We all remember Scott Rothstein, don't we? Mr. Rothstein was the high power attorney who was convicted of running a billion dollar plus ponzi scheme who in late 2009 fled to Morocco in a private jet with $16mm+ in cash in an effort to go into hiding and avoid prosecution for running his ponzi scheme and fleecing investors out of hundreds of millions of dollars. Before Mr. Rothstein became a big shot in the legal community and subsequently a master criminal, he was an employment lawyer who represented cops in internal affairs matters and other disputes with the police department. It turns out that Mr. Rothstein actually represented some of the Plantation cops that were federally indicted for mortgage fraud in the past. In fact after Mr. Rothstein returned from Morocco, he tried to reach out to one of the cops, Joe Guaracino, months before the feds indicted any of the cops at the behest of the feds, take a listen to one of the messages left by Mr. Rothstein on Mr. Guaracino's voice mail...
This was obviously a controlled call that Mr. Rothstein made in order to try to ensnare his former client in an effort for Mr. Rothstein to further his cooperation with the feds. Interesting to say the least, we'll discuss the Rothstein angle in the Plantation cops mortgage fraud case and it's implications next week.
Now, unless you've been living under a rock over the last few months, I'm sure you've been bombarded with news about the impasse between the waring factions in our government regarding government spending and the raising of the debt ceiling. Lately we're told that because of the stalemate between the president and the republicans regarding the debt ceiling and the federal budget that the various credit rating agencies like Standard & Poor's and Moody's are going to downgrade government debt from a triple-A rating (the highest you can get) to a lower grad double-A rating. The threat of a possible downgrade by the various rating agencies has sent shock waves through the financial sector, we're told that the effect the downgrade will have on interest rates will be cataclysmic and will send the economy into a downward spiral that will make the financial meltdown of 2008 look like a walk in the park. Step back a minute and think about this triple A rating from the rating agencies, weren't these the same credit rating agencies that gave a triple A rating to all the mortgage backed securities that ultimately blew up and destroyed our economy? If these credit rating agencies were actually doing their job over the last decade and rated the mortgage backed securities accurately, we wouldn't be in the financial mess that we're in today! After screwing things up this badly the same villains are now threatening this country with a downgrade to a double A rating if there isn't a deal on the debt ceiling increase? Am I the only one that sees the irony in this? Why haven't S&P and Moody's been criminally charged for their mortgage backed securities rating shenanigans? Remember, if they hadn't given a triple A rating to the mortgage backed CDO's and characterized those securities as "good as money in the bank" we wouldn't be in the mess that we're in today!!! With that said, here's my special message to S&P and Moody's...
No comments:
Post a Comment