Bill Black is a former bank regulator who played a central role in prosecuting the corruption responsible for the S&L crisis of the late 1980s. He is one of America’s top experts on financial fraud. And he laments that the US has descended into a type of crony capitalism that makes continued fraud a virtual certainty – while increasingly neutering the safeguards intended to prevent and punish such abuse.
In this extensive interview, Bill explains why financial fraud is the most damaging type of fraud and also the hardest to prosecute. He also details how, through crony capitalism, it has become much more prevalent in our markets and political system.
A warning: there’s much revealed in this interview to make your blood boil. For example: the Office of Threat Supervision. In the aftermath of the S&L crisis, this office brought 3,000 administration enforcements actions (a.k.a. lawsuits) against identified perpetrators. In a number of cases, they clawed back the funds and profits that the convicted parties had fraudulently obtained.
Flash forward to the 2008 credit crisis, in which just the related household sector losses alone were over 70x greater than those seen during the entire S&L debacle. So how many criminal referrals did the same agency, the Office of Threat Supervision, make?
Zero.
Similar dismal action was taken by such other financial regulators as the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal reserve and the FDIC.
Where is the accountability?, you may be asking. Or perhaps, how did we allow things to get this bad?
SOURCE: YouTube
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The article has a mistake: “Office of Threat Supervision” should be “Office of Thrift Supervision”.
But they were so THRIFTY with OUR resources that the office actually is part of the THREAT to our country.
Do you see an irony? It is neither supervising THREAT or THRIFT, but incurring the opposite.
Freudian slip, maybe?
Freud was NOT a cross dresser (not that there is anything wrong with that), and he never wore slips.
When good people do nothing, we have today’s reaction to bank fraud. Most people fail to understand why or how it happened and don’t really care anyway. The educated or wealthy aren’t particularly motivated to help those scammed. Prevalent attitude is, “they should have known better.” There is an arrogance and false impression with the majority of people, poor and wealthy alike that people bought more than they could afford, lied about their income and defaulted purposely. This has changed some as the devaluing of property spreads to those who never defaulted plus the OCCUPY/OWS movement has highlighted bank fraud and greed. Frontline’s story exposes the truth that banks were not particularly hurting when forced to take government money or be branded as insolvent. Geithner’s idea that flooding the market with money would loosen tight credit.
It did not!
Banks are alive, complete with bonuses, exaggerated salaries sitting on their reserves and the public still needs loans, their houses devaluing daily and foreclosure activity escalating as banks collect their fees for dumping the houses on the market as liquidated REOs..
Everyone should remember banks originate and service loans. Someone else provides the money while banks collect fees. With no skin in the game and no prosecution for wrongdoing, banks are sitting pretty!
Where does the power lie in our country?
You answer that question.
I’VE BEEN INVOLVED IN THIS MORTGAGE FRAUD FOR OVER A YEAR NOW. MY EXPERENCE
IS THAT THE COURTS ARE A MAJOR ISSUE IN WHY THERE IS NO END TO THIS MESS !
THE JUDGES HAVE AN ATTITUDE THAT THE BANKS HAVE DONE NO WRONG, AN SIT WITH THEIR HEADS UP THEIR BUTTS PROTECTING THE CORPORATIONS FROM WRONG DOING .
THE ( GOOD OLD BOYS ) ATTITUDE IS WHAT GUIDES OUR COURTS AN LAWYERS , FOR
THEY BELONG TOO A VERY POWERFUL FRATERAL ORGANIZATION CALLED THE ” FREE
MASONS ” OR ” THE HOOD ” !! SECRECY IS THE ACT WHICH ALLOWS THE ” ANTI-CHRIST ”
TO FUNCTION WITHIN OUR SELVES AN SPREADS EVERYWHERE .