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.
Neil Barofsky, SIGTARP, the TARP inspector general, is gunnin' for Wall Street. So reports Reuters:
The special inspector general for the government's bailout program said he would probe whether securities sold by Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N) led to losses at AIG and if the American taxpayer was a victim of fraud.
Gets better:
Barofsky said he is in touch with the SEC and will possibly coordinate with the Department of Justice "to see if there are cases of fraud and if AIG and as a result, the American taxpayers, were victims of similar types of fraud."
Barofsky made the comments in response to questions from the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, Charles Grassley, at a hearing examining the TARP.
This is an Instapopulist to cover the press articles on the new SIGTARP, the inspector general's report on TARP, due out this morning. We will update the site when we can get our little grubby peanut gallery hands on the actual report.
In Government report questions rescue claims we discover, surprise, surprise, Hank Paulson, Ben Bernanke and the FDIC all lied on the health of the 9 banks receiving funds.
But the report said that then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and other officials were wrong to contend at an Oct. 14 press conference that all nine institutions receiving the first round of support — $125 billion — were sound.
Citigroup Inc.’s $301 billion of federal asset guarantees, extended by the U.S. last year to help save the bank from collapse, will be audited to calculate losses and determine whether taxpayers got a fair deal.
Neil Barofsky, inspector general of the U.S. Treasury Department’s $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, agreed in an Aug. 3 letter to audit the program after a request by U.S. Representative Alan Grayson. Barofsky will examine why the guarantees were given, how they were structured and whether the bank’s risk controls are adequate to prevent government losses.
As massive and as important as TARP is on its own, it is just one part of a much broader Federal Government effort to stabilize and support the financial system. Since the onset of the financial crisis in 2007, the Federal Government, through many agencies, has implemented dozens of programs that are broadly designed to support the economy and financial system. The total potential Federal Government support could reach up to $23.7 trillion.
Nothing drives me more nuts than to see a host of MSM articles on a report, translating a report, without being able to get the original document. Of course the report is not on the SIGTARP website, I had to go digging around and found it on scribd, released by Fox Business News.
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