Government Regulators Aided IndyMac Cover-Up, Maybe Others

[Pale Blue Dot]

Source: ABC News

A brewing fraud scandal at the Treasury Department may be worse than officials originally thought.

Investigators probing how Treasury regulators allowed a bank to falsify financial records hiding its ill health have found at least three other instances of similar apparent fraud, sources tell ABC News.

In at least one instance, investigators say, banking regulators actually approached the bank with the suggestion of falsifying deposit dates to satisfy banking rules -- even if it disguised the bank's health to the public.

Treasury Department Inspector General Eric Thorson announced in November his office would probe how a Savings and Loan overseer allowed the IndyMac bank to essentially cook its books, making it appear in government filings that the bank had more deposits than it really did. But Thorson's aides now say IndyMac wasn't the only institution to get such cozy assistance from the official who should have been the cop on the beat.

The federal government took over IndyMac in July, after the bank's stock price plummeted to just pennies a share when it was revealed the bank had financial troubles due to defaulted mortgages and subprime loans, costing taxpayers over $9 billion.

Darrel Dochow, the West Coast regional director at the Office of Thrift Supervision who allowed IndyMac to backdate its deposits, has been removed from his position but he remains on the government payroll while the Inspector General's Office investigates the allegations against him. Investigators say Dochow, who reportedly earns $230,000 a year, allowed IndyMac to register an $18 million capital injection it received in May in a report describing the bank's financial condition in the end of March

Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/Economy/Story?id=6658365&page=1

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I'm only surprised that the truth is coming out. We need to keep this going past the Friday news dump.

[mwb970]

1. More bushcrap.

The supply is apparently endless.

[Hotler]

2. Kicking!

[Independent_Liberal]

3. Corruption Central!

That's what it's become.

[pleah]

4. K&R

[santamargarita]

5. Where should we build more prisons to house the Bush Crime Family?

It should be in a Red State so the right-wing assholes can visit.

[MO_Dem]

6. How 'bout Gitmo?

There'll be vacancies there......

[FarCenter]

7. His official biography

http://www.ots.treas.gov/?p=WestRegionalDirector

[FarCenter]

8. Regulator Let IndyMac Bank Falsify Report

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/22/AR2008122201301.html?hpid=topnews

...

The regulator named in Thorson's letter, Darrel Dochow, was removed from his position yesterday as director of OTS's west division, which supervised Washington Mutual, Countrywide, IndyMac and Downey Savings and Loan, among other banks that have been seized or sold this year.

It is the second time Dochow has been removed from a position as a senior thrift regulator. He was demoted in the early 1990s after federal investigators found that he had delayed and impeded proper regulation of Charles Keating's failed Lincoln Savings and Loan.

Dochow did not return calls to his office and home. An OTS spokesman also did not return calls. In a letter to the inspector general, OTS director John M. Reich described Dochow's actions as a "relatively small factor in the events leading to the failure of IndyMac." Dochow has been reassigned to work in Washington on "special projects" and as head of human resources, pending completion of the inquiry, according to a memo sent to OTS staff yesterday.

...

[jazzjunkysue]

9. This plus the SEC had no record of Madoff's trades: There weren't any.

Is there one honest person working in this entire government?

I guess the way to get along and keep your job is to play the game and hope you're not the one holding the bag when the FBI shows up.

[truedelphi]

10. Here's the deal - even the top jobs at the Regulating agencies only

Pay $ 200,000. But if you play your cards right while you work at one of those agencies, when you leave, you'll be offered a 1.5 million dollar job or more.

Crime itself doesn't pay; but avoiding seeing and reporting a crime can pay real well.

[Pale Blue Dot]

13. I'm sure you're right. Or at least you were,

until all of this crap started breaking.

[debbierlus]

11. Investigate Bush & his ENTIRE Cabal

[EmeraldCityGrl]

12. This is one of those times I wish I was a cartoonist...

just imagining Obama trying to steady himself and walk over
a rug with all this corruption swept under it. It just can't be done.
This entire pig sty of an administration must be investigated, charged
and convicted.

[UpInArms]

14. a case of bad apples all the way to the top of this

crapweasel mal-administration.

We need prosecutions and a thorough housecleaning - NOW!

[Frank Booth]

15. These are the people who should be the prime targets for prosecutions.

The Blago thing's entertaining, but it had nowhere near the repercussions of the Treasury and SEC corruption and fraud.