The Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities (RMBS) Working Group has announced the launch of a new website to report fraud and an upcoming meeting encompassing the working group's full team.
‘The RMBS website is a new call to those insiders who know about fraud that occurred in the RMBS market, who know it's time to expose that fraud, and who want to help us hold accountable those individuals and institutions who broke the law in pursuit of bigger paydays,’ says Acting Associate Attorney General Tony West. ‘Although the working group and its members have done a tremendous amount of investigative work already – including having issued more than 25 civil subpoenas – we know that hearing from insiders is particularly valuable. There are scores of people who worked in the RMBS market who acted responsibly but who also may have witnessed greed and misconduct that crossed the legal line and created havoc for investors, homeowners and our economy. We want to hear from them.’
Furthermore, the working group will hold a two-day meeting at the Washington, D.C., headquarters of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) from May 31 to June 1. The group is expecting more than 180 attorneys, agents, investigators and analysts from working group member agencies and offices around the country to attend the event, both in person as well as by video at several regional offices of the SEC. This will be the third time the full working group has met.
The announcement of the new website and upcoming working group meeting follows criticism from consumer advocacy groups that this entity was all but nonexistent. Last month, Mike Gecan and Arnie Graf, co-directors of the Metro Industrial Areas Foundation, used an opinion column in the New York Daily News to detail how they were unable to find anyone at the U.S. Department of Justice who could provide any contact data relating to the working group, which was created in January by President Obama.