No firm too big to be prosecuted, says Wall Street cop

As a citizen and taxpayer, Preet Bharara is as frustrated as other Americans that Wall Street executives have not been held accountable for plunging the country into a financial crisis. But as the one person most responsible for bringing justice to Wall Street, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York told a group of financial writers and students last night at the City University of New York's Graduate School of Journalism that he also has a duty to apply the law in a fair and judicious manner. “We want to hold people accountable,” he said, “but [they must be] judged on the facts and not public pressure.” Mr. Bharara said there is no person or institution on Wall Street that is too big to be prosecuted and that his office investigates all credible reports of alleged malfeasance. He said his office has launched many investigations the public is not aware of because it does not publicize them. He noted, however, that the burden of proof is much higher in criminal cases — “as it should be” — and that is a factor in the government's decision to bring civil charges against defendants instead. In the 20 months he has been U.S. attorney, Mr. Bharara said his office has collected forfeitures totaling $642 million, 12 times his office's $50 million annual budget. Mr. Bharara defended the number of insider trading cases his office has brought, noting that it has won 36 convictions or guilty pleas in the last 20 months. And he rebuffed a growing sentiment — expressed mainly by pundits, particularly, MarketWatch's James Altucher — that insider trading helps the market and doesn't hurt anybody. “Insider trading is not a victimless crime,” he said. The pervasiveness of white-collar crime he sees across all kinds of industries is the result of a “corporate culture of corruption,” Mr. Bharara said. Too many business and executives are “doing the minimum” to comply with the law and walking a fine line between legality and illegality to see how much they can get away with, he said. “Aspiring to the minimum is a recipe for disaster,” he said.