Prosecuting Wall Street

Kroft: Do you feel like you were a victim of criminal activity?

Foster: It's a crime to retaliate against someone for making reports of mail fraud, bank fraud, wire fraud, mortgage fraud, things that would harm stockholders and investors. And that's what I did and that's why I was terminated.

Kroft: Were you offered a settlement?

Foster: They asked me to sign a 14-page document that basically would buy my silence in exchange for a large amount of money.

Kroft: But you didn't sign it?

Foster: No.

Kroft: Why not?

Foster: How many people can they-- can they buy off? They just pay for it. They commit the crime and they buy their way out of it. And just do it over and over and over again. I wanted them to have some sleepless nights thinkin' about what they would say to a federal investigator and worry about being exposed and being held accountable for committing a crime.

Eileen Foster spent three years trying to clear her name. This fall she finally won a federal whistleblower complaint against Bank of America for wrongful termination and was awarded nearly a million dollars in back pay and benefits.

All of this raises several questions. Why has the Justice Department failed to go after mortgage fraud inside Countrywide? There has not been a single prosecution. Even more puzzling is the Justice Department's reluctance to employ one of its most powerful legal weapons against Countrywide's top executives. It's called the Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2002.

It was overwhelmingly passed by Congress and signed by President Bush following the last big round of corporate scandals involving Enron, Tyco and Worldcom. It was supposed to restore confidence in American corporations and financial markets.

The Sarbanes Oxley Act imposed strict rules for corporate governance, requiring chief executive officers and chief financial officers to certify under oath that their financial statements are accurate and that they have established an effective set of internal controls to insure that all relevant information reaches investors. Knowingly signing a false statement is a criminal offense punishable with up to five years in prison.

Frank Partnoy is a highly regarded securities lawyer, a professor at the University of San Diego Law School and an expert on Sarbanes Oxley.

Frank Partnoy: The idea was to have a criminal statute in place that would make CEOs and CFOs think twice, think three times before they signed their names attesting to the accuracy of financial statements or the viability of internal controls.

Kroft: And this law has not been used at all in the financial crisis.

Partnoy: It hasn't been used to go after Wall Street. It hasn't been used for these kinds of cases at all.

Kroft: Why not?

Partnoy: I don't know. I don't have a good answer to that question. I hope that it will be used. I think there clearly are instances where CEOs and CFOs-- signed financial statements that said there were adequate controls and there weren't adequate controls. But I can't explain why it hasn't been used yet.

We told Partnoy about Eileen Foster's allegations of widespread mortgage fraud at Countrywide and efforts to prevent the information from reaching her, the federal government and the board of directors in violation of the company's internal controls.

Kroft: I mean, that's a deliberate circumvention, right?

• « Previous Page
• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5
• 6
• 7
• 8
• Next Page »

[goodetech]

Now is the time to join forces with those you would not normally consider.
This is all starting to leak out to the main stream media... finally. We just need to KEEP THE HEAT on them. We will soon be posting new petition and email campaign info as well as protest ideas. We just need more people following this group and we can use resources from the Tea Party, Occupy and other groups. THEY win as long as they can keep us arguing with each other.
WE need to come together with people we wouldn't normally work with to bring these criminals DOWN! Spread the word, others have carried the load of exposing this activity. Now we the people NEED to come out and make it a major issue in the news and in this political cycle.
Every day we receive more and more disclosure of Financial Corruption by our Banking Institutions and Politicians from the G8 Nations. The U.S., U.K. and E.U. have been gaming the financial system in their favor to create Trillions of dollars on computer screens and stealing tons of Gold from other nations since at least 1911. The Federal Reserve Bank and other evil clones (IMF, BIS etc...) have plundered the world for quite long enough. The recently revealed evidence needs to be covered in depth by the Main Stream Media (Who is owned by the criminal Cabals).

We plan to start a huge letter writing, Fax sending and protesting campaign to the MSM and local representatives to get them to get them to bring these "Self proclaimed Elite's" to justice. When the scope of the manipulation, wars and murder of so many innocents is revealed arrest and imprisonment will be the least of the "Elite's" concerns. They have make billions of people slaves to debt. We toil, suffer and die in debt to them and unknowingly worship and grovel at their feet. They suppress technology that will conflict with their business model. Many technologies that could increase the quality of life and save lives of the people YOU love who have died of disease.

Join now, with us to bring the heat to the Media and our "Representatives" to set us free from the financial tyranny that we have been subjects to for generations. Become a member of this movement, there is room for everyone. Once we realize that the Left Wing and Right Wing are what gives flight to the same BEAST. The ideology of Liberal and Conservative thinking is important to our individual morality and beliefs. But the Elite use these differences to cause us to forget what we have in common. They use our differences to keep us at odds with each other and diverted from their corruption. Why deceive us "ignorant and useless eaters"? Because we outnumber them 99 to 1 and they are afraid of OUR power.

So, now put aside your political or religious differences and band together to expose this corruption and usher our world into a new era. We do not need a "New World Order" ran by self proclaimed rulers. They have no "divine right" to rule. They only have the power we give them. Let's take that power back and create an "Era of Prosperity for ALL"! It is possible!

Say NO to any more WAR that is used to divert our attention from corruption when it starts to leak. We can join together and form a world of peace, I refuse to believe we cannot live together with our differences without butchering one another. What do we have in common? We love our families, our friends and we love peace. So, click the LIKE button and spread this web site to everyone you know. Join other movements that you normally would not associate with. The enemy of our enemy is our friend. This is NOT a place for political debate or bickering. It is a place to come together and break these chains.
Sign this Online Petition as a start to put Bankers in Jail (We need others):
http://www.avaaz.org/en/bankers_behind_bars_f/
JOIN US, this is YOUR cause too:
www.facebook.com/BankAndPoliticianFinancialCorruption

[A__Smith]

I am interested in any information regarding fraud/bad practices employed by Countrywide. If you would like to talk, please email me at [e-mail]

[DebbieCorona]

These people should be in jail but with so much $$ and power in Wall Street that owns the US Government it is never going to happen. What I find interesting is that the GOP will not allow anyone to be on the Consumer Advocate Agency. So while I think both DEM and GOP in Congress are guilty I find it interesting the GOP is doing everything they can to give power back to the people.

[skikill32]

Everyone who has one of these mortgages needs to become educated. All should know how to find out who "owns" their note. If everyone tried to findyournote all the proper parties might come to the table to discuss modifications, principal reductions and writing new mortgages without fraud.

[dcschorr]

Thanks to all who signed the petition!

[dcschorr]

Inspired by this reporting, I developed a petition at The White House website (link below) regarding having the Administration instruct the Justice Department to prosecute banking executives under the Sarbanes Oxley Act.

If you like the petition, please send it to your friends because I need 25,000 signatures by January 4, 2012 to receive an official response by The White House. Just to be able to see the petition in searches, I need 150 signatures. I really think it will be popular once it reaches the level 150 signatures to be seen in searches.

Thanks for your support.
http://wh.gov/D1o

[pliny_colorado]

Well done! Your petition steers clear of most of the political hot-buttons which distort our discourse.
I have encouraged by email many of my friends to consider signing the petition at http://wh.gov/D1o

[cg37102006]

I worked at Countrywide for a year back in the mid 00's. While I didnt know of or participate in any mortgage fraud, I can say, for a fact, that we were putting people in home loans that they should not have been in. This was company policy. Mozilo's settlement payment of 22 mill or whatever he paid was less than 20% of all the money he made at Countrywide, so it is hard to say justice was done. But then again, ultimately, people signed on the dotted line and took the keys to house they agreed to pay for, so blame has to be spread around some beyond just the corporation.

[ctdeihl]

I feel that Foreclosers should come to a STOP when this was out about the Fraudulent Misconduct going on through Bank Systems and Wall Street.To allow Foreclosers to go on,is like telling people Crime does Pay,but only if you pay certain people amount to go on with the activitys.I thought We had a Justice system for All.It's not looking that way anymore.

[FdnDoc]

I don't belive the guy from the Justice Department when he says that they are acting independently from the White House. I just read in the newspaper a story about California State Atty. General Kamala Harris getting "enormous pressure" from the Obama administration to cut a deal with banks for a sum of cash, rather than any further investigation into "robo-signing" of documents. If they are pressuring people outside their jurisdiction why wouldn't they inside their own.

[techsearch64]

THANK YOU CBS and Mr. KROFT for having GUTS start to lay it out like no one else has done on prime time till now...it's TIME!!! So Mr. Lanny Breuer, head of the criminal division at the Department of Justice, you find it offensive that all of this was done, then before you take another day of salary we pay you, DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT, MAN!!! YOU have the tools, the law, you have at least 2 top level executives 1 who has never been tapped for testimony....who said NO this is wrong and they have the FACTS and EVIDENCE for you and this still isn't enough?? You don't fool us. Good grief. Thanks to the ENRON tragedy with the losers tragically being the employees who lost their savings, the stage was set for more of same. Please CBS keep on this story and know we "out here" in reality land support you 100% of the way.