Neil Barofsky on Bailout: An Inside Account of How Washington Abandoned Main Street While Rescuing Wall Street

• Legal, Politics & Economics

Neil Barofsky was the first Special Inspector General of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP). He was nominated to the position by the President and confirmed by the Senate in late 2008, and was sworn into office on December 15, 2008. In that role, Barofsky audited and investigated the purchase, management and sale of assets under the $700 billion TARP program. Barofsky established the Office of the SIGTARP, and built it to a point where, at the time of his departure in 2011, it had 140 employees, had won criminal convictions of 18 people, helped keep $555 million in taxpayer funds from being lost to fraud, provided Treasury with 68 recommendations to protect taxpayers from losses in programs, and was continuing to work on 153 pending civil and criminal investigations, including 74 involving executives and senior officers at financial institutions who received or applied for TARP money.