Thursday, July 02, 2009

Keep Your Eyes on the SIGTARP Ball

McCain, who actually knows reporting, offers some insights.

...According to my sources, Amtrak IG Fred Wiederhold decided on his own to retire, during a meeting where he presented the report from Willkie, Farr & Gallagher.

As the situation was described to me, the hostile reaction at the June 18 meeting convinced Wiederhold that Amtrak was going to continue its interference with the IG's office. So he decided to retire rather than continue butting his head against the wall
.

There will be more, of course, on the Amtrak situation, because Wiederhold's subordinates in the IG Office at Amtrak will be subpoenaed by Grassley in the Senate.

But that's not the one to watch.

...of the four IG probes now underway, the "SIGTARP" case -- involving Neil Barofsky, who's still on the job as special inspector general for the TARP bailout -- probably presents the most explosive potential.

Barofsky has been scratching around on the AIG bonuses, and he's already reported that there has been all kinds of waste, fraud and abuse with the TARP bailout. As Dan Reihl was one of the first to notice, if you read between the lines, there seems to be some suspicion directed toward Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.

It's clear to me that Geithner is a chipmunk in a large-mammal fight club. He's going to lose. But what happens during that scrap will be extremely interesting.

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