People who fell victim to mortgage-backed securities fraud may feel frustrated at the slow progress being made into these investigations, but the Department of Justice said that it is making progress, and that action will be taken soon, possibly within the next few weeks or months. The mortgage-backed securities fraud probe has been underway for over six months with no real progress, but it appears progress may be announced soon.
In a recent announcement, the Department of Justice indicated that their criminal investigation of Goldman Sachs’ role in the financial crises was drawing to a close. Big banks that were involved in selling bad mortgages to consumers are still under investigation, however.
Yet, even with this announcement, the government is still not giving a deadline. All they are saying is “soon.” This is because of the multiple agencies working on this probe. There are simply too many variables in play to have a controllable deadline.
Back in January, President Obama stated that the government would be using the mortgage fraud probe to hold banks and others who hurt homeowners through fraud accountable for their actions, yet no accountability has been forthcoming. With the election year here, the White House will likely begin putting increased pressure on the agencies involved in the probe to get the job finished.
According to the federal agencies responsible for the probe, it simply will take more time to come to a conclusion. To date, they have collected millions of pages of documents that have to be sifted through, and they have also issued 300 subpoenas. It takes time to complete such a detailed investigation, but according to government representatives, charges will eventually be filed.
Source: CNN Money, “Mortgage probe could lead to action soon,” Jennifer Liberto, August 15, 2012
