Eric Holder’s Shameful Legacy on Wall Street Fraud

Right in the middle of the midterm election season, and just before Attorney General Eric Holder reportedly might step down, he made it known that the Justice Department will really really indict Wall Street executives in financial fraud cases. This time, definitely. “We expect to bring charges in the coming months,” Holder said on Wednesday. I guess the first six years of an Attorney General’s tenure is all just a wind-up.

The unlucky executives who happen to still be legally culpable when Holder needs to establish a legacy appear to include former Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo, who has been retired for six years (and whose case would be a civil prosecution), and individuals involved with the illegal rigging of foreign exchange trades. The forex scandal is certainly bad, but it’s indistinguishable from similar riggings to the Libor benchmark interest rate or the interest-rate swap calculation ISDAFix.

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