NY Fed Cited in Cover-Up By SIGTARP’s Barofsky – Possible Criminal Charges
by ilene - April 28th, 2010 3:20 pm
NY Fed Cited in Cover-Up By SIGTARP’s Barofsky – Possible Criminal Charges
Courtesy of JESSE’S CAFÉ AMÉRICAIN
It’s never the crime, it’s always the cover up.
This is beyond a doubt the story of the week. Neil Barofsky has been a thorn in the side of the Treasury Department and the Fed since he first took office.
I doubt there will be criminal charges filed against Turbo Tim personally, since in his case the clueless CEO defense may have some traction. Unless, that is, they have wiretaps and/or emails showing collusion with some of the bailed out banks, in either insider trading or the manipulation of assets for extraordinary gains.
It is a boiling scandal, but emblematic of the corruption that has pervaded financial regulation in Washington for the past ten years at least. It did not start with Obama, but it may still bring down key members of his Administration.
Reform the financial system, and audit the Fed.
Bloomberg
Barofsky Says Criminal Charges Possible in Alleged AIG Coverup
By Richard Teitelbaum
28 April 2010April 28 (Bloomberg) — …That tense relationship [between Treasury and Barofsky] has grown out of Barofsky’s mandate to monitor and root out fraud and waste in the management of TARP, the $700 billion program passed in October 2008 to remove toxic debt from the banks. The special inspector general, in a series of reports, interviews and congressional hearings, has heaped criticism on the Treasury Department’s operation of the program.
Barofsky’s most recent broadside came on April 20, when a SIGTARP report labeled a housing-loan modification program funded with $50 billion of TARP money as ineffectual.
…The TARP watchdog has also criticized Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner in reports and in congressional testimony for his handling of the process by which insurance giant American International Group Inc. was saved from insolvency in 2008, when Geithner was head of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
The secrecy that enveloped the deal was unwarranted, Barofsky says, adding that his probe of an alleged New York Fed coverup in the AIG case could result in criminal or civil charges.
In Senate Finance Committee testimony on April 20, Barofsky said SIGTARP would investigate seven AIG-linked mortgage-related securities similar to Abacus 2007-AC1, the instrument underwritten by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. that is at the center
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Barofsky Likely To Seek Criminal Or Civil Charges Against New York Fed, Geithner Targetted?
by ilene - April 28th, 2010 9:57 am
Barofsky Likely To Seek Criminal Or Civil Charges Against New York Fed, Geithner Targetted?
Courtesy of Tyler Durden
And so the Abacus fallout is about to hit precisely where the culprit for it all resides: the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Could there be justice in this world after all? From Bloomberg:
Barofsky says the question of whether the New York Fed engaged in a coverup will result in some sort of action.
“We’re either going to have criminal or civil charges against individuals or we’re going to have a report,” Barofsky says. “This is too important for us not to share our findings.”
He won’t say whether the investigation is targeting Geithner personally.
In Senate Finance Committee testimony on April 20, Barofsky said SIGTARP would investigate seven AIG-linked mortgage-related securities similar to Abacus 2007-AC1, the instrument underwritten by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. that is at the center of a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit filed against the investment bank on April 16.
“I’ve been in contact with the SEC,” he told the committee. “We’re going to coordinate with them, but we’re going to lead the charge. We’re going to review these transactions.”
Barofsky and Geithner’s offices have gone toe-to-toe over AIG, alleged lax oversight of TARP funds and even over the question of whom Barofsky reports to.
We are too busy salivating to comment much on this. Read the whole thing here.
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The First Year of Obama’s Failed Economic Policies: The Worst May Yet Be Avoided
by ilene - January 31st, 2010 6:46 pm
The First Year of Obama’s Failed Economic Policies: The Worst May Yet Be Avoided
Courtesy of Jesse’s Café Américain
"The banks must be restrained, the financial system reformed, and balance restored to the economy before there can be any sustained recovery."
We have been saying this for some time. The report below from Neil Barofsky says essentially the same thing.
"Even if TARP saved our financial system from driving off a cliff back in 2008, absent meaningful reform, we are still driving on the same winding mountain road, but this time in a faster car," Barofsky wrote.
The US is heading towards a double dip recession, and the next leg down may be more fundamentally damaging than before.
The reason for the decline will be the abject failure of the Obama Administration to address the roots of the problem, instead wasting trillions to prop up a banking system that is a useless distortion.
Worse than useless really, because it actually presents a huge negative influence by stifling the recovery, channeling funds to the crony capitalists and non-producing wealth extraction sector, who tax the people like feudal lords under license of a corrupt government.
So far, Obama has failed the people, but preserved the banks. A source of his failure has been his weakness in listening to Larry Summers and Tim Geithner, the Rubin-Clinton wing of Democrats, who have well established their incompetence and inability to act at a level suitable to their positions. They are captive to special interests, locked into the ways of thinking that brought the world to the point of crisis.
In response to the next leg down, Bernanke will monetize debt at an even more furious and clever pace, perhaps in alliance with the Bank of England and Bank of Japan. The ECB resists, and all who balk will be chastised by the monied powers and their demimonde, the ratings agencies and global banks. This is modern warfare of a sort.
We do not expect the corruption of the world’s reserves to be so blatant that the inflation will immediately appear, except in more subtle manner. At some point it may explode, especially if Ben is particularly good at concealing its subtle growth.
Monetary inflation is the growth of the money supply in excess of the demands of the real economy, not nominal growth of the supply. The US has been shifting…
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TWENTY-FOUR TRILLION DOLLARS?!
by ilene - July 20th, 2009 5:28 pm
TWENTY-FOUR TRILLION DOLLARS?!
Gut reaction to the numbers, courtesy of Karl Denninger
Ex-freaking-scuse me?
Barofsky said that while the TARP program that Congress passed amounts to $700 billion, the total federal government support since 2007 for the economy and the financial sector could reach a far higher figure of $23.7 trillion. The government has committed significantly more money through a variety of other federal agencies and programs.
WHAT?!
$23.7 trillion dollars?
Where was the Congressional appropriation for that?
This is blatantly unconstitutional folks. We’re talking about nearly double the nation’s GDP in debt commitments and more than 33 times the amount authorized by Congress.
Oh, and it gets worse:
Meanwhile, Barofsky’s office has opened 35 criminal and civil investigations into issues including suspected accounting fraud, securities fraud, insider trading, mortgage servicer misconduct, mortgage fraud, public corruption, false statements and taxes.
That’s right, we have 35 criminal investigations connected to this nearly $24 trillion dollars of largesse too, and that’s only what Mr. Barofsky knows about. Anyone care to gander about what’s hidden from him? Oh wait – we got a problem there too:
"Treasury’s continued unwillingness to provide basic transparency despite the many recommendations of SIGTARP and Congress and the repeated demonstration that meaningful data from TARP recipients can be gathered and easily disseminated is unacceptable," said a memo prepared by Republicans on the oversight committee.
Hello Richard Nixon! Bailoutgate anyone? Obstruction?
Shall we continue?
This is outrageous and threatens the very stability of our nation. How anyone can believe our banking system or indeed our nation’s Treasury can survive the exposure of $24 trillion dollars, twice our GDP, is beyond me.
We most certainly cannot, and when (not if) our creditors and lenders, including China and Japan, wise up to what’s going on here the game will quite literally be over, perhaps as soon as "right now."
A couple of market technicians have noted certain "patterns" in the market that have potential downside targets of zero. That sort of thing normally results in a loud guffaw from me – even though I’m bearish I’m not that bearish – I couldn’t imagine anything short of global thermonuclear war, ala "Joshua", that could lead to such an
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Philip R. Davis is a founder Phil's Stock World, a stock and options trading site that teaches the art of options trading to newcomers and devises advanced strategies for expert traders...
Ilene is editor and affiliate program
coordinator for PSW. She manages the site