 |
Add to My Group
3
2
1
View Ratings |
Rate It
Whistleblowers Tried to Stop Market Meltdown & Need to be Protected in Any Fix
By Jesselyn Radack, Posted by James Murtagh (about the submitter) Page 1 of 1 page(s)
For OpEdNews: Posted by James Murtagh - Writer Like Sherron Watkins at Enron, an American Century whistleblower warned of the threats posed by fraud and questionable loan practices. A general counsel at New Century, a major subprime lender, warned about the consequences of continuing to offer flexible rate loans to individuals when the company knew they could not afford to pay after the inevitable rate increase. http://abajournal.com/... An SEC enforcement attorney specifically warned of the current crisis when investigating hedge fund corruption. The SEC fired him and suppressed the oversight. http://www.whistleblower.org/... As early as 2004, the chief risk officer at Freddie Mac warned the CEO that the company’s financial health was threatened by ongoing financing of questionable loans. He was right, but was ignored. http://www.nytimes.com/... The candidaes are all talking accountability. Sen. John McCain said he was "greatly concerned" by the lack of "meaningful accountability" in the Administration’s unprecedented bailout proposal for Wall Street. In Wisconsin, Sen. Obama delivered an entire speech on government reform and accountability. Now, it’s time for the candidates, and, more immediately, those on the Hill in charge of the bailout legislation, to walk the talk. If they'e serious, they'll protect whistleblowers, because you can't have accountability withut them. In 1991 the RTC law after the S&L crisis had best practice whistleblower rights for its time. In 2002, the Sarbanes Oxley law wisely included whistleblower and witness protection as an enforcement cornerstone of that law. Congress since has perfected weaknesses in these pioneer approaches in four subsequent laws, including three since 2006. A similar provision should be included to provide teeth for any financial industry reforms in the current emergency legislation to help ensure this crisis is not repeated.
Secrecy was the breeding ground for this disaster, because it sustained the reckless decisions and corruption that caused it. Now the administration proposes to give $700 billion -- the largest bailout in history -- without any accountability for how it is spent. No judicial review; no whistleblower rights; no public acces to records; and waiver of normal government contract rules. Apparently, one financial disaster wasn't enough for the Administration.
Any credible reform must include whistleblower protection, because any paper "accountability" mandate is impossible to enforce unless those who witness corruption can bear witness. At the loan origination level, disclosures of the following misconduct at major lenders were ignored or suppressed with retaliation:
- forging customer signatures on declarations alleging that the customer knew they were eligible for, and did not want, lower interest;
- fixed-rate, non-subprime loans;
- false statements in loan portfolios and disclosures of risks to borrowers;
- "arts and crafts" routines to falsify incomes or loan histories;
- failure to ask borrowers their salaries when determining financial qualifications;
- training employees to say "anything necessary" to secure a borrower’s signature.
After the "killer toys" scandals, Congress provided "best practices" whistleblower protections to employees at companies that manufacture, distribute and retail some 15,000 consumer products. This was a huge breakthrough for public safety. The bailout legislation needs similar whistleblower protections for employees at any institution connected to the current economic crisis. The taxpayers funding the proposed bailout also deserve to know that the $700 billion handed over to the Treasury Secretary will be spent wisely, and according to the law. Accordingly, the Congress, as part of the bailout legislation, should approve already-drafted whistleblower protections for government employees and contractors. This legislation has been approved in both chambers, but is awaiting reconciliation and time is running out.
Other basic accountability and tansparency measures, like judicial review, contract rules and the Freedom of Information Act, also must be included. The taxpayers are footing the bill for this rescue. What happens to our money is our business.
-------------
My name is Jesselyn Radack and I am the former Justice Department ethics attorney and whistleblower in the case of "American Taliban" John Walker Lindh. In today's issue of The National Law Journal (Feb. 19, 2007), I have an Op-Ed entitled "Targeting Lawyers" on what it really looks like when the government tries to control attorneys acting on behalf of terrorism suspects and, if it cannot control them, punish them. I speak from personal experience in being blacklisted by this Administration.
Take action -- click here to contact your local newspaper or congress people:
Support Whistleblower Protection!
Click here to see the most recent messages sent to congressional reps and local newspapers
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author
and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.
 Contact Editor |
| 8 comments |
|
GAP states: THIS IS OUR LAST CHANCE!
Demand Whistleblower Rights Dear GAP Supporter: As you know, Congress has been swamped in dealing with the current financial crisis. That pressing issue has monopolized much of our lawmakers' time to deal with end-of-the-year legislation. But there are other pressing issues - like the whistleblower protections for federal employees that GAP has been leading the charge to get passed into law for the last eight years. You may recall that both the Senate and House of Representatives have each passed their versions of the bill. Unfortunately, time appears to be running out for them to come together and focus on this critical issue as its own legislation. But hope remains. GAP and other groups are pushing for the whistleblower protections to be passed independently, or as a necessary amendment to the blank check that the government is currently considering - the "bailout bill." This is an excellent opportunity for federal whistleblowers to finally get the rights they deserve. We need your help. Now is the time to act. Yesterday, GAP and 42 other groups sent a letter to key House and Senate Committees urging that whistleblower protections be included in the "bailout bill." You can read that letter here. The Washington Post published an excellent article today about GAP's efforts. You can read that article here. We need you to make calls and demand that Congress find time in its final days to protect govenrment employees who protect the taxpayers, whether this is done as stand-alone legislation or included in the "bailout bill." Here's what to do: Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd: 202.224.7391 Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid: 202.224.5556 Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi: 202.225.0100 House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank: 202.225.4247 The Government Accountability Project by James Murtagh (45 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 119 comments) on Wednesday, Sep 24, 2008 at 1:14:40 PM  (0+)
|
|
Washington Post: Groups Seek Whistle-Blower Protection in Ba
By Joe Davidson Wednesday, September 24, 2008; Page D04 Amid the swirl of activity on Capitol Hill surrounding legislation for a $700 billion bailout of financial giants is a little-noticed effort to protect Frank and Flo Fed if they reveal things their agencies are doing wrong. Good-government groups have long wanted to strengthen protection for whistle-blowers and they had a good chance to get such legislation passed before the financial markets took a dive. Now that all the attention is on rushing the bailout through Congress, those groups are trying to get on board. Yesterday, 40 organizations sent a letter to the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee and the House Financial Services Committee urging members to include whistle-blower protection in the bailout legislation. "At a minimum, any credible solution must address one of the current crisis' fundamental causes -- corruption and other abuses of power sustained by secrecy," the letter said. "Otherwise, the taxpayers could end up giving $700 billion more to repeat the same disasters. Congress must prove it has learned this lesson. Any genuine solution must be grounded in transparency, with all relevant records publicly available and best practice whistleblower protection for all employees connected with the new law." by James Murtagh (45 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 119 comments) on Wednesday, Sep 24, 2008 at 1:20:55 PM (0+)
|
|
New Jersey Hospital Pays $3.85 Million to Settle Whistleblow
Medicare fraud case involved inflated claims for "outlier" payments by James Murtagh (45 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 119 comments) on Wednesday, Sep 24, 2008 at 1:23:11 PM (0+)
|
|
For a change, a GOOD investment for taxpayers
The return on whistleblower disclosures beats anything the stock market ever produced. Whistleblowers have saved taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars in recent years. But, much more could be saved if more people wanted to be whistleblowers. Without the protections proposed in Jess Radack's article, barely 1 percent of those who witness waste and fraud ever speak up. Whatever Congress passes in terms of a bailout, they should include language to make sure NO MORE BAILOUTS are ever needed. The best way to do that is to give insiders with consciences the tools to successfully report wrongdoing. Before long, corrupt officials will realize that it doesn't pay to steal from taxpayers! by deepharm (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 2 comments) on Wednesday, Sep 24, 2008 at 5:49:51 PM (0+)
|
|
FBI Investigates
"FBI probing bailout firms - Investigators start search for fraud at Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Lehman Brothers and AIG, sources say." by CB Brooklyn (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 477 comments [34 recommended, 1 rejected]) on Wednesday, Sep 24, 2008 at 9:00:25 PM (0+)
|
|
Reply: FBI Investigates????
Government does not investigate government very often or very well. That is the only way to explain the government's failure to act on any of the tens of thousands of complaints received about fraud being committed by the bankers. Fraud which cost hundreds of thousands of American families to lose their homes, their savings, and their good credit. See Wondering Why We Are Bailing Out Those Banks? Could it be FRAUD!?!?! This article contains links to the Miami Herald articles showing that (surprise, surprise) the Republicons looked the other way while widespread mortgage fraud went unchecked. The regulators and law enforcement officers ignored the tens of thousands of complaints about this widespread fraud. By the way, that is a crime, too! See, 18 USC § 4. How did they think that they could get away with this outrageous criminal behavior that cost hundreds of thousands of American families to lose their homes? Could it be because they knew that they had the power to treat the victims of crime as second class citizens a.k.a. peons or surfs? Did our Founders foolishly leave us with no power to control our government other than through elections? If you want to find out about the other check on government abuse of power that our Founders provided for us, then read What Happens When the People Lose the Power to Control Government and What You Can Do to Take the Power Back? Here are a couple of passages from that article which point out the importance of the right to present evidence of criminal conduct to a grand jury. As United States Supreme Court Justice Joseph P. Bradley said in Blyew v. U.S., 80 U.S. 581, 598 (1871), every citizen has a right to enter a complaint before a magistrate, or the grand jury. Justice Bradley explained, "I say ‘right,’ for it is a right, an inestimable right, that of invoking the penalties of the law upon those who criminally or feloniously attack our persons or our property. Civil society has deprived us of the natural right of avenging ourselves, but it has preserved to us, all the more jealously, the right of bringing the offender to justice." Id. Justice Bradley also pointed out that if a person was deprived of the right to bring a criminal complaint to a grand jury that person was reduced from the status of a free citizen to no more than a slave. He stated, "To deprive a whole class of the community of this right, to refuse their evidence and their sworn complaints, is to brand them with a badge of slavery; is to expose them to wanton insults and fiendish assaults; is to leave their lives, their families, and their property unprotected by law. It gives unrestricted license and impunity to vindictive outlaws and felons to rush upon these helpless people and kill and slay them at will, as was done in this case." Id at 599. Imagine if a citizen presented evidence to a grand jury showing that a banker misrepresented the payments that would be due on a home loan. Do you think that the citizens on the grand jury would indict the banker who lied to dupe the citizen into a loan that the banker knew would result in payments much more than he claimed? I do, and I think that the loss of this inestimable right is why our government has become so corrupt and abusive. I think that a lot of the fraud and abuse would not have occurred because the bankers would not want to get indicted, but they currently feel like they are above the law and can get away with stealing life savings, throwing families out in the streets, and having us bail out the banks. If you want to know more about this, check out the Rule of Law radio show with Randy Kelton and Deborah Stevens on Monday and Thursday nights from 9 to 11 Eastern and on Friday nights from 9 to 1 AM Eastern. Listen live at http://www.wtprn.com/listen.shtml or check out the archives at http://mp3.wtprn.com/Kelton08.html This show focuses on the right that each citizen has to present evidence of criminal conduct to grand juries, and I’m a regular guest on Thursdays. by Mark Adams (21 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 392 comments [77 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Tuesday, Sep 30, 2008 at 1:56:16 PM (0+)
|
|
See the connection: Whistleblower protection-Economy meltdow
We didn't see it coming - because they hid it. Whistleblowers are not yet protected, so no one speaks. Support the acts that will protect them: by Jon (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 6 comments) on Thursday, Sep 25, 2008 at 2:48:09 PM (0+)
|
|
Thanks For Your Leadership
We are fortunate to have Jesselyn's leadership on this issue and the venue for sharing it that OEN provides. by Zena Crenshaw (4 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 8 comments) on Thursday, Sep 25, 2008 at 5:11:19 PM (0+)
|
Want to post your own comment on this Article? 
|
||||
|
||||||||||||||
Well Said (0) 
Touching (0) 
Funny (0) 
Supported (1) 
Interesting (1) 
Inspiring (0) Tell a Friend:
|
Copyright © 2002-2009, OpEdNews |
