FBI Targets Minority Communities in Mortgage Fraud Investigations
Former bank regulator Bill Black says Attorney General Eric Holder must stop targeting minorities and instead focus on the mortgage fraud of banksters.
By: TheRealNews
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FBI Targets Minority Communities in Mortgage Fraud Investigations - Video
Attorney General Eric Holder wants to encourage whistleblowers to come forward about financial fraud.
WASHINGTON (CNNMoney)
In a speech slated for delivery Wednesday in New York, Holder will ask Congress to change a federal law to increase the financial reward paid to anyone who provides evidence of financial fraud to the government.
He'll also announce plans to increase the number of FBI agents with forensic accounting experience who are focused on investigating white collar crime, according to a Justice Department official.
In his five-plus years leading the Justice Department, Holder has faced criticism about how the department has handled corporate crime investigations and its failure to bring charges against top bankers tied to the financial crisis. The department struggled to find proof of criminal wrongdoing, but in recent years has dusted off a civil law that it is using to extract multi-billion dollar settlements from some of the nation's biggest banks for their shoddy mortgage securities sales practices.
Related: FBI launches a face recognition system
It's that law, known as the Financial Institutions Recovery and Reform Act, that Holder hopes to change to award bigger sums to whistleblowers in exchange for helping prosecutors bring white collar crime cases. The law currently caps whistleblower awards at $1.6 million, but Holder believes that's not enough to make a Wall Street banker risk his lucrative career to come forward.
The attorney general wants to bring the law in line with another whistleblower law, the False Claims Act, which encourages whistleblowers to report fraud against government programs. In those cases, whistleblowers can win awards worth up to 30% of the prosecutor's final settlement, sometimes totaling millions of dollars.
Holder hopes these steps will help the Justice Department pursue cases against bankers and executives, and not just against the corporations.
Related: UBS whistleblower nets $104 million reward
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Holder: Pay Wall Street whistleblowers more
To prosecute wall street crimes.
He wants more money to reward whistleblowers and more agents with expertise.
Phil, what is behind what the attorney general is saying and what we are going to hear from him this afternoon?
Frustration.
I have got excerpts of the speech the attorney general will give today at nyu law school.
What i have been hearing behind the scenes from justice department officials for the last two or three years, all the roadblocks they have run into as they have tried to figure out a way to prosecute individuals coming out of the financial crisis.
It's a feeling that executives are to insulated, that lawyers are making sure that everything their top level people are doing at the bank will never get into the hands of law enforcement officials.
What the attorney general will lay out today is the frustration and the roadblocks that have run into over the last five years, roadblocks that have drawn a ton of criticism from capitol hill, pretty much everywhere for not extracting the pound of flesh coming out of the financial crisis.
But he will ask for is for lawmakers to go in and change what is now capped.
It is currently capped at one point $6 million.
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Eric Holder Seeks Law for More Money for Whistleblowers
Is Attorney General Eric Holder readying his exit strategy?
Back in April, our colleague SariHorwitz, citing Justice Department officials familiar with Holders plans, reported that he had decided to stay in his job through the fall midterm elections but that he would not commit beyond the end of the year.
At a February staff meeting, she wrote, he felt faint and was taken by ambulance to a hospital, where he was treated for an elevated heart rate. Holder told close friends that it was spooky and that he felt as if it was a sign he should spend more time with his family something a certain member of his family has been urging him to do.
Granted, there had been speculation last year that he might be gone soon. Now theres renewed speculation that he could be calling it quits, perhaps by the end of this year. But, after the police shooting of an unarmed teenager in Ferguson, Mo., and Holders call for a federal civil rights investigation plus Obamas dispatching him to that locale a few days after the shooting some folks thought hed be obliged to hang in there for a while longer.
On the other hand, his travel schedule this month could give another clue to his intentions.
One of his major goals, we understand, is to visit every U.S. attorneys office in the country all 93 of them. Hes been doing that since he settled in at the Justice Department, and now there are only three left on the list and hes traveling to two of them this week, in Louisville and Lexington, Ky.
Hes saving for last the office nearest and dearest to him at the William J. Nealon Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in Scranton, Pa. Holder and Judge Nealon, 87, have been close for many years, after Holder, then a young Justice Department prosecutor, handled a major corruption case in Scranton.
But hes going to Scranton at the end of this month, so thats one more initiative checked off.
Drafted by the NFL
A former Joe Biden aide who worked for him in the Senate when he wrote the Violence Against Women Act has taken a senior-level position with the National Football League as it struggles with its reputation among women.
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In the Loop: Is Eric Holder a short-timer?
Attorney General Eric Holder says the Justice Department is launching a broad initiative to have local officials and community leaders play a bigger role in the battle against violent extremists -- such as ISIS.
"Today," Holder said in a video released Monday morning, "few threats are more urgent than the threat posed by violent extremism. And with the emergence of groups like ISIL (the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) (also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL), and the knowledge that some Americans are attempting to travel to countries like Syria and Iraq to take part in ongoing conflicts, the Justice Department is responding appropriately."
Holder said the department is teaming with the White House, the Department of Homeland Security and the National Counterterrorism Center to launch urban pilot programs designed to bring together community representatives, public safety officials, religious leaders, and United States Attorneys to "improve local engagement ... counter violent extremism ... and - ultimately - to build a broad network of community partnerships to keep our nation safe."
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The attorney general announced that the Justice Department is exploring new ways to stop Americans who want to travel overseas and join terror gr...
He also announced that the White House will be hosting a Countering Violent Extremism summit in October.
"Ultimately," Holder said, "the pilot programs will enable us to develop more effective - and more inclusive - ways to help build the more just, secure, and free society that all Americans deserve."
Holder cautioned that, "Our work must continue to be guided by the core democratic values - and the ideals of freedom, openness, and inclusion - that have always set this nation apart on the world stage. We must be both innovative and aggressive in countering violent extremism and combating those who would sow intolerance, division, and hate - not just within our borders, but with our international partners on a global scale.
"And we must never lose sight of what violent extremists fear the most: the strength of our communities; our unwavering respect for equality, civil rights, and civil liberties; and our enduring commitment to justice, democracy, and the rule of law."
Holder noted that, "Through law enforcement agencies like the FBI, American authorities are working with our international partners and Interpol to disseminate information on foreign fighters in Syria and Iraq, including individuals who have traveled from the United States. We have established processes for detecting American extremists who attempt to join terror groups abroad. And we have engaged in extensive outreach to communities here in the U.S. - so we can work with them to identify threats before they emerge, to disrupt homegrown terrorists, and to apprehend would-be violent extremists.