http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/sen.-kaufman-lehman-accounting-just-tip-of-wall-st.-fraud-iceberg-449812.html?tickers=bac,c,gs,ms,jpm,xlf,skf&sec=topStories&pos=9&asset=&ccode=
Yeah everybody was doing it kids, because they could and still can.
Which ultimately means: Things are much messier than the level they're being viewed at now.
It's time to call in "The Forensic Accountants" . Our floorboards are rotten, that's pretty obvious to see and now it's come to light that the floor joices have that same rot in them to. This wasn't just a one board thing and the condition is wide spread.
Like many Americans, Delaware Senator Ted Kaufman is mad as hell about the Wall Street meltdown. Luckily for the American people, he's not going to take it anymore.
"You read about what went on, and you just shake your head," he tells Aaron in the accompanying clip, taped from Capitol Hill this morning. "If it isn't fraud, it should be fraud."
Kaufman was up in arms after he read the recent report by Lehman's bankruptcy examiner. "This 'repo 105' that Lehman Brothers had is very, very questionable," he says, referring to the accounting maneuver used to hide toxic assets in the months before Lehman's demise.
More troubling, as Kaufman has noted, is Lehman may have been the tip of the iceberg. Propublica reports Bank of America using similar 'tricks' to mask the true state of their balance sheet at the end of quarters.
Bank Of America has denied any wrongdoing, publicly stating:
"Efforts to manage the size of our balance sheet are routine and appropriate, and we believe our actions are consistent with all applicable accounting and legal requirements."
