AlterNet: Will the Mortgage Industry Pay for Its Crimes?

Will the Mortgage Industry Pay for Its Crimes?

By Danny Schechter, AlterNet. Posted May 9, 2008.

Borrowers are being crushed under the credit crisis. Someone needs to pay.




There is a time in the life of every writer when you find yourself fearing that you have become a robo call phone machine -- repeating the same message over and over and with diminishing results.

That's how I felt after 8 months of silence after labeling the credit crisis a "subcrime" scandal, lashing out at the fraudulent activity at its core and calling for the investigation and prosecution of wrongdoers. Almost no media outlets accepted this way of framing the problem, although as usual, the British press was ahead of its American cousins in putting the blame on the bankers, not the borrowers.

When the FBI announced a probe of 14 mortgage companies, I thought that finally some investigators were on the case. But then, word leaked that they were only going after small fish even as big banks reported losses in the billions.

Bank robberies have always been up the FBI's alley, and after all, this is a bank heist case, perhaps one of the biggest in history. Only it was the banks that were doing the heisting.

The New York Times reported May 5th that a new criminal investigation was finally underway.

A G-Man explained anonymously: "The latest inquiry is broader and deeper. This is a look at the mortgage industry across the board, and it has gotten a lot more momentum in recent weeks because of the banks' earnings shortfall." .......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/workplace/84592/

They will take the money and run living their life in luxury while those they took down will be suffer the consequences well into retirement, if they ever get to retire at all.