Dim Prospects for Financial Crisis Prosecutions

As has been noted many times, the lack of criminal prosecutions arising out of the financial crisis has been painfully obvious. And two items in the news last week underscores that the prospect for a signature case is growing even more distant.

First, Reuters reported on Thursday that Securities and Exchange Commission staff members wrote in a memo that fraud charges “will likely not be recommended” against Lehman Brothers executives.

Then, the New York attorney general, Eric T. Schneiderman, said that the federal-state mortgage fraud working group announced in President Obama’s State of the Union address in January needed more resources — an indication that the group was still trying to digest evidence from transactions made more than four years ago.

The collapse of Lehman seemed to be the most likely source of criminal prosecutions, or at least civil enforcement actions. The firm’s examiner, Anton R. Valukas, issued a report in 2010 castigating senior management for shifting up to $50 billion off the balance sheet through the so-called Repo 105 transactions.

Rest here…

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