Daily Archives: January 9, 2012

Real Financial Regulators Love Prosecutions of Fraudulent Bank CEOs

By William K. Black

The New YorkTimes published a column by its leading financial experts, GretchenMorgenson and Louise Story, on November 22, 2011 which contains a spectacularcharge against the Obama administration’s financial regulatory leaders.  I have waited for the rebuttal, but it is nowclear that the administration does not contest the charge.

The specific example that prompted the NYT article (“Financial Finger-PointingTurns to Regulators”) was a civil action against a former executive ofIndyMac.  IndyMac was supposed to beregulated by the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS).  OTS was the worst of the federal financialregulators – which is a large statement. It was so bad that the Dodd-Frank Act killed it.  I used to work for OTS. One of the things Idid to make myself unemployable during the S&L debacle was to testifybefore Congress against the head of our agency, Danny Wall, and our head ofsupervision, Darrell Dochow.  Wall resignedin disgrace and Dochow was demoted and sent back to run the obscure office hehad once run in Seattle.
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