Hope for Mozilo

The orange midget we all think of
I hope he gets some prison love
- Touch of Black

I've been disappointed that more than a year after the mortgage debacle came to light, key figures like Angelo Mozilo, Michael Perry, and Chris Dodd still are not being prosecuted. Where is the mortgage scandal's Elliot Spitzer?

We may have found him. Meet U.S. Attorney Thomas O'Brien:

Thomas O'Brien, the U.S. Attorney for California's Central District, is emerging as a likely prosecutor in criminal cases expected from the U.S. mortgage meltdown.

In the past, he has faced gang members in court and since becoming U.S. Attorney in October 2007, he has shown he is willing to bring aggressive and sometimes even creative charges.

His office is already looking into New Century Financial Corp and IndyMac Bancorp Inc, according to securities filings by those two mortgage lenders. Countrywide Financial Corp, based in Calabasas, California, is also on his patch.

Executives charged with wrongdoing would face a straight shooter who is developing a reputation for being tough on white collar crime, according said Brian Sun, a former federal prosecutor who is now a trial lawyer with international law firm Jones Day.

If O'Brien brings cases to trial, it would mark the first time California's Central District has prosecuted a major financial fraud case since the 1980s savings and loan crisis.

"Is he ambitious? Of course he is," said Brian O'Neill, another former federal prosecutor who is also an attorney at Jones Day. "People don't get there unless they are ambitious."

He may be an ambitious showboater in the mold of Spitzer, but if he locks up the scumbags, he has my support.