Richard Fuld, Wall Street Pirate

Out-and-out robbery of the highest order:

THE head of failed bank Lehman Brothers was grilled over a reported $US500 million in pay and millions paid in bonuses days before the company imploded.

Richard S. Fuld Jr yesterday became the first Wall St titan to face the wrath of a congressional panel investigating the causes of America's financial meltdown.

Congress heard that less than a week before Lehman became the United States' largest ever bankruptcy, the company was still funnelling millions to departing executives as "golden handshakes".

The bonuses were being paid out at the same time the company was pleading for the US Treasury to give it a taxpayer-funded lifeline.

"Face the wrath". What a joke. He didn't even get his hand slapped.

"I was probably the single largest individual shareholder," said Fuld, who still holds about 10 million—now worthless—shares in the firm. "I do not expect you to feel sorry for me. My point is, the system worked."

Yeah, right. He's stuck with 10 million "worthless shares, but but also 500 million very real dollars. and he's just one of the executives at Lehman who got fabulously rich at our expense... in just one Wall Street firm.

A small group of incredibly greedy thieves have stolen billions from the Wall Street companies they were supposed to lead.

Who are these men? Where do they come from? Do they have - as a group - a recognizable ethnicity or nationality? Do they belong to a secretive organization like the Masons? Just how have they managed to get into positions where they could pull off this national robbery? Who has helped them? Who has covered for them?

What should we - as a nation - do to these greatest of thieves?

You need to answer that question, because the government is going to let them walk away.

Oh yes, some will be fined, some will spend a year or two in that plush federal prison designed for the fabulously rich, but they all will still walk away, rich beyond our imagination, while we pay the bill for the bailout Congress passed - a double whammy for us all - to save the very institutions these men destroyed.