Source:
Los Angeles TimesInvestigation looks into political pressure in bailout distribution
A special inspector at the Treasury Department is auditing the Troubled Asset Relief Program after reports that members of Congress exerted pressure and that banks actively lobbied for the money.
By Ralph Vartabedian
February 13, 2009
Amid growing public consternation with the federal banking bailout, the Treasury Department's special inspector general has opened an examination of political influence in handing out some of the $350 billion in federal bank bailout funds, The Times has learned.
The audit, which has just begun, is broad in scope but will focus on lobbying activities by financial institutions and what the special inspector general, Neil Barofsky, has called "outside influences."
The Treasury Department has released $294 billion as of last month, with most of it going to the banking industry in exchange for preferred stock and other bank securities.
When the department launched the banking rescue plan last fall, it set up a process for awarding the massive sums of money outside of public view and with criteria that were not disclosed, even to Congress.
Read more:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-tarp-investigation13-2009feb13,0,7813816.story