Issa Calls on Towns to Issue Subpoena – Towns Complies

WASHINGTON. D.C. – In a response to a request made by House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Ranking Member Darrell Issa (R-CA) to the Office of Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) for all “communications referring or relating” to the decision to pay AIG’s counterparties at full par, the SIGTARP responded that, “the Federal Reserve has directed us not to provide you with the documents that it has provided to us” noting in the letter that they “regret the Federal Reserve’s position in this matter…”

As a result, earlier today, Ranking Member Issa sent a letter to Chairman Edolphus Towns (D-NY) to request that he “issue a subpoena for all documents and communications from the FRBNY referring or relating to the decision to pay AIG’s counterparties at par and the public disclosure of the counterparty payments.”  Chairman Towns has agreed to comply with Issa’s request.

“The American people have a right to know the full story behind the FRBNY’s decision to pay billions of dollars to AIG’s counterparties and then conceal this decision from the public,” Issa said.  “Both history and experience show that efforts by government agencies to prevent full disclosure of relevant documentation serve only awaken public consciousness to the increased possibility of waste, fraud and abuse.  The FRBNY’s clear intent is to prevent this Committee’s oversight of the AIG counterparty payments for as long as possible.”

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