and it was the head with no teeth that went after angelo mozilo. so the greatest danger he was in from the beginning was maybe he'd be gummed to death, but not even that happened. >> three months after the s.e.c. settled the civil suit, federal prosecutors in los angeles dropped their criminal investigation of countrywide and its ceo, angelo mozilo. we wanted to know why the justice department has been unable to bring a single criminal case against countrywide or any of the major wall street banks, and lanny breuer, the head of the criminal division at the justice department, agreed to talk to us. in september of 2010, you told the congressional hearing that you seek to prosecute people who make materially false statements-- people who told the investors one thing and did something different. >> that's absolutely right, and we're doing exactly that. >> we spoke to a woman at countrywide, who was a senior vice president for investigating fraud. >> mm-hmm. >> and she said that the fraud inside countrywide was systemic, that it was basically a way of

they couldn't win for love or money. >> i'm so glad you mentioned angelo mozilo. he attacked you, me, the "wall street journal" editorial page they were suggesting horrors that fannie and freddie were not properly capitalized. neil: how did they get it? >> whenever have you corporations and a government working hand in glove one supporting the other, you got massive problems. government is bad enough by itself, when they work in a corporate status environment which is what obamacare is after all. you have the insurance companies, the pharmaceuticals working right with government. we're going to talk about that later. that's the worst formula for disaster and that's what happened here. neil: what we're left with here is a big bill for the banks that invariably will come back to us, i don't know in what shape or form, higher atm fees, i don't know. it is going to come back us to. what i care about is equal blame here. and i think now the banks and all, i can remember very, very well when they were encouraged to push to lend and, of course everything went off the rai

>> reporter: one bank executive, former countrywide ceo, angelo mozilo, is facing a federal lawsuit. but there were no charges against high-level executives. >> banks don't commit crimes. bankers do. and we know not a single banker is being held accountable here. >> reporter: justice department officials say criminal charges could come. but six years after the collapse, many critics are skeptical. for the thousands of homeowners who lost everything, critics are blunt. diane, they say somebody big needs to go to jail. >> thank you, pierre thomas. >>> we turn to a new sports headline tonight. baseball's greatest hitter with an emotional plea for a new chance. 25 years ago, pete rose was banned for life, accused of betting on baseball. now, he's saying, it's finally time to forgive? what do you think, as abc's clayton sandell brings the debate tonight. >> reporter: he was charlie hustle, racking up more games, at-bats, and, of course, hits, than anyone in history. >> left center field. there it is. that's number 4,192. >> reporter: but the man once destined for the hall of fame, was ban

>> angelo mozilo was under investigation for a long time.rs were trying to figure out how to charge them for his role in the financial crisis. that investigation died in 2011. the statute of limitation on a lot of those criminal issues that he could have faced at that time is now over, so going back to this same statute that they're using with the bank, 10 year statute of limitations, so they are able to actually use that against mozilo now and likely bring a case against him. >> the statute of limitations on a youngster making the bank as i have to make money to pay rent. what is it about the trend of the junior employees all getting junk condition raises? >> base salary. fax it is an issue of talent and it is an issue of i think banks bestrying to pull the talent forward. they are trying to reset. they have gotten a lot of criticism over conditions for younger workers, so jumping that base pay might be a way to offset that. >> are they losing people? >> it is a competitive market. it is a hyper competitive market right now. it is not only

alert on the former ceo of countrywide financial, angelo mozilo, kate?> angelo mozilo, who in many people's views is a poster child of the subprime crisis, a huge issuer of subprime mortgagers, which is to say countrywide financial, apparently facing civil charges from the u.s. attorney's office in los angeles. we're told by sources that the l.a. u.s. attorney is preparing a civil lawsuit against him. unclear what the details are, but it's thought to be along similar lines to a case he settled in 2010, with the s.e.c., in regards to the idea that he misled investigators about the risks embedded in the company due to subprime mortgages among other things, tyler and kelly. he settled that in 2010, for just shy of $70 million. but this would be a new and a justice department suit, at that. >> yes, it would. kate kelly, thank you, for now. as we continue to follow that story. in the meantime, other news with our bertha coombs and a quick market flash, bertha. >> hertz coming off lows, dow jones reporting that carl icahn has reported an 8.5% stake in the rent

then they go after angelo mozilo. they should. if he did wrong, he should go. you know why?se they won't. they won't do it. it takes too long. >> i know this is a little bit nuanced but if we could take the example of a bank that issued loans with devious standards or practices or whatever. that institution collapses and goes away, then how do you ever try and bring justice to the wrong that was done at the time? >> that's exactly the point. if you allow these firms to simply sell out and not have anybody charged -- i agree people should be charged. but if you don't have people being charged and the company is basically bought up, then nobody would be held liable and that's just unjust. this isn't an election year issue. these banks are almost melted down the global worldwide economy and they have to pay. >> why should innocent shareholders be the one holding the bill? >> they don't want to indict the individuals. because they're going to have trouble in court and they know that. what's so bad about this? this money is going to federal departments where the congress didn't b

in mind, federal prosecutors announced they're preparing a lawsuit against former countrywide angelo mozilo, the man associated with selling subprime mortgagees. benjamin wallace wells. >> good to be here. >> it is a big day. this is in some ways which the u.s. government believes is the closing chapter of the subprime mortgage crisis, the financial crisis and yet, a feeling of sort of vindication and satisfaction is, i think, fleeting on some level. what do you see as the pros and cons -- how do you weigh this decision, when you think about it? >> for me it feels like it's not quite enough. it doesn't feel like a firm shutting of this chapter. what would have been really helpful, what would have been nice about a trial is to have real transparency, you know? to be able to look back at this crisis and look at what happened with banks and see where banks went wrong and were more regulations needed and to get a full anthrop algology of accoun and it we're talking about ferguson all of the time because there is a similar process there is a sub culture that seems to have gone screwy, you know?

. >> if i was to tell you that there were reports angelo mozilo, who co-founded countrywide and madeor doing it personally, may now again be prosecuted under anti-fraud laws. what reaction would you have towards that? >> i don't know mr. mozilo. >> but you do know what countrywide is alleged to have done, for which there is now a $17 billion settlement. >> yes, that's true. the court system in our country works in ways that are not easy to understand at times. i think we have a huge settlement here, that this now allows bank of america, the institution, to turn the page. i think that's what i would focus on, not the circumstance surrounding this particular individual. >> one of the other big plels f problems for big banks right now, this debate about returning monetary policy back to normal. where are you on that? >> i think janet yellen is a wonderfully experienced and capable central banker, as is mario draghi. but they do not have magic elixers. i think maybe we are expecting too much from the fed. maybe even the fed is expecting too much from the fed. >> is she expecting too much