The examiner's job should have been "Is there any evidence for lawsuits which would help Wamu shareholders get some of their investment back". This was not a time of the world why one bank should have been sacrificed for many, nor should it have been able to have it's stock manipulated. For God's sake why wasn't Wamu able to be put on the no short list of financial firms which could have a massive effect on the economy? Because they didn't owe JPM/GS money like AIG? Wamu was the 6th largest banking institution in the United States, and they felt this would have no impact on the economy if Wamu failed? Why, because JPM was right there to take it and only the shareholders would lose? This needs to be brought to light
You do realize if every bank was getting bank runs during this time (which supposedly Wamu being 6th largest in Country only lost less than 5% of total deposits lost by all institutions of over $500 BILLION in banking withdrawals during this time). The point is the FDIC did not take into account what the whole market was doing, only used the fine line process to steal Wamu for JPM. The $16 billion, this should have been investigated to see if this was large transfers and by who or was it really small time mom & pops. If this really was a few large transfers making up the majority of this it would be easy for groups of people with enough money to steal a bank, especially when there is an overall situation like Lehman and the whole economy is getting ran.
And speaking of stock prices being manipulated, this is in direct relation to the Bank's Tier 1 Capital ratio. If someone shorts the stock to nothing which is the case of Wamu, not only does their Capital ratio change but also brings on public fears that the bank is unstable, thereby causing deposit runs from people that wouldn't have taken it out. Anyone with enough money could steal a bank fairly easily, especially with the economic problems at the time. This is what the examiner should have looked in to, not just the "Did the FDIC follow procedures BS that he did". There needs to be answers on who shorted Wamu, who took their deposits out, how much did the rest of the financial institutions lose in deposits during this time, and was it a necessity to close Wamu while Wamu was still solvent. Wamu themselves could have done a number of things to change their cash position, including selling buildings, branches, land, mineral rights, wind farms, loans, companies, etc. Wamu was not LOST at this time and should have been "saved" with TARP just as JPM, CITI, WF, BOA were.
