Wall Street fraud

There's been a lot of confusion over the last few days about a possible deal with US banks to settle a fifty-state lawsuit over widespread and massive foreclosure fraud. Attorneys general from all the states have been working together, and the latest word is that the Obama Administration has proposed its own framework for a agreement.

Will that agreement be a fair one for the American people? The signs don't look good. Not that it should be a surprise. Weak and misleading reporting has set the stage for a lousy deal - one that could let bankers off the hook for criminal behavior and even let them to keep their ill-gotten gains. more »

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There’s been plenty of recent media attention to the prospect of investor lawsuits over fraudulent mortgages and mortgage securities. But investor lawsuits against mortgage servicers could be even more damaging than these other lines of legal inquiry. more »

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Foreclosure fraud is ruffling a lot of feathers on Wall Street, and while the full scope of losses remains unclear, even major banks are now acknowledging that this is a multi-billion-dollar disaster, not just a set of minor paperwork headaches. more »

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The Washington Post has published a very silly op-ed by Chrystia Freeland accusing President Barack Obama of unfairly "demonizing" Wall Street. Freeland wants to see Obama tone down his rhetoric and play nice with executives in pursuit of a harmonious economic recovery. more »

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Former Citibank Chairman Robert Rubin knew about mounting subprime mortgage losses at his company, but still allowed executives to mislead to Citibank's shareholders about those losses, more »

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Financial giants have figured out yet another way to profit from fraud. After devastating communities across the country with shady subprime loans, the mortgage industry has launched a new assault on America's neighborhoods. Big banks are now outsourcing their foreclosure processing to shady law firms with a history of breaking the law for a quick buck. more »

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Too-big-to-fail is a much bigger problem than you thought. We've all read damning accounts of the government saving banks from their risky subprime bets, but it turns out that the Wall Street privilege problem is far more deeply ingrained in the U.S. legal system than the simple bailouts witnessed in 2008. more »

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Tuesday's hearing on Lehman Brothers' now infamous Repo 105 scam was only tangentially related to the megabank's accounting deceptions and subsequent collapse. That story is simple: Lehman almost certainly committed fraud, regulators failed to stop it, and many of the people who screwed up under President George W. Bush inexplicably remain in power under President Barack Obama. more »

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