Wednesday
Feb112009
Whistleblowers Welcome
Wednesday, February 11, 2009 at 2:50PM
By Kayleigh Harvey - Talk Radio News Service
Deputy Director of the FBI, John Pistole, Special Inspector General for the Troubled Assets Relief Program, the Honorable Neil Barofsky and Acting Assistant Attorney General Rita Glavin from the Criminal division testified before a full room at a Senate Judiciary Hearing today, to discuss "The Need for Increased Fraud Enforcement in the Wake of the Economic Downturn."
Chairman of the Committee, Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt) said: "This is not a partisan issue...we want to strengthen fraud enforcement, the Justice Department, the FBI, the Office of the Inspector General, the Department of Housing and Urban Development and even the Postal Inspection Service."
"One thing I learned as a prosecutor...you can have all the laws of the world in the books but if you don't have the resources to enforce the laws, and actually go out there after people who have broken the laws, they are meaningless."
"We do know that banks and private mortgage companies relaxed their standards for loans, proving ever riskier mortgage and less and less due diligence, it's almost like open the door and saying, 'Hey, come on in fraud is welcome'," Senator Leahy continued.
Also discussed at the hearing were the measures on how to tackle fraud now and in the future in relation to the economic crisis, catching criminal activity, and the Madoff scandal.
With regard to whistleblowers there seemed to be a unanimous agreement by the witnesses, that whistleblowers are an important tool in tackling fraud.
John Pistole said: "Anybody who has credible information, that can help either predicate or enhance investigation we look forward to working with."
Rita Glavin stated that "The Department has enjoyed tremendous success from working with whistleblowers...we have obtained essentially $10 billion in the past 10 years...the Department believes that whistleblowers, who are often insiders, can serve a vital function in our law enforcement efforts in exposing potential fraud in connection with government programs."
Neil Barofsky announced at the hearing that the TARP program encourages people to contact their hotline which can be found on their website if they have any information on fraud. TARP has hired a lawyer to follow all hotline enquiry leads. Barofsky said he would rather they went through 99 false lines of enquiry in order to avoid missing that one real piece of information.
Asked by Senator Edward Kaufman (D-Del) what were the most obvious fraud cases that TARP would move on quickly in order to attempt to get the most number of prosecutions, Neil Barofsky said: "Going after licensed professionals...focussing on exclusively the gatekeepers; the lawyers, the appraisers, the licensed mortgage brokers...making examples of those and letting their colleagues know that criminal behavior in these types of mortgage frauds is unacceptable, because they have the most to lose."
Deputy Director of the FBI, John Pistole, Special Inspector General for the Troubled Assets Relief Program, the Honorable Neil Barofsky and Acting Assistant Attorney General Rita Glavin from the Criminal division testified before a full room at a Senate Judiciary Hearing today, to discuss "The Need for Increased Fraud Enforcement in the Wake of the Economic Downturn."
Chairman of the Committee, Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt) said: "This is not a partisan issue...we want to strengthen fraud enforcement, the Justice Department, the FBI, the Office of the Inspector General, the Department of Housing and Urban Development and even the Postal Inspection Service."
"One thing I learned as a prosecutor...you can have all the laws of the world in the books but if you don't have the resources to enforce the laws, and actually go out there after people who have broken the laws, they are meaningless."
"We do know that banks and private mortgage companies relaxed their standards for loans, proving ever riskier mortgage and less and less due diligence, it's almost like open the door and saying, 'Hey, come on in fraud is welcome'," Senator Leahy continued.
Also discussed at the hearing were the measures on how to tackle fraud now and in the future in relation to the economic crisis, catching criminal activity, and the Madoff scandal.
With regard to whistleblowers there seemed to be a unanimous agreement by the witnesses, that whistleblowers are an important tool in tackling fraud.
John Pistole said: "Anybody who has credible information, that can help either predicate or enhance investigation we look forward to working with."
Rita Glavin stated that "The Department has enjoyed tremendous success from working with whistleblowers...we have obtained essentially $10 billion in the past 10 years...the Department believes that whistleblowers, who are often insiders, can serve a vital function in our law enforcement efforts in exposing potential fraud in connection with government programs."
Neil Barofsky announced at the hearing that the TARP program encourages people to contact their hotline which can be found on their website if they have any information on fraud. TARP has hired a lawyer to follow all hotline enquiry leads. Barofsky said he would rather they went through 99 false lines of enquiry in order to avoid missing that one real piece of information.
Asked by Senator Edward Kaufman (D-Del) what were the most obvious fraud cases that TARP would move on quickly in order to attempt to get the most number of prosecutions, Neil Barofsky said: "Going after licensed professionals...focussing on exclusively the gatekeepers; the lawyers, the appraisers, the licensed mortgage brokers...making examples of those and letting their colleagues know that criminal behavior in these types of mortgage frauds is unacceptable, because they have the most to lose."
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