NYMag: TARP Watchdog Neil Barofsky Puts the Treasury Secretary on Notice [View All]

* 4/28/10 at 12:49 PM


TARP Watchdog Neil Barofsky Puts the Treasury Secretary on Notice


Back in January when we had lunch with TARP Special Inspector General Neil Barofsky, we got the sense he didn't much like Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner. He'd only met him once but he didn't like the smell of him, and not just because he associated it with the backed-up sewage that flooded the SIGTARP offices when it was housed in the basement of the Treasury building. "He seems not unlike how you write about him," he said. (He had just read this.) Today, Bloomberg reports that Barofsky is zeroing in on Geithner's actions as president of the New York Fed, particularly relating to the deal the Fed under his watch made with banks holding CDS insurance with AIG, and their alleged attempts to cover up said deal.

Barofsky says the question of whether the New York Fed engaged in a coverup will result in some sort of action.

“We’re either going to have criminal or civil charges against individuals or we’re going to have a report,” Barofsky says. “This is too important for us not to share our findings.”

He won’t say whether the investigation is targeting Geithner personally.

In a statement, the New York Fed said: “Allegations that the New York Fed engaged in a coverup of its intervention in AIG are not true. The New York Fed has fully cooperated with the Special Inspector General.”

No comment from the former Treasury secretary, but we sure bet he regrets putting this guy in the basement.