TARP Watchdog

Barry Ritholtz notes that Neil Barofsky is getting some well-deserved credit:

This is more than mere noise: Barofsky actually saved the US taxpayers some big dough:

“In addition to his candor, Mr. Barofsky delivered a solid prosecutorial record. Since it was created in the fall of 2008, his office has won criminal convictions of 18 people, helped keep $555 million in taxpayer funds from being lost to fraud and provided the Treasury with 68 recommendations to protect taxpayers from losses in its programs. The office — known as Sigtarp, for special inspector general for the TARP program — continues to work on 153 civil and criminal investigations, including 74 involving executives and senior officers at financial institutions who received or applied for TARP money”

A lot more people should be going to jail, not just related to the TARP, but to the massive fraud prior to the 2008 meltdown.