Fortunately for all you evil doers out there, the various bail out provisions in the works (or already implemented) stand to benefit you too. Times are hard on fraudsters these days. Your Ponzi scheme is in danger of running out of cash, withdrawals are up, and due diligence has seen a huge growth spurt in the wake of Madoff and Stanford. What is a white collar criminal to do in this recessionary environment?
Steal TARP funds, of course.
“History teaches us that an outlay of so much money in such a short period of time will inevitably draw those seeking to profit criminally,” Mr. Barofsky said in testimony for the afternoon hearing obtained by Dow Jones Newswires.
Federal regulators have already seen evidence of alleged TARP-related crime. In late January, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged a Nashville-based firm with defrauding investors of at least $6.5 million by claiming their money was invested in the TARP and other securities that didn’t exist.
“If, by percentage terms, some of the estimates of fraud in those programs apply to TARP programs, we are looking at the potential exposure of tens if not hundreds of billions of dollars in taxpayer money lost to fraud,” Mr. Barofsky said, noting that the total amount of money potentially at risk in TARP-related programs is approximately $2.875 trillion.
Hey, stimulus is stimulus.
TARP Fraud Could Cost Taxpayers Billions, Watchdog Warns [The Wall Street Journal]
I heard it was Ratigan who got his tits done
Just as long as some of that money trickles down to street whores, I don’t mind. They gotta eat too…
Just goes to show that it’s impossible to keep the squirrels out of the bird feeder.
Who is this dark-haired fox on CNBC right now? Wow, total hottie
Overdue diligence
Donnie Douche took the power out of lunch, our office now changes to Fox Business during lunch hour. Keep up the good work CNBC, between the douche and and Jim Lamer at 7 you will slowly erode that channel.
That is a good trick. 6.5mm is paltry though, do better next time.
Hey, this was announced by the SEC on January 28.
Who ever said that criminals are not innovative?
http://www.sec.gov/news/press/2009/2009-12.htm
On a positive note, those with a propensity to engage in such morally questionable activities generally tend to rather efficiently allocate capital between those who didn’t necessarily deserve it (chill), to the hard-hit luxury good/service industry. This, in turn, helps alleviate the significant job losses in that sector, as well as downstream suppliers, and other stakeholders.
It is starting to look like the TARP / bailout is to keep the upper ecehlon afloat until this madness turns around.
The US needs to do a better job of identifying who needs to fail and who *absolutely* needs a bailout. GM and the other D3 automakers should fail — they’ve spent the last 15 years worrying about the best way to allocate their lobbying budgets instead of figuring out how to beat Toyota. Next, please.
Citi, on the other hand, needs to be split up as quickly as possible without causing a major catastrophe. They too should eventually be only a shadow of their former monstrous self. When leverage means that one desk can take down a firm, no firm should be so big that essentially 5-10 traders can cause it, and the financial world that its linked to, to fail.
–
Layoff got you down? Get the scoop and figure out what others are doing at http://www.freeagentnet.com
My Indian brothers are upset by TARP regs:
http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/feb2009/gb20090224_563564.htm?campaign_id=rss_daily
They may even start carrying the fabled pitch fork and run screaming down Wall St.
O/T: no wonder everyone worked late:
“Mr. Clooney told reporters that Mr. Obama said once a foreign policy review is completed, he would appoint a “full-time, high-level envoy” to the region to report directly to the White House.
“The administration has assured me that Darfur is one of a small handful of foreign-policy reviews being undertaken at the [most senior] level,” Mr. Clooney said.” http://tinyurl.com/d2erbp
George needs to find his beard and marry the shemale so he can run for office. We need his kind of smarts in Washington.