SIGTARP Report to Congress

April 21, 2009

SIGTARP Report to Congress

Filed under: Probable Cause — Bill @ 7:42 am

News media are reporting that Neil Barofsky, the Special Inspector General – Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP), has opened 20 criminal investigations and 6 audits related to fraud and abuse of Troubled Asset Relief Program funds. Another news source is reporting, “… the probes involve possible public corruption; corporate, stock and tax fraud; insider trading; and mortgage fraud.”

Here is a link to the 250-page SIGTARP report.

Comments (7)

7 Comments

Wow, Bill, page 3 of the report says this:

TREMENDOUS EXPANSION IN THE SCOPE,SCALE, AND COMPLEXITY OF TARP

TARP, as originally envisioned in the fall of 2008, would have involved the purchase,
management, and sale of up to $700 billion of “toxic” assets, primarily troubled mortgages
and mortgage-backed securities (“MBS”). That framework was soon abandoned,
however, and the program’s scope, size, and complexity have dramatically increased. As
of the writing of this report, TARP funds are being used, or have been announced to be
used, in connection with 12 separate programs that… involve a total…that could reach
nearly $3 trillion.

Comment by mary — April 21, 2009 @ 8:19 am
And some people wonder why Americans are upset about what’s going on in Washington DC? This is just the tip of the iceburg.

Comment by mary — April 21, 2009 @ 8:23 am
Most financial crimes investigators know that when a huge bucket-o-cash is available with little or no oversight and inadequate controls, the predators are going to be looking for ways to get some of it. I suspect SIGTARP is going to find sloppy record-keeping, corner-cutting, and political pressure/patronage to get the funds out there. On a different but somewhat related note, I see that Senator Diane Feinstein’s husband is chairman of the board of a real estate company that received a lucrative government contract to sell foreclosed properties.

Comment by Bill — April 21, 2009 @ 8:31 am
Bill, I saw that Feinstein article too, and it IS related because the FDIC is one of the “12 separate programs” referred to in the TARP report. The whole thing smells like rotten fish.

Comment by mary — April 21, 2009 @ 8:41 am
“The whole thing smells like rotten fish.”-mary

seems that some things are non-partisan.

Diane Cantor, a veteran finance industry official and wife of GOP Congressional wunderkind Eric Cantor, is an executive of a bank that got a $267 million federal bailout even though conservative Cantor has at times publicly opposed the federal bailout program.

http://baconsrebellion.blogspot.com/2009/01/did-eric-cantor-know-that-dianes-bank.html

Comment by raygun — April 21, 2009 @ 8:49 am
raygun,

That is a really interesting post you linked to. I wonder if Diane Cantor is related to Betsy Cowles? The post also contrasts Representative Eric Cantor’s “unknowing” actions with those of Representative Barney Frank the chair of the House Financial Services Committee, who admits he did intercede to get OneUnited Bank of Boston federal bailout money.

Thanks for the link. It’s worth reading in its entirety.

Comment by Bill — April 21, 2009 @ 9:01 am
bill, i’m sure there are more of these stories out there, not just feinstein, cantor and frank; it appears that that is the nature of washington d.c.

“unknowing”, i like that. 😉

Comment by raygun — April 21, 2009 @ 9:36 am

RSS feed for comments on this post.

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.