Bank Aid Programs Are Seen as Open to Fraud

[groovedaddy]

WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department’s most ambitious plans to rescue troubled banks — partnerships between the government and private investors, backed by the Federal Reserve — are inherently vulnerable to fraud and should not be started without stronger safeguards, a top government investigator warned in a report to be released Tuesday.

The report also warned that the Treasury’s $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program has evolved into a $3 trillion effort of “unprecedented scope, scale and complexity” and comes with too little oversight and too little information about what companies are doing with the taxpayer money they are getting.

“The American people have a right to know how their tax dollars are being used,” wrote Neil M. Barofsky, the special inspector general assigned to monitor the bailout program, in his second report to Congress.

Mr. Barofsky was particularly critical of the Treasury Department’s refusal to demand detailed information from banks and other financial institutions about what they are doing with the money they receive.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/21/business/economy/21bailout.html?th=&adxnnl=1&emc=th&adxnnlx=1240329601-ChCV6ZAaFCH0PIHPSAsTqw

[Eric J in MN]

1. To me, the whole concept of the government giving non-recourse loans to hedge funds...

...to buy trash from banks is dirty.

Even if it's done legally.