Behind the Financial Crisis: A Fraud Investigator Talks

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Tom Borgers was tasked by a Congressional commission to investigate the causes of the financial crisis and found repeated examples of mortgage fraud. So why have no high-ranking bank executives been prosecuted?

“It’s been three years since the financial crisis crippled the American economy,” Steve Kroft begins his 60 Minutes piece this week. “[Yet] there has not been a single prosecution of a high ranking Wall Street executive or major financial firm.”

60 Minutes producer James Jacoby wanted to find out why, and one of the first people he spoke with was Tom Borgers, a man who literally helped write the book on the financial meltdown.

Borgers was a senior fraud investigator for the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (FCIC), a bipartisan panel set up by the Obama administration to examine the causes of the crisis. In the end, the FCIC issued a 500-page report on its findings, required reading for James and associate producer Maria Gavrilovic.

One of Borgers’ chief responsibilities at the FCIC was finding, vetting, and interviewing whistle-blowers, and he was therefore helpful in leading the 60 Minutes team to sources including Eileen Foster and Richard Bowen, the whistle-blowers who are the centerpiece of the 60 Minutes piece, “Prosecuting Wall Street.”

When Steve Kroft and Borgers sat down together, it was a great interview: honest, direct, and full of useful information. “I think he felt a real duty to make sure that a lot of their findings were followed up upon,” James told Overtime. “Most people who leave those commissions don’t really ever talk about it.” Which is why we are thrilled to feature Borgers this week on Overtime.

A seasoned fraud investigator, Tom Borgers worked for the government in the wake of the Savings & Loans scandal, preparing and directing criminal referrals, and responsible for the recovery of multi-million dollar claims. During that time, Borgers saw hundreds of bank executives prosecuted and sent to prison, a stark contrast with what’s happened in our current economic crisis.

Borgers tells Kroft that the FCIC found evidence of trillions of dollars of fraud and gross negligence, and that in the area of mortgage fraud, he found crimes committed by “mortgage originators, underwriters, banks . . . across the board.” Yet still, no prosecutions . . . so far.

Despite that, Tom Borgers’ personal contributions have been recognized. In 2010, he was awarded the Examiner of the Year Award by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, DC. It noted his “selfless and tireless service to the United States people” through his work at the FCIC. That same year, he was also honored with a Special Act of Service Award by the FCIC. In February of 2011, he became a managing director of a financial consulting firm in New York City.

The Financial Crisis Inquiry Report

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The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission was created to “examine the causes of the current financial and economic crisis in the United States.” In this report, the Commission presents to the President, the Congress, and the American people the results of its examination and its conclusions as to the causes of the crisis. Read full report.

More than two years after the worst of the financial crisis, our economy, as well as communities and families across the country, continues to experience the aftershocks. Millions of Americans have lost their jobs and their homes, and the economy is still struggling to rebound. This report is intended to provide a historical accounting of what brought our financial system and economy to a precipice and to help policy makers and the public better understand how this calamity came to be.

The Commission was established as part of the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act (Public Law 111-21) passed by Congress and signed by the President in May 2009. This independent, 10-member panel was composed of private citizens with experience in areas such as housing, economics, finance, market regulation, banking, and consumer protection. Six members of the Commission were appointed by the Democratic leadership of Congress and four members by the Republican leadership.

The Commission’s statutory instructions set out 22 specific topics for inquiry and called for the examination of the collapse of major financial institutions that failed or would have failed if not for exceptional assistance from the government. This report fulfills these mandates. In addition, the Commission was instructed to refer to the attorney general of the United States and any appropriate state attorney general any person that the Commission found may have violated the laws of the United States in relation to the crisis. Where the Commission found such potential violations, it referred those matters to the appropriate authorities. The Commission used the authority it was given to issue subpoenas to compel testimony and the production of documents, but in the vast majority of instances, companies and individuals voluntarily cooperated with this inquiry. Read full report.