The Obama administration has formed a new task force to tackle financial fraud after an increase in mortgage scams and Wall Street trading scandals. President Obama has signed an executive order directing a Justice Department task force to investigate and prosecute financial offenses stemming from last year’s financial crisis in an attempt to bring offenders to justice and deter further fraud.
This move comes amid a weakened economy, outrage at the enormous bonuses being paid on Wall Street and disgust and disbelief that securities regulators allowed one of the biggest frauds in U.S. history, the $65 billion Ponzi scheme perpetrated by Bernard Madoff, to go undetected. Said U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, “We will be relentless in our investigation of corporate and financial wrongdoing, and we will not hesitate to bring charges, where appropriate, for criminal misconduct on the part of businesses and business executives.”