Now We’re Cooking!

It’s about damn time.

Sources say investigators are digging into whether Joseph Cassano, the former head of London-based AIG Financial Products, and two of his top deputies – Andrew Forster, an executive vice president, and Thomas Athan, a managing director – committed securities fraud and other federal crimes, reports CBS News chief investigative correspondent Armen Keteyian.

At issue: whether they intentionally provided false information about the size of AIG’s losses in the mortgage-backed securities market to the public and auditors.

Well that’s a start.

Now go find the "side letters" and start busting people up and down the line, including all their damn counterparties!

And while you’re at it, make sure you include people like Bernanke, Paulson and Geithner in the list of people who get their asses hauled in front of a Grand Jury.

Oh, and if you think these clowns don’t have gall, or actually are a bit sheepish these days?  You’d be dead wrong.

And now CBS News has learned that Athan and Forster pocketed bonuses paid out by AIG just two months ago – in the midst of a federal investigation. Sources say they are now negotiating a way to pay them back.

Is there something wrong with a check – or wire transfer?

Nor is the storm letting up.  In fact, if anything, when it comes to Lewis its headed for Cat 5 territory:

Both Bernanke and Paulson in mid-December knew Bank of America was obliged by statute to publicly disclose the huge losses Merrill Lynch & Co. had racked up that month. You don’t get to be chairman of the Federal Reserve or, in Paulson’s case, secretary of the Treasury or head of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. without learning this basic tenet of U.S. securities laws. Instead of making sure the public was fully informed of the losses before Bank of America completed its purchase of Merrill on Jan. 1, they did all they could to keep the secret safe.

Neither Bernanke nor Paulson told the Securities and Exchange Commission, according to the letter Cuomo wrote to lawmakers and regulators. They didn’t tell Lewis or anyone else at Bank of America to do the right thing and obey the law. And while they promised Bank of America lots of money to keep it from calling off the deal, they were careful not to commit any of their agreements to writing for fear this would bind the government into disclosing them itself.

It didn’t matter that investors were buying and selling billions of the banks’ shares without a clue that Merrill had lost more than $12 billion during the fourth quarter. Bernanke and Paulson had a singular objective — to get the Merrill deal done, on time — even if that meant duping the stock market and threatening to fire Lewis as chief executive officer, along with the company’s board.

Bingo.

Millions of Americans got bent over the table by men who, it is alleged, actively conspired to knowingly break the law. 

That’s exactly what Ken Lewis alleged in his conversations with Attorney General Cuomo; he said there was an explicit conversation related to avoiding a "reportable event" (a letter from the government), meaning that everyone involved knew that under the law this was supposed to be disclosed and put specific effort and intent into hiding it.

It doesn’t stop here either.  As I have repeatedly pointed out The Fed is not empowered to buy any sort of financial instrument unless it carries the full faith and credit of the government.

FANNIE AND FREDDIE DO NOT, EVEN TODAY, CARRY THAT GUARANTEE. 

The Fed has purchased billions upon billions of dollars in securities from Fannie and Freddie and unless you can show me some section of the law I have missed I see nothing allowing them to do so, nor to take equity in the Bear Stearns and AIG bailouts. 

WHY, IN ALL THE TIMES THAT BERNANKE HAS BEEN ON CAPITOL HILL SINCE THIS NONSENSE STARTED, HAS NOT ONE REPRESENTATIVE OR SENATOR ASKED HIM WHERE HE GETS THE LEGAL AUTHORITY TO PURCHASE ASSETS NOT GUARANTEED WITH FULL FAITH AND CREDIT OF THE US GOVERNMENT, WHEN THE VERY STATUTE CITED ON THE FEDERAL RESERVE’S OWN WEB SITE MAKES CLEAR THAT THEY CAN’T BUY ANYTHING THAT LACKS THAT GUARANTEE?

The Italians are getting into the act:

With municipal bond investigations spreading to Europe from the United States, Italian authorities have seized about $300 million in assets of four global banks — JPMorgan Chase, Deutsche Bank, UBS and Depfa — whose officials have been accused of fraud.

The Guardia di Finanza in Milan, the financial police of Italy, took over real estate properties, bank accounts and stock holdings on Monday to assure it could collect from the banks if their officials were found guilty and the banks were held responsible.

Dozens of state and local governments in the United States have been victimized by these "deals" in the United States as well, yet Italy is the first to bring an actual enforcement action and seize assets?  Why?

Lawless behavior by both Wall Street executives and government officials appears to have been pervasive, it is outrageous, and hundreds of billions (if not trillions) of dollars has been stolen from the taxpayer as a direct result.

The people involved appear to have known full well they were doing something wrong at the time as they have made every attempt to hide their actions and refuse to ask the tough questions; if you’re not slithering around with the intent of a viper there is no reason not to act in the light of day!

Those alleged to be involved must be investigated, indicted, tried, and if found guilty imprisoned with their assets subject to fine and forfeiture, no matter who they are.

WHERE ARE ALL THE DAMN COPS?