Related Stories
F.B.I. Struggles to Handle Financial Fraud Cases
Key Excerpts from Article on Website of New York Times
Posted: October 25th, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/19/washington/19fbi.html?part...
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is struggling to find enough agents and resources to investigate criminal wrongdoing tied to the countrys economic crisis, according to current and former bureau officials. The bureau slashed its criminal investigative work force to expand its national security role after the Sept. 11 attacks, shifting more than 1,800 agents, or nearly one-third of all agents in criminal programs, to terrorism and intelligence duties. The cutbacks have left the bureau seriously exposed in investigating areas like white-collar crime, which has taken on urgent importance in recent weeks because of the nations economic woes. So depleted are the ranks of the F.B.I.s white-collar investigators that executives in the private sector say they have had difficulty attracting the bureaus attention in cases involving possible frauds of millions of dollars. Since 2004, F.B.I. officials have warned that mortgage fraud posed a looming threat, and the bureau has repeatedly asked the Bush administration for more money to replenish the ranks of agents handling nonterrorism investigations. But each year, the requests have been denied, with no new agents approved for financial crimes, as policy makers focused on counterterrorism. According to previously undisclosed internal F.B.I. data, the cutbacks have been particularly severe in staffing for investigations into white-collar crimes like mortgage fraud, with a loss of 625 agents, or 36 percent of its 2001 levels.
Note: How fortunate for the financial fraudsters that the FBI doesn't have the resources to investigate them! Was it just a coincidence that first the "war on terror" and then the Wall Street bailout both have resulted in trillions of dollars going to a few well-positioned corporations? For more on government corruption from reliable sources, click here.
Related Stories
Latest News
Key News Articles from Years Past
