Bush to recruit TARP inspector from fraud group
Bush has nominated a TARP inspector from mortgage fraud group
President George W Bush has nominated a special inspector general for the
Troubled Asset
Relief Program (TARP) from the mortgage fraud group in the southern
disctrict of New York in response to critics of the lack of independent
oversight for the implementation of the rescue package.
The nominee, Neil Barofsky, an assistant US attorney, is the chief of the
mortgage fraud group in the southern district of New York. Before that he was
the lead prosecutor in the district’s securities fraud unit, Dow Jones
newswire’s Financial News reports.
Eric Thorson, the US Treasury Department’s inspector general, told the
Washington Post on Wednesday: ‘It’s a mess. I don’t think anyone
understands right now how we’re going to do a proper oversight of this thing.’
Barofsky will have to be confirmed by the US Senate to take on the role,
which will be to investigate the government’s use of the $700bn approved for the
programme and to report on the justification behind the treasury’s purchases of
equity or assets.
Further reading:
US in turnaround on $700bn rescue package