Warren demands answers on lack of big-bank prosecutions

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is demanding an independent probe into why no top bankers were jailed following the financial crisis.

The outspoken Wall Street critic called on the Justice Department’s inspector general to examine why the government never brought charges against top figures in the financial crisis.

{mosads}She also called on the FBI to release any documents tied to the decision not to prosecute, citing the precedent set by FBI Director James Comey to release documents tied to the decision not to file charges against Hillary Clinton over her use of a private email server while secretary of State.

Specifically, Warren is crying foul over the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (FCIC), an independent panel created by the government to explore reasons for the financial crisis in 2008. Warren said FCIC documents recently made public show the commission made 11 referrals to the Justice Department regarding individuals or companies that it believed showed “serious indications” of breaking federal laws. No criminal charges were filed in any of those cases, and Warren wants to know why.

“The [Justice Department]’s failure to obtain any criminal convictions of any of the individuals or corporations named in the FCIC referrals suggests that the department has failed to hold the individuals and companies most responsible for the financial crisis and the Great Recession accountable,” said Warren. “This failure requires an explanation.”

The lack of criminal cases against top bank executives after the financial collapse has long been a sore spot with Warren and the left, who believe the Obama administration let many wrongdoers at the center of the collapse get off with a slap on the wrist. Warren’s letters come on the eighth anniversary of the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, which ignited the crisis.

But the argument from the administration has consistently been that bad behavior leading up to the crisis may have been wrong or foolish, but not necessarily illegal.

The FBI usually does not make public its reasoning behind not pursuing charges in a criminal case. But Warren is looking to build on Comey’s decision to release files related to the investigation into Clinton’s private email server, arguing there is now a clear precedent for releasing FBI files if it is in the public interest.

“These new standards present a compelling case for public transparency around the fate of the FCIC referrals. … I can think of no matter of ‘intense public interest’ about which ‘the American people deserve the details’ than the issue of what precisely happened to the criminal referrals that followed the 2008 crash,” she wrote.

The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.