Posted on 10/18/2008 7:42:07 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The FBI, after years spent focusing on national security, is struggling to find agents and resources to investigate wrongdoing tied to the country's economic crisis, The New York Times reported in Sunday editions.
Citing current and former FBI officials, the Times said cutbacks in its criminal investigative workforce following the September 11 attacks left the FBI weaker in areas like white collar crime.
The cutbacks were the result of a shift in focus to terrorism and intelligence matters. More than 1,800 agents, or nearly one-third of all those in criminal programs, moved into those areas, the Times said.
"Clearly, we have felt the effects of moving resources from criminal investigations to national security," the newspaper quoted FBI Assistant Director John Miller as saying. "In white collar crime, while we initiated fewer cases over all, we targeted the areas where we could have the biggest impact. We focused on multimillion-dollar corporate fraud, where we could make arrests but also recover money for the fraud victims."
--snip--
According to the Times, several former law enforcement officials said that senior administration officials, notably those at the White House and the Treasury Department, made clear that they were concerned the Justice Department and the FBI were taking an anti-business attitude that could inhibit corporate risk-taking.
One former official said some in the administration characterized aggressive corporate prosecutions as "over-deterrence."
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Amazing, all the crooks need to do now is overwhelm the system
Why didn’t the Administration ask for more agents and a bigger budget? The more that comes out on Bush and his running of the Administration, the madder I get.
They don’t know anything about Islamic terror, they have no language experts, they don’t know any thing about cyber warfare, what do they know?
OFF TOPIC.
Note: The following text is a quote:
http://www.fbi.gov/pressrel/pressrel08/darkmarket101608.htm
FBI Coordinates Global Effort to Nab ‘Dark Market’ Cyber Criminals
Joint Two-Year Undercover Operation Results in 56 arrests; $70 million
in Economic Loss Prevention
The FBI, in conjunction with many partners in international law enforcement, today announced the conclusion of a two-year undercover operation targeting members of the online “carding” forum known as Dark Market.
Cyber criminals using this forum represented a virtual transnational criminal network spanning numerous countries who were involved with the buying and selling of stolen financial information including credit card data, login credentials (user names and passwords), as well as equipment used in carrying out certain financial crimes. At its peak the Dark Market website had over 2,500 registered members.
A primary objective of this operation was to infiltrate the forum, develop intelligence on its leading members, and in coordination with our U.S. and international law enforcement partners, systematically identify, locate, and arrest them over a sustained period. This operation resulted in 56 arrests worldwide. Additionally, $70 million in economic loss was prevented from the seizure of compromised victim accounts. Separate from these successes, this operation created new leads and more investigative information to pursue. These efforts are being followed up by the FBI and international law enforcement partners.
FBI Cyber Division Assistant Director Shawn Henry said, “In today’s world of rapidly expanding technology, where cyber crimes are perpetrated instantly from anywhere in the world, law enforcement needs to be flexible and creative in our efforts to target these criminals. Leads in many of these investigations take us to the online world of Internet forums, where criminals go to engage in the business of selling and trading innocent person’s credit card numbers and other personal information. By joining forces with our international law enforcement counterparts, we have been, and will continue to be, successful in arresting those individuals and dismantling these forums. The arrests this week in the U.K. are a good demonstration of the coordination taking place today between the FBI, the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), and other law enforcement agencies around the globe.”
The FBI conducted this operation with the assistance of multiple domestic and international law enforcement partners, including the Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section of the U.S. Department of Justice, United Kingdom’s Serious Organised Crime Agency, Turkish National Police – KOM Department, Bundeskriminalamt (German Federal Criminal Police in Wiesbaden), and the Landeskriminalamt Baden – Wuerrtemberg (State Police of Baden Wuerrtemberg).
# # #
I think this is the Old Gray Mare’s way of telling us not to get our hopes up about the voter fraud “probes.”
This took less than 2 seconds to look up:
http://www.fbi.gov/whitecollarcrime.htm
Section Title Snippet: “Cases in the News”
I know a guy who is an FBI agent in this area.
He spent years investigating Russian gangs selling phony stock investments to the public in New York and Florida. I guess none of his bosses noticed what was going on in mortgage arena.
Thanks!
the administration could ask, but the Congress knows just where the trails will lead. They will keep the bloodhounds on as short a leash as possible.
You’re welcome Norm.
Billions for deadbeats, nothing for the FBI. ????
Already happened. A lawyer friend of mine had a client come in with proof showing that some paperwork for the appraisal for her house had been forged. He contacted the FBI to report it as a crime. The response?
We're too busy. Sorry.
They may well have asked for more money.
The President has certainly not shied away from spending for other important things, well, important in his eyes or his benefactors anyway.. like education and prescription drugs.
Just because someone has a MBA does not mean they are well-educated or meant or qualified to lead. Gubamint is loaded with degreed folk way in over their heads and their pay grade..
Joe the Plumber could teach them a thing or two. ;-]
Bingo! I know here in Norman, the FBI office swapped out the white collar criminal investigators with terrorists investigators. Give us back the white collar investigators because crimes in the white collar arena is getting worse and worse.
I thought the stimulus package was a bad idea and still do.
I am completely with Joe the Plumber. Less then impressed with a Harvard MBA right now.
Nice set of priorities. We have all the $$$ for every piddling welfare program but never enough resources for protecting ourselves.
investigate wrongdoing tied to the country’s economic crisis,
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