The link below contains a purported list of the top 25 in Congress who got contributions from the folks at Fannie and Freddie. Obama is listed third, after Dodd and Kerry, even though Obama is just a junior Senator. Obama is followed next by Clinton. Barney Frank and Nancy Pelosi are on the list as well.
http://www.investors.com/editorial/IBDArticles.asp?artsec=16&artnum=1&issue=20080918
Then there is the Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher J. Dodd who allegedly got special mortgage deals from Countrywide, who gave preferential rates to 'friends' of company's chairman.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25140560/
For an interesting article purporting to detail the House Financial Services Committee Chairs long history with Fannie Mae, See http://www.businessandmedia.org/printer/2008/20080924145932.aspx
"House Financial Services Committee Chair promoted GSEs while former 'spouse' was Fannie Mae executive."
The link below describes how some in Congress tried to use the original version of the bailout bill to divert money eventually recovered to groups like ACORN, a group Obama has a long association with. See:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122247015469280723.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
And then there is House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who allegedly has directed nearly $100,000 from her political action committee to her husband's real estate and investment firm.
http://www.washtimes.com/news/2008/oct/01/pelosis-pac-pays-bills-for-spouses-firm.
Perp Street
Law firms line-up to defend Wall Street's "crimes".
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The biggest growth industry on Wall Street these days is the white collar criminal law firm. As Wall Street financial firms crumble, Wall Street law firms—especially those with litigation departments populated by former U.S. attorneys—will prosper.
The FBI recently announced that it has opened preliminary investigations into possible fraud involving Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Lehman Brothers and AIG. This is on top of the two dozen or so cases that had been opened earlier. This means hundreds of Wall Street bankers are currently under investigation. All of them need lawyers.
The New York Times reported that the FBI was "under pressure to look at possible criminal activity in the financial markets." Such pressure almost always follows financial catastrophes.
Throughout history, criminal law has generally operated backward: A murder victim is found and a search begins for the murderer. "Who killed Cock Robin?" is the question most often asked by criminal law.
With financial corpses littering Wall Street, it was inevitable that the search for perps would begin. There is an enormous difference, however, between looking for murderers and looking for financial predators. The law of murder is clear—it requires a willful act by a defendant who intended to kill and whose act caused the death of the victim.
The laws regulating financial manipulation are anything but clear. The government's weapon of choice in such cases is mail fraud—an accordion-like and elastic law if there ever was one. To constitute mail fraud, the underlying conduct need not even be criminal—that is, it need not be prohibited by any specific provision of criminal law. It is enough that it may deprive the employee of the defendant of his "honest services," whatever that may mean.
Over the years, this phrase has been stretched beyond the breaking point to include disclosure of confidential material, billing irregularities and violations of the internal guidelines of private companies. As Sen. Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told the FBI, "if people were cooking the books, manipulating, doing things they were not supposed to do, then I want people held responsible."
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