SEC Will Do NOTHING To Punish Lehman Brothers Execs

I don't even know what to say - I was just checking one of my local sources for news and found this. As the source is relatively anti-government, they put a great spin on it. Just basically, "don't try this at home - unless you're backed up by a government agency":

Despite a court-ordered 2010 report that showed that there was "actionable balance sheet manipulation" at Lehman Brothers, the emails to prove that company brass knew about it, and a Lehman employee who was willing to help expose wrongdoing at the company, the SEC will do nothing.

Bloomberg News obtained a memo prepared by SEC investigators that states that the agency likely will not recommend any enforcement action against the firm or its executives. Screw up a food festival in Brooklyn, and you'll taste justice in 48 hours. Help cause the implosion of the global economy? Nothing to see here, folks!

At a hearing last month before Congress, SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro testified, “Our staff has conducted an independent and extremely extensive investigation of all these issues." Ah, yes, the "staff" members who are all waiting to get high-paying jobs in the future from the firms they investigate, right. Those staff members.

gothamist.com...

I don't think anyone here will be surprised - typical when the fox is in charge of the henhouse.

According to Valukas, Lehman’s former Chief Executive Officer Richard Fuld was “at least grossly negligent” for letting Lehman file financial reports that distorted the firm’s risks.

If you or I are "grossly negligent" with our recycling we get penalized!! This issue needs more publicity - people need to understand.

www.bloomberg.com...

The "Good 'Ol Boys Club", "You Scratch My Back, I'll Scratch Your's", "It's For A Greater Purpose, There Had To Be Collateral Damage", "But I Didn't Know", "It Was An Accident", "Remember That Time I Gave Your Son A Job?"....

Pick one... Any excuse will do. I am not shocked. This is how things have operated since Scrat was still trying to keep up with his first nut. It's infuriating to say the least, but expected. It makes me feel a little more than disgusted!

Clearly the SEC is too busy looking at pornography in addition to Kangareux4Ewe's comment

www.zerohedge.com...

reply to post by Kangaruex4Ewe

It's infuriating to say the least, but expected. It makes me feel a little more than disgusted!

Yes, it is expected by the people here.......how do we get the people "over there" to understand how devastatingly unfair this is? OWS tried, but alienated too many people. I wish I knew the answer -- but keeping the topic active is at least a start.

I actually worked at one point with Dick Fuld's nephew - complete moron - and looked upon as such by his more intelligent co-workers, but he didn't care. He had his fake life in the suburbs of New York and was very happy to pretend.

reply to post by Mkoll

Clearly the SEC is too busy looking at pornography in addition to Kangareux4Ewe's comment

So appallingly true - all the time wishing they could be secret service agents!

reply to post by Maluhia


I wish I knew the answer too. I think we have let them get by with this for so long, that it will be virtually impossible for it to be changed. It's kind of like closing the barn door after the horse got out... It would have been much easier to stop it before it got this far out of hand, but there were too many people who didn't care, didn't have the time to be bothered, or were waiting for everyone else to step up and take care of it.

Either way, we must still try to keep bringing attention to it and still try to stop it. If we give up all together things will only get worse exponentially.