Mortgage crisis to spawn even more Wall Street charges?
Scandals always generate after-the-fact regulatory activity; Sarbanes-Oxley is just one of many examples. Now, as the great credit crunch continues to unfold, we are starting to see some interesting prosecutions--beyond the massive sweep that netted 400 charges against various low-level mortgage industry players. The charges against the two Bear Stearns hedge fund execs goes all the way back to ground zero of the crisis. The issue is whether the two execs misled investors into thinking the fund portfolio was just fine. One moved some money out of the fund, even as he was reassuring customers. In that vein, the state of Illinois has just sued troubled mortgage giant Countrywide and its CEO Angelo Mozilo. It's quite possible that the federal investigations going on--by the SEC and FBI--will lead to Sarbox charges against top executives. This is far from over.
For more:
- here's some background on Countrywide
Related Article:
Illinois to sue Countrywide; tip of iceberg?

