The Truth about TARP
The free money for crooked bankers program
Neil Barofsky talks about bank bailouts, TARP and his new book.
Background:
Former Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP) Neil Barofsky was responsible for auditing and investigating the purchase, management, and sale of assets under the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).
As SIGTARP, Barofsky created and oversaw the office’s audit and enforcement divisions, provided oversight and transparency through nine quarterly reports to Congress and 13 audit reports, and testified in more than 20 Congressional hearings. Under Barofsky’s leadership, SIGTARP’s investigations led to the recovery or avoidance of loss through fraud of more than $700 million and resulted in more than a dozen criminal convictions.
New York Times best-selling author Glenn Greenwald called Barofsky “easily one of the most impressive and courageous political officials in Washington,” saying that he “vigilantly fought for his independence as TARP watchdog.” One New York Times article also applauded him for his willingness to “stand up to some of the most powerful people and institutions in Washington or on Wall Street.” Exclusively represented by Leading Authorities, Barofsky addresses TARP, transparency, the economy, financial regulations, banking, and our nation’s fiscal situation.
Prosecutorial Background. Prior to assuming his role as SIGTARP, Neil Barofsky was a federal prosecutor and the assistant United States attorney for the southern district of New York City. In that role he tried more than a dozen criminal cases and conducted myriad arguments. During his time as a prosecutor, he founded a new prosecutorial group devoted to the investigation and prosecution of mortgage-fraud-related crimes and acted as its senior trial counsel.
Barofsky was also a member of the Securities and Commodities Fraud Unit, where he prosecuted white collar crimes, including the accounting fraud case that led to the convictions of the top officers at Refco Inc. For his work on this case, Barofsky was awarded the Attorney General’s John Marshall Award and the Executive Office of the United States Attorneys’ Director’s Award. Finally, he led the multi-jurisdictional international investigation that resulted in the indictment of the top 50 leaders of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) on narcotics charges, a case described by the then attorney general as the largest narcotics indictment filed in U.S. history, as FARC controlled more than half of the world’s cocaine production.
Professorship and Educational Background. Currently, Barofsky is an adjunct professor and senior fellow at the Center on the Administration of Criminal Law and the Mitchell Jacobson Leadership Program on Law and Business at the New York University School of Law. Barofsky is also a Senior Contributing Editor for Bloomberg TV.
Neil Barofsky is a magna cum laude graduate of the New York University School of Law and a magna cum laude graduate with distinction from the University of Pennsylvania.
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