In Financial Crisis, No Prosecutions of Top Figures

[n2doc]

y GRETCHEN MORGENSON and LOUISE STORY
Published: April 14, 2011

It is a question asked repeatedly across America: why, in the aftermath of a financial mess that generated hundreds of billions in losses, have no high-profile participants in the disaster been prosecuted?

Answering such a question — the equivalent of determining why a dog did not bark — is anything but simple. But a private meeting in mid-October 2008 between Timothy F. Geithner, then-president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and Andrew M. Cuomo, New York’s attorney general at the time, illustrates the complexities of pursuing legal cases in a time of panic.

At the Fed, which oversees the nation’s largest banks, Mr. Geithner worked with the Treasury Department on a large bailout fund for the banks and led efforts to shore up the American International Group, the giant insurer. His focus: stabilizing world financial markets.

Mr. Cuomo, as a Wall Street enforcer, had been questioning banks and rating agencies aggressively for more than a year about their roles in the growing debacle, and also looking into bonuses at A.I.G.

more

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/14/business/14prosecute.html

Only the little people go to jail....

[notesdev]

1. Complexities my ass

There's nothing complex about collusion, racketeering, and bribery. And who knows what else... threats? Intimidation?