US Attorney General Eric Holder on Wednesday called on congress to increase the incentives whistle-blowers receive as a way of inspiring Wall Street execs, who may be dragging their feet, to report illegal activities.
He reiterated the fact that inside information has been decisive in the state's criminal prosecutions of financial institutions.
Mr. Holder disclosed in a speech at the New York University of Law that the federal government is currently investigating several people at numerous financial institutions around the country.
The Attorney General said he is optimistic that in a few months these investigations will lead to criminal charges against some of these executives, whose conduct may have negatively affected the market's recovery.
He added that the ongoing probe has revealed the reemergence of shady activities on Wall Street, which "raises troubling questions anew about the extent to which these activities may involve criminality and may be prosecutable as fraud."
Mr. Holder insisted that the federal law needs to be changed in order to amply compensate whistle-blowers for turning in important evidence against corrupt high-ranking Wall Street executives.
Currently under the law that deals with fraudulent activities against investors, whistle-blowers are to be compensated with $16 million. The Attorney General noted that although $16 million is quite a lot of money, the career risk a Wall Street executive takes to furnish the state with inside information is worth more than that.
Mr. Holder also reacted to criticisms against the Justice department for failing to level criminal charges against some highly ranked Wall Street executives whose firms were at the heart of the 2008 financial meltdown.
He stressed that although it is a difficult and complicated affair, the government is committed to bring everyone who violates financial laws to book.
"We need not tolerate a system that permits top executives to enjoy all of the rewards of excessively-risky activity while bearing none of the responsibility," he chided.
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