The Banksters who Stole Uncounted Trillions Should PUT IT BACK.

[Octafish]

87. Forgotten history from 2009...FBI actually expected to go after Banksters. What a laugh.

FBI expects number of big bailout fraud cases to rise

The probes are likely to be similar in scope to that of failed energy

February 12, 2009|Josh Meyer

WASHINGTON — Despite an expected wave of fraud in the trillion-dollar bailout that aims to stop the ongoing financial meltdown, federal law enforcement officials told Congress on Wednesday that they have nowhere near the level of resources to combat it.

Top FBI and Justice Department officials said they believed mortgage fraud and other types of corporate criminal behavior has contributed to the economic tailspin. And they said they already have more than 2,300 open investigations into suspected illegal financial activity -- including 38 probes specifically linked to the crisis.

Those investigations are already straining the resources of the FBI and the Justice Department, FBI Deputy Director John Pistole and Acting Assistant Atty. Gen. Rita Glavin said in testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

But the problems will worsen exponentially as the economy plunges, and as the Obama administration and Congress spend more than $1 trillion in various bailout and stimulus packages in an effort to forestall foreclosures, corporate bankruptcies and a prolonged economic depression, they said.

Pistole said he expected the number of major investigations to rise into the many hundreds, focusing on big-name companies that "everybody knows about," and to be similar in scope and complexity to the massive probe of energy company Enron Corp. after its collapse in 2001.

In the meantime, the wholesale redeployment of federal agents and prosecutors to counter-terrorism work after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks has depleted the ranks of financial specialists needed to investigate such cases and bring perpetrators to trial, Pistole said.

The FBI has only 240 agents working on mortgage fraud cases, a fraction of the agents working on the savings and loan failures in the 1980s, Pistole said, adding that the current crisis "obviously dwarfs" the previous one.

The sheer volume of cases is so overwhelming, he said, that agents can focus only on those "systematically trying to defraud the system," including lawyers, brokers and real estate professionals.

CONTINUED...

http://articles.latimes.com/2009/feb/12/nation/na-fraud12

Ha ha. It is to laugh.

PS: Thank you, G_j!