BRING BACK THE PILLORY FOR WALL STREET EXECUTIVES!

SEC aslo says Penn State is doing a bang up job of its own internal investigation on kiddy rape, too.

*cough.BULshiat.cough*

BoughtOffMotherFarkers

I'd like to be in the courtroom when he tells that to Judge Rakoff.

So they're just going to throw the case, I'm guessing? They obviously have no desire to win.

EnviroDude: The execs at CitiCorp paid too much money to Obama and the democrats for them to be investigated.

Yeah, it's certainly not like they'd pay money to the Republicans to shut them up too. Your partisan observations are obviously totally accurate and fact-based.

"Actually doing our jobs would leave a lot less time to watch porn."

Weaver95:
y'know, if the SEC really is that incredibly busy that they can't properly prosecute criminals due to an overwhelming workload well...that just makes the Occupy Wall Street protests all the more important.

Semi-serious query: Would it be possible, and feasible, for OWS types and like-minded people to make citizens arrests of Citigroup and other corporations?

j.lunatic: Semi-serious query: Would it be possible, and feasible, for OWS types and like-minded people to make citizens arrests of Citigroup and other corporations?

Did you see what happened to people who dared camp on public land? Imagine what level of force would be appropriate for kidnapping.

Future News:
Judge Jed Rakoff, a federal judge in Manhattan, found dead in his home in what is an apparent suicide. Coroner has confirmed all four bullets in the back of his head were indeed caused by suicide.

I submitted this article with a crappy headline that didn't go green. Basically banks are financing Mexican Cartel's and nobody is going to go to jail over it. They bought there way out of it for pennies on the dollar. (new window) Law does not matter.

"Give me control of a nation's money and I care not who makes it's laws."

Shostie: Weaver95: y'know, if the SEC really is that incredibly busy that they can't properly prosecute criminals due to an overwhelming workload well...

The SEC consists of a bit less than 4,000 people tasked with policing the entire financial sector. They're out-manned and out-gunned. They do what they can, but as a regulatory agency they really don't have much in the way of "teeth."

for gods sake give them some, are the FBI and Secret Service not tasked with helping them?

Clearly, the SEC needs to save its precious resources by not prosecuting Citigroup so that it will then have the resources to save by not prosecuting other fraudulent financial companies in the future. It's all about Justice you guys...

Shostie: The SEC consists of a bit less than 4,000 people tasked with policing the entire financial sector. They're out-manned and out-gunned. They do what they can, but as a regulatory agency they really don't have much in the way of "teeth."

Seems that when you have limited resources, you stick with the big targets.

Which is the exact opposite of what the SEC is doing.

Quasar: The SEC and the financial industry are so incestuous at this point I feel they should be based in Alabama.

Did anyone really think anything more severe than a half-serious slap on the wrist would ever come out of any of this?

*golf clap*

MrEricSir: EnviroDude: The execs at CitiCorp paid too much money to Obama and the democrats for them to be investigated.

Yeah, it's certainly not like they'd pay money to the Republicans to shut them up too. Your partisan observations are obviously totally accurate and fact-based.

Yea, the partisan trolls around here are a special kind of special, aren't they.

Goddamnit judge, they just wanted to play footsie, why are you making such a big deal out of this!?

Easy solution, double the staffing of the SEC.

We can't be wasting resources investigating and prosecuting financial crimes committed by firms with the capability to wipe out millions of private investors and tank the world's economy. We need that funding for paramilitary police forces to harass and murder civilians for possessing devil weed! Haven't you heard of the WAR on DRUGS!? If we don't lock up that hippie with half an ounce of pot in his pocket in a privately run prison, society itself would come apart at the seams! Not to mention, the very idea of locking up a member of the nobility like a filthy commoner is just ridiculous. Let them pay their token "fines" to placate the plebs and then go back to making the world a better place. The free market will work everything else out.

Shostie: Weaver95: y'know, if the SEC really is that incredibly busy that they can't properly prosecute criminals due to an overwhelming workload well...

The SEC consists of a bit less than 4,000 people tasked with policing the entire financial sector. They're out-manned and out-gunned. They do what they can, but as a regulatory agency they really don't have much in the way of "teeth."

Everyone else hires temps. I'm sure real fines would cover the costs. WTF is the SEC's problem?

WhyteRaven74: Easy solution, double the staffing of the SEC.

Better solution... fire everyone at the SEC, then hire twice as many as you fired with backgrounds in financial law and forensic accounting.

missiv: Everyone else hires temps. I'm sure real fines would cover the costs. WTF is the SEC's problem?

Desire from both major parties for the SEC to be a totally ineffective body?

missiv: Shostie: Weaver95: y'know, if the SEC really is that incredibly busy that they can't properly prosecute criminals due to an overwhelming workload well...

The SEC consists of a bit less than 4,000 people tasked with policing the entire financial sector. They're out-manned and out-gunned. They do what they can, but as a regulatory agency they really don't have much in the way of "teeth."

Everyone else hires temps. I'm sure real fines would cover the costs. WTF is the SEC's problem?

Many people who serve on the SEC rotate positions on the board of directors and other positions for various banks and investment firms. Were they to come down hard on anyone they would be damaging their future job prospects and denying their wealthy friends the opportunity to be wealthier.

Mercutio74: missiv: Everyone else hires temps. I'm sure real fines would cover the costs. WTF is the SEC's problem?

Desire from both major parties for the SEC to be a totally ineffective body?

Also, the working for the SEC is just a training gig for lucrative financial industry jobs. Have to know how to get around those rules after all. Anybody at the SEC who's good at their job walks through that revolving door eventually, or ousted if they insist on being all zealous and lawful about enforcing 'rules'.

If you think this is bad, don't read anything about AIG and how they got into bed with their regulatory overseer the Office of Thrift Supervision and the culture of deregulation there. It will make you want to jump off a cliff.

InmanRoshi: If you think this is bad, don't read anything about AIG and how they got into bed with their regulatory overseer the Office of Thrift Supervision and the culture of deregulation there. It will make you want to jump off a cliff.

Got a link or two to a concise book or article(s)?

InmanRoshi: If you think this is bad, don't read anything about AIG and how they got into bed with their regulatory overseer the Office of Thrift Supervision and the culture of deregulation there. It will make you want to jump off a cliff push them off a cliff after napalming them.

how can they enforce anything when their future job is with one of the companies they are investigating... investigating to work at...

They ought to contract out the prosecution. Find a high end lawfirm and let them have 60% of the settlement and .25% more for each year of prison sentenced (2 guys, 10 years each = 5% more) if they win a criminal/civil prosecution. The SEC would have better lawyers at its disposal and it would cost the taxpayers nothing. An army of lawyers would storm the SEC just for a chance to get at CITI.

Xaneidolon: Office of Thrift Supervision

Taibbi explained it pretty well here..

Basically AIG was an insurance behmouth that was able to handpick it's own regulatory agency to watch over them thanks to the repeal of the Glass Steagal Act. They were able to call themselves a "thrift" (aka a Savings and Loan) instead of an insurance agency by simply buying a small thrift in Delaware. They did so because they would then have the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) as their regulatory agency. Not only was OTS by far the smallest regulator (they only had 1 person on their staff with any knowledge of the inurance industry), they basically advertised that they really didn't give a fark about regulating anyone. You can see below a 2003 photo op of members of the OTS holding garden shears to a symbolic stack of federal regulations, with then head of OTS James Gillean holding a chainsaw.



This is about as close to a libertarian dream of no government intrusion into business as you'll ever see, and the dream quickly became a nightmare for the American Taxpayer and world economy. These are the people who were supposed to police over Joseph Costano, who spearheaded the unit of AIG who made $500 billion dollar bets of credit default swaps that the American Taxpayer had to take on to prevent world wide financial collapse. These have not yet been repaid and likely never will.