Ensuring Accountability and Oversight Remains a Priority During Our Economic Recovery

Press Release

In recent days, the U.S. government has taken steps to help stabilize financial markets, restore confidence, and provide security for American jobs, home mortgages, and retirement accounts. It is critical for these actions to be accompanied by efforts to prevent abuse of your tax dollars by enforcing corporate accountability standards, increasing investigation of any possible Wall Street executives that benefited from illegal activity, and fully disclosing the failed Wall Street practices that led to this crisis.

The recent revelation of the luxury retreat held by the American Investment Group (AIG) just days after receiving an $85 billion loan from the federal government underscores the systemic problems in the financial industry. Congressman John Kline and his colleagues expressed our outrage at this unacceptable abuse of your tax dollars in a letter to Treasury Secretary Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke demanding they require AIG to repay any taxpayer funds that were misused for the $440,000 retreat.

Congressman Kline also sent a letter to Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) Director Robert Mueller calling on him to increase FBI investigations into financial crimes. Recent reports indicate the FBI has only 26 ongoing major corporate fraud investigations into possible criminal activity at companies such as Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Lehman Brothers, and AIG. A substantial increase in the investigation and prosecution of white collar crime in financial markets will help prevent illegal activities from continuing and increase confidence in our financial systems and rule of law.

More transparency in the financial dealings and decision making by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is also necessary to give Congress and the public a full understanding of what led to this crisis and how similar trouble can be prevented in the future. To that end, Congressman Kline called on James Lockhart, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency - the federal agency charged with oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -to make public all Fannie and Freddie documents.

All three of these letters can be found on my website at kline.house.gov. Congressman Kline will post the responses he receives from the Treasury Department, Federal Reserve, FBI, and FHFA.

Congressman Kline's efforts to enforce corporate accountability standards, hold Wall Street executives accountable for illegal actions, and increase transparency of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will continue and are more necessary now than ever to ensure ill-gotten Wall Street profits are not made at the expense of the American taxpayer.

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