The PBS series ‘Frontline’ will present a new documentary on Jan. 22 that questions why the Obama administration has yet to indict any senior Wall Street executive involved in the events that led to the 2008 economic crash.
In ‘The Untouchables,’ filmmaker/correspondent Martin Smith investigates why the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) never brought forth a single criminal indictment against any Wall Street banker whose companies were found to be engaged in the fraudulent activities related to mortgage-backed securities. In a press statement, PBS accuses the DOJ under Attorney General Eric Holder of failing to ‘act on credible evidence that Wall Street knowingly packaged and sold toxic mortgage loans to investors, loans that brought the U.S. and world economies to the brink of collapse.’
The documentary includes interviews with Jeff Connaughton, chief of staff to former Sen. Ted Kaufman, D-Del., who insists that Holder's DOJ refused to make the prosecution of Wall Street executives a priority.
‘You're telling me that not one banker, not one executive on Wall Street, not one player in this entire financial crisis committed provable fraud?’ asks Connaughton. ‘I mean, I just don't believe that.’
Also interviewed is Lanny Breuer, assistant attorney general for the DOJ's Criminal Division, who claims that the department was unable to pin criminal charges on the executives.
‘I think there was a level of greed, a level of excessive risk taking in this situation that I find abominable and very upsetting,’ says Breuer. ‘But that is not what makes a criminal case.’