Accountability Series: Why is nobody punished for fraud???

I am a big fan of This American Life. Last weekend they ran Return To The Giant Pool of Money. The original The Giant Pool of Money ran a few months ago and won many awards, as National Public Radio did a wonderful job explaining the mechanics of the economic collapse we all went through a year ago.

The episode contained a number of stories - all relevant to the mortgage crisis, structured debt obligations, etc. There is no point of retelling them - it is better to listen to the original(s).

One story was about Richard Campbell - a Marine, who, after his tour of duty in Iraq, bought a house with a sub-prime mortgage. After a while, the mortgage interest rate adjusted, mortgage payments went up by two thousand dollars a month and Mr. Campbell was unable to pay them.

At some point in the program he is shown his mortgage application by NPR's Adam Davidson and Kerry Campbell (unrelated to Mr. Campbell) from the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America:

Adam Davidson: Not to say the original broker didn't have a process. It just had nothing to do with reality. Kerry shows Richard the original loan documents, filled out
by his broker.

Kerry Campbell: Here it's saying your base employment income is 16,250 a
month.

Richard Campbell: Laughs. Wha?!

Kerry Campbell: That means your salary, on a yearly basis, would be
$195,000 to be exact.

Richard Campbell: I wish. In 2005, right, and they used my 2005 taxes, I was making $37,000 that year.

Adam Davidson: Did you know that number until now?

Richard Campbell: no

Adam Davidson: To me, that is shocking. It's not shocking to you?

Kerry Campbell: Thatís outrageous. But it's a common thing. It's worlds apart, reality and what's on these documents.

Adam Davidson: Another thing the papers reveal: How much that creative broker made. $18,500 dollars. As Kerry says, that's 18,000 reasons to falsify Richard's mortgage documents and to put him in a house he can't afford.

Obviously, the mortgage application is an irrefutable proof that an act of fraud was committed. There are two suspects - Richard Campbell and his broker. Mr. Campbell denies fudging the numbers on the application. Although the broker was not interviewed, I would suspect he or she would deny it it as well. Well, if the same pattern is confirmed on other mortgage applications submitted by this same broker, as implied by Kerry Campbell, than broker is the one who committed fraud.

There were many instances of fraud committed by various players in this financial scheme of which the American people are the victims. But in this particular case - why are these people not prosecuted for this specific criminal act ???

That is the question...