Following the 2008 housing
crisis, several of the banks involved paid large settlement fines. JPMorgan
Chase was one of those banks. The Justice Department used evidence from an
anonymous whistleblower in the prosecution, but until recently the whistleblower
remained anonymous. Matt Taibbi recently released an article
in Rolling Stone describing why the whistleblower, Alayne Fleischmann, has gone public with what she knows. Ironically, the Justice
Department wasn’t committed to bringing “justice” to those individuals
who contributed to the fall of the economy through fraudulent activities. In fact,
Attorney General Eric Holder said
the following:
“I am concerned
that the size of some of these institutions becomes so large that it does
become difficult for us to prosecute them when we are hit with indications that
if you do prosecute, if you do bring a criminal charge, it will have a negative
impact on the national economy, perhaps even the world economy, and I think
that is a function of the fact that some of these institutions have become too
large.”
What is the Justice Department
doing if they aren’t bringing justice to those responsible for major crimes?
When Fleischmann realized that much of what she reported to the SEC and the
Justice Department was not being fully pursued, she decided she had to go
public with what she knew.
