March 18, 2008 (LPAC)--The bailout/takeover of the thoroughly bankrupt brokerage house Bear Stearns was illegal, and represented a case of money laundering, that should be prosecuted, Lyndon LaRouche charged today. LaRouche noted that there is no basis in law for the Federal Reserve to have stepped in and bailed out a brokerage house, which is not a bank, and therefore not covered by any existing laws. The Emergency Banking Act, passed by Congress on March 9, 1933, provided for government assistance to protect vital banking functions, but was restricted to commercial banks. Chartered banks make up a vital part of our overall economy, but brokerage houses like Bear Stearns are strictly part of the speculative apparatus that has looted the economy and the population blind. The idea that the Fed stepped in to provide tens of billions of dollars, or more, to save Bear Stearns, is prima facie criminal. It probably constitutes violations of the existing money-laundering laws.

"It smells like another filthy Goldman Sachs scheme," LaRouche added. "I think it is time to increase the social staus of our Federal prison population--by sending all those responsible for this abomination to jail."