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"Countdown" contributor Matt Taibbi discusses the impact of populist enthusiasm and President Obama's adoption of the 99 percent message in terms of a breaking news story about a possible settlement in the ongoing investigation of allegations that some of the largest American banks engaged in foreclosure fraud. Taibbi says the settlement being discussed would leave major banks exposed to criminal investigations. Taibbi speculates as to the potential repercussions of the ruling, saying, "If they do this for real, if they do this like a real, Enron-style investigation, you know, you could have half the luminaries on Wall Street doing prison time."

Foreclosure Deal Could Land Half of Wall Street
in Jail

By Matt Taibbi, Countdown/Current TV

30 Janaury 12


"Countdown" contributor Matt Taibbi discusses the impact of populist enthusiasm and President Obama's adoption of the 99 percent message in terms of a breaking news story about a possible settlement in the ongoing investigation of allegations that some of the largest American banks engaged in foreclosure fraud. Taibbi says the settlement being discussed would leave major banks exposed to criminal investigations. Taibbi speculates as to the potential repercussions of the ruling, saying, "If they do this for real, if they do this like a real, Enron-style investigation, you know, you could have half the luminaries on Wall Street doing prison time."

 

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+25 # Capn Canard 2012-01-30 06:55
I won't hold my breath, but here's hoping it gets done and these banksters do the perp walk for all to see.
 
 
+6 # ER444 2012-01-31 13:31
Forget it. It is all a pipe dream.
 
 
+20 # MainStreetMentor 2012-01-30 10:58
Oh my ... if only it would be true. Jail time is the only effective justice for those convicted (if the investigation ever gets that far ... because monetary fines mean nothing to these ultra-rich, mega-wealthy miscreants). If they are too big to fail, they are too big to exist as corporations.
 
 
+7 # CandH 2012-01-30 12:42
October the "military exercises" begin in the Strait. JITNOT (Just In The Nick Of Time.) Wait, didn't Bush say "go shopping to beat the terrists?" Massive credit to extend accordingly USAns. What's the latest gizmo, the hottest car, the bestest/mostest get-rich-quick-scheme, that MUST be had/obtained/engaged in? Housing might even "miraculously" turn around and be the hottest purchase to make. (Yes, Dorothy, that's how it played out after ninelevn. Rinse/Repeat...)
 
 
+9 # Obwon 2012-01-30 16:24
Don't worry, it never will happen, million and billionaires only go to jail under totalitarian systems where they engage in politics that distress the state. Oh wait, NDAA says we're now a totalitarian system, of course, we've been promised we won't actually implement it... YET! Hahaha... Wall street had better start watching their p's and q's, never know when the government will need another scapegoat. My how what goes around always seems to come around! The world is one great big circle my friends.
Try to keep that in mind the next time you laugh when your neighbors ox is getting gored.
 
 
+5 # globalcitizen 2012-01-30 17:33
Either way, Obama will corrupt Schneiderman, the New York prosecutor, to sell out, or he may realize like FDR, that Capitalism is now confronted by a global revolution, and is willing to see a few heads roll, to save the same damned class system, which will degenerate into Fascism.
 
 
+7 # AndreM5 2012-01-31 08:50
If they are too big to fail, they are too big to go to jail. Sounds like a Johnny Cochran quote but I fear it will ring true.
 
 
+6 # lark3650 2012-02-01 06:50
....one can only hope that right will win out in the end and the people responsible would get a nice big thump on the head as the jail door slams behind them.
 
 
+6 # TrueAmericanPatriot 2012-02-01 13:58
They're neither too big to fail or go to jail. These GREEDMONGERS HATE AMERICA!! They make MULTIPLE BILLIONS and then HIDE IT in offshore banks....AND REPEAT THE PROCESS? What's patriotic about that? THESE types of people (Newt, Romney, Cheneys, Bushes, Murdochs, Rove, and the like). So the foreclosure deal could land half of Wall Street in jail? GOOD! Ship the other half to GUANTANAMO BAY! No wait; ALL OF THEM! I am NOT anti-rich or anti-wealth; I am ANTI-GREED!!!
VOTE 2012...VOTE EARLY..VOTE PAPER BALLOT!! VOTE OUT BLUE DOGS, RED ELEPHANTS, AND TEABAGGERS!!!!
 
 
+3 # CandH 2012-02-02 10:22
What is up with Taibbi? Kool-aid? Come back down to reality love:

"There are three fundamental problems, and the working group has not even addressed, much less resolved, any of the three fundamental defects.

One, criminal prosecutions of elite financial criminals have to come from investigations initiated by those with the expertise and resources to detect and investigate “accounting control fraud” (the form of fraud that can hyper-inflate financial bubbles and cause catastrophic losses and financial crises). Only the federal banking regulators have this capability. […]

Two, DOJ has not provided remotely enough resources to investigate the large accounting control frauds.

Three, DOJ has adopted a self-serving definition of mortgage fraud that implicitly defines accounting control fraud out of existence. DOJ has violated the central rule of investigating elite white-collar crime – if you don’t look; you don’t find. " Dr. William Black, S&L Crisis Regulator. http://www.neweconomicperspectives.org/2012/01/holder-obamas-propaganda-is-belied-by.html.
 
 
+1 # tomo 2012-02-10 09:11
Never thought I would come up more cynical than Matt. Matt is "Master of Cynicism" in my book. Sly! Witty! Foul-tongued! Irrepressible! He does actually hedge things against the drift of his own happy response--most notably in the phrase "There is a slight chance...."

For all that, I'd love to see Taibbi's rare sojourn into optimism pan out. The behaviors ARE as he says CRIMINAL. Let's hope that with these civil fines, our justice system does not (as I very much fear they will) retire from the scene to which they so tardily arrive, and say: "Well, they [the banksters] have paid their penalty; it's time to move on." A car thief, apprehended, has to give the car back. But beyond that, the thief faces the charge of grand theft auto. To swindle the general public with vast schemes of mortgage fraud, and then to evict people from their homes through the use of forged documents seems to me considerably worse than to steal a car. In most cases the banks aren't even giving back the homes. These Wall Street thugs are every bit as brazen and "in our face" as the worst mainstreet mugger. Let's press to the point of breathlessness for the criminal charges and jailtime we so generously dispense for lesser crimes.
 
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