“I think it's coming” says securities lawyer Jacob Zamansky, principal at Zamansky & Associates, predicting the “outcry for culprits and scapegoats” will be met.

Zamansky, Coffee and others say the government is now busy investigating likely wrongdoing that took place at dozens of firms and that it is just a matter of time before it yields results. But crisis management is taking precedence.

“The government and the private sector are focused on bailing out the ship right now, and rightly so," says former SEC enforcement official Marvin G. Pickholz, now a partner at the New York law firm Duane Morris.

“I think most resources are being channeled toward solving the current crisis,” adds Harvey Pitt, who chaired the SEC during the government’s crackdown on accounting fraud at the beginning of the decade. "I think it will be months before any prosecutions occur, if at all."

Investigations of this kind also take time. In the previous scandal, it took about two years from the time of the alleged wrongdoing to the first big indictments. WorldCom, for instance, was cooking the books in late 2000. Its CFO Scott Sullivan wasn't indicted in August 2002.

For Investors

Pickholz adds that election year considerations may also be slowing down the process. US attorneys—who are political appointees—may be unwilling or reluctant to open a case without knowing who’ll be the next president and whether they’ll still be in their jobs.

Recent developments, however, show momentum is building. The government recently issued subpoenas to a dozen executives at Lehman Brothers, which CNBC learned, included CEO Richard Fuld, two CFOS and a COO.

As CNBC first reported Sept. 24, multiple federal investigations at Lehman and at least 25 other firms are focusing primarily on asset values—that is, whether companies like Lehman were properly valuing things like mortgage-backed securities on their books, as well as the securities they sold to the public.