Research

SHOT: Obama During Tonight’s State Of The Union To Announce Mortgage Crisis Unit Co-Chaired By Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/24/obama-housing-crisis-unit_n_1229617.html?1327453577

During his State of the Union address tonight, President Obama will announce the creation of a special unit to investigate misconduct and illegalities that contributed to both the financial collapse and the mortgage crisis.  The office, part of a new Unit on Mortgage Origination and Securitization Abuses, will be chaired by Eric Schneiderman, the New York attorney general, according to a White House official. … The unit will not supersede the efforts already underway by the Department of Justice. Instead, it will operate as part of the new president's Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force. In addition to Schneiderman, the unit will be co-chaired by Lanny Breuer, assistant attorney general at the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice, Robert Khuzami, director of enforcement at the SEC; John Walsh, a U.S. attorney in Colorado, and Tony West, assistant attorney general in the Civil Division at DOJ.

CHASER: 4 Days Ago, Reuters Runs Special Report That Lanny Breuer “Connected To Mortgage Banks” And Companies “At The Center Of Alleged Foreclosure Fraud”

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/20/us-usa-holder-mortgage-idUSTRE80J0PH20120120

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and Lanny Breuer, head of the Justice Department's criminal division, were partners for years at a Washington law firm that represented a Who's Who of big banks and other companies at the center of alleged foreclosure fraud, a Reuters inquiry shows. The firm, Covington & Burling, is one of Washington's biggest white shoe law firms. Law professors and other federal ethics experts said that federal conflict of interest rules required Holder and Breuer to recuse themselves from any Justice Department decisions relating to law firm clients they personally had done work for. Both the Justice Department and Covington declined to say if either official had personally worked on matters for the big mortgage industry clients.