulted in more than 1,000 criminal convictions, it was not unusual for white collar criminals who engage in massive fraud to be convicted and incarcerated. But it seems that such is the case with the present administration.
From Citigroup to Mf Global to Countrywide, it is obvious that the reckless actions of the leadership of these and similar Wall Street megacorporations made their profits on the backs of their investors – similar to the way gangsters use extortion. The victims are all of us, including investors, city’s and states across the nation. All of these transactions we know involved the manipulation complex documents, false statements and even down right hiding losses on financial statements from shareholders and the public.
Obama needs too address this image of his administration. One concern is that he may need to consider implementing action against the Wall Street Banks using the Justice Department and leave the SEC out of the mix completely, since the SEC has no teeth and cannot bring criminal charges against any corporate misdoings. Until then, this inaction will plague President Obama and brand him as being afraid to treat big financial executive like the criminals they truly are. -torrance stephens
