Following the AIG bonus bungle, it is now reported that Fannie Mae is set to write bonus checks into the millions of dollars.
And reports surfaced that beleaguered mortgage giant Fannie Mae was set to pay millions in retention bonuses — the very sort of payouts that has fueled condemnation of AIG all this week.
Corporations other than AIG have dished out big bonuses to the big boys in the corporation, including Bank of America. Today AIG turned over to Andrew Cuomo the names of those who had received bonus dollars. Bank of America is making the names of their bonus-paid employees known. Surely in days to come other TARP financed corporations will be called on the carpet to do the same.
Also, in addition to the extravagant bonuses paid to those who brought the country to the brink of financial destruction, it is now reported that 13 of the financial institutions owe some $220 Million in taxes. That’s right. We pay taxes. They avoid taxes.
And at a hearing early Thursday, Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., announced that a House subcommittee probe had revealed that 13 companies that received federal assistance owe more than $220 million in unpaid taxes. Companies that participated in the government bailout program were required last fall to certify that they did not owe back taxes.
Chances are we will never know which 13 corporations.
“Are they signing contracts knowing that they owe taxes but thinking they will not get caught?” Lewis said at the hearing. “This is shameful. It is a disgrace. The American people are fed up, and they are fired up. And they are not going to take it any more.”
The Internal Revenue Service released a statement Thursday afternoon, saying it expected the taxes would be paid.
The House subcommittee said it could not legally release the names of the companies owing taxes.
Could possible criminal charges follow? Not likely… but the possibility remains.
Neil Barofsky, special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, told the hearing that if an executive signed a contract knowing that information about unpaid taxes was false, “that would potentially be a crime.” He said his office will look to see if crimes were committed.
People will ask, said Rep. Artur Davis, D-Ala., why there are “large companies getting taxpayer dollars, making false representations, and we can’t even name them, much less make them pay the money back, much less prosecute them.”
Davis continued: “Will they get their day on a billboard, hopefully?”
“Absolutely,” said Barofsky. If someone lied, he said, “They need to be prosecuted.”
Amen!
Initially, most of us railed against TARP. However, we were told that the sky was falling and that the world would end, not on the predicted 2012 but within days if the TARP did not pass Congress. Congress listened to Henny Penny rather than the citizens that put them in office.
For the last time (hopefully) I will say that we do not need to retain or in any way allow those who brought this crisis upon us to be anywhere near Wall Street. Instead, someone needs to be filing criminal complaints.
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