Its been three years since major banks were bailed out and in that time Department of Justice officials have concluded that bringing criminal charges against financial executives may be futile, the Wall Street Journal reports.

"There's been a realization and a more deliberate targeting by the Department of Justice before we launch criminally on some of these cases'' said David Cardona, who was a deputy assistant director at the Federal Bureau of Investigation until he left last month for a job at the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Justice Department has decided it is "better left to regulators" to take civil-enforcement action on those cases, he said.

FBI probes have lead to zero criminal charges against financial executives — the burden of proof is too high. That means its up to the SEC to bring civil charges, with a lower burden of proof, against bankers. The agency does not have criminal enforcement authority.

According to Cardona, at the beginning of the crises investigators were excited about working on financial cases, but they kept hitting walls. The worst setback was the 2009 acquittal of two Bear Stearns hedge-fund managers. That's when investigators began "...rethinking on how we do things," he said.

And then there's failed probes against AIG, Goldman, Countrywide... the list goes on.

At issue here is whether or not there was actually criminal intent in these cases (via WSJ):

A Justice Department spokeswoman said, "We have brought hundreds of criminal cases for mortgage fraud, investment fraud and other white-collar crimes. When we find evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a crime was committed, we will not hesitate to pursue criminal charges."



