Banker Crime Spree

Tell AG Holder: What’s the Holdup?!? It’s time to throw Wall Street crooks in jail!

Every week seems a new major banking scandal with the biggest Wall Street firms like JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America or Wells Fargo getting caught defrauding customers, homeowners and investors. But the Justice Department has been asleep at the wheel: they just don’t act serious about putting Wall Street criminals in jail.

Attorney General Holder and the Justice Department have put more time and resources into going after retired athletes and cheating husbands than the bank executives who drove the economy over a cliff. Despite plenty of evidence implicating them in massive fraud, these crooks have escaped by paying miniscule fines that were just a fraction of what they stole, and none have faced criminal prosecution.

Either the DOJ is obstructing justice or they are just plain incompetent.

It’s time to tell Attorney General Holder that we can’t have two systems of justice in this country: one for the rich and powerful, where Wall Street criminals are actually rewarded with bailouts and huge bonuses, and another for the rest of us, where petty criminals end up in prison with disproportionally harsh sentences. Even though a new financial crimes task force was announced to great fanfare back in January, it has not received anything close to the necessary level of resources to conduct a serious investigation.

And time is running out. Statutes of limitations on bank crimes are on the verge of expiring – so unless the Justice Department takes forceful action, and quickly, those responsible for the worst economic crash since the Great Depression will walk away with fatter wallets while the rest of us struggle for jobs and opportunity. The investigations need more resources, and they need them now!

I demand that Attorney General Eric Holder put real staffing and resources into investigating banker crimes.

Banker Crime Spree is a project of Campaign for a Fair Settlement. The 'Holder Hold-Up' petition is a joint effort between Campaign for a Fair Settlement and its state allies as well as Campaign for America's Future.