uk.reuters.com
Ouch. They ARE getting warmed up -g-
WASHINGTON, Feb 11 (Reuters) - The FBI's caseload of fraud
investigations into major corporations and banks could climb
from 38 into the hundreds as the economic crisis deepens, a
bureau official told Congress on Wednesday.
U.S. officials also told a Senate hearing several criminal
investigations related to the $700 billion federal bailout
program were already in progress.
The comments came as Congress moves to tighten fraud laws and
demands that the Justice Department prosecutes financial
crimes more aggressively to safeguard public money used in
financial bailouts that could reach trillions of dollars.
"I want to see people prosecuted," said Senate Judiciary
Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy said. "Frankly, I want to see
people go to jail."
The Vermont Democrat has proposed legislation to hire more
investigators and tighten laws against financial fraud. Aides
said his committee could act within weeks.
.......... and so on ..........
FBI Deputy Director John Pistole declined to say who was being
investigated, but compared the investigations to the collapse
of the Enron energy trading company in 2001.
"These are companies, businesses that everybody knows about,"
he said. "We see that number potentially rising into the
hundreds."
He said the 240 FBI agents and a similar number of agents from
other agencies and jurisdictions working on corporate fraud
cases represented only about half of the roughly 1,000 who
investigated the collapse of the U.S. savings and loan
industry in the 1980s, although the scale of the current
crisis is far larger.
PROBES UNDER WAY
Probes related to the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief
Program, or TARP, were already under way, Neil Barofsky,
special inspector general for the program, said.
"We have already opened several criminal investigations
involving multiple jurisdictions, and ... are closely
coordinating our executive-compensation oversight efforts with
the New York State Attorney General," he said.
Trillions of dollars in government money will be potentially
at risk of fraudulent activity in the many rescue programs to
address the financial crisis, Barofsky said. |
