Once again, money walks. A man who exaggerated his income on a mortgage application is serving 21 months in prison for a so called, “liar loan” while the CEO of Countrywide paid a $67.5 million fine to settle fraud charges brought by the SEC. Countrywide made billions of dollars selling subprime loans. The CEO personally made hundreds of millions of dollars and admitted that he knew many of the loans were fraudulent. These loans caused the housing bubble and also burst it. These loans are one of the primary factors which led this country into one of the worst recessions since the great depression. Yet the one with the deep pockets walks. Yes. It is a crime to lie on a loan application. But how many millions of people did this during the heyday of the subprime loan? Is the government going to prosecute all of those people? Of course not! How do they pick and choose which ones are going to be prosecuted? Furthermore, wasn’t it the greedy mortgage brokers who were “encouraging” their clients to exaggerate their income? Shouldn’t they be held responsible? This situation is exactly like the case involving CVS where they sold pseudoephedrine to “meth smurfs” far in excess of the amounts permitted under statute and yet they will not face criminal charges. They merely paid a fine. Meanwhile, the individuals who were buying the cold medicine which contained the pseudoephedrine for a small fee are facing years in federal prison. It is clear that the department of justice needs to get its priorities straight. Stop letting the real bad guys walk, even if they’re loaded. Stop wasting tax dollars, which are scarce, to prosecute the little guy.
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