2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: Did Bernie's wife commit a felony when she secured a loan for Burlington College? [View all]Gothmog
(146,337 posts)In early 1990s, I saw a number of prosecutions of persons who made false statements for loans from federally insured financial institutions. If the bank that made the loan had failed, then the federal govt. could have looked into the matter. Almost every S&L in Texas failed during the Southwest Plan and the federal govt. looked closely at loan files to go after people who made false statements to obtain loans. The fact that the bank did not fail or suffered a loss due to the transaction explains the lack of prosecution. During the days of the old Southwest Plan, I watched the federal regulators look at loan files for failed institutions to see if there were cases to be pursued. Even today, the government look for fraud at failed banks http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/11/17/fdic-launches-50-criminal-investigations-into-failed-banks/
It is clear than Sanders evidently over paid for the land in that land was sold for less than the price paid to the seller. It is not clear if the bank suffered a loss but it is clear that the bank did not fail and is still around which explains the lack of interest in pursing any charges here.
Since this bank did not fail, the chances of any regulator pursing any claims against Jane Sanders is remote. Making false statements to a federally insured lender is not a good thing to do but she was fortunate that this particular bank did not fail. Most of the prosecutions for filing false statements are brought by the regulators after a bank fails