"Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps"

As a former federal prosecutor, and currently, as a criminal defense lawyer, and quite simply, as a movie fan, I am really looking forward to the premiere today of the "Wall Street" sequel!

Who can forget the famous, provocative line spoken by Michael Douglas' character in the first movie: "Greed is good!" In the sequel, he adds that, now, "greed is legal!" Of course, since the first movie, we have all seen a lot of greed on the real Wall Street, haven't we? And sometimes, it seems that greed must be "legal," because there haven't been a lot of prosecutions since the 2008 Wall Street debacle. Maybe some U.S. Department of Justice prosecutors will see the movie, and get fired up to do their jobs!

Have any of you seen the old movie? Have you seen the sequel yet? Am I the only one excited about it!? What is your opinion of either movie?

What are some other good movies about white collar crime which you have seen?

Will DOJ Ever Bring Wall Street to Justice?

A Washington Post article published today raises an interesting question: Will the Department of Justice ever "bring to justice" the greedy Wall Street banks and bank executives who were responsible for nearly ruining the U.S. economy in late 2008? Attorney General Eric Holder has promised that such prosecutions will be forthcoming, but, after a year and a half since the financial meltdown, no noteworthy prosecutions have occurred.

However, as a former federal prosecutor, I can sympathize with the DOJ prosecutors entrusted with this responsiblity. For instance, can you imagine the enormous paper trail that the government agents and prosecutors must follow in such an enormous bank fraud investigation? There would be literally millions of documents to examine and just about as many witnesses to interview and rabbit holes for the investigators to jump into, in order to ferret out the fraud! In addition, government prosecutors would face difficult charging decisions. In other words, it's easy to lambast and rail against big banks and bankers, (and slow-moving prosecutors), but it can be difficult to decide, on an individual basis, whether or not sufficient evidence exists to charge an individual who may have simply been following orders, or following the status quo.

So, as to this question about whether or not DOJ is taking too long to bring the Wall Street "fat cats" to justice, I am willing to cut them, (i.e. the prosecutors), some more slack! In this case, government agents and prosecutors have an incredibly difficult task and I would prefer that they do their jobs right, instead of rushing to judgment!

What do you think?