Republican Congressional Nominee: ‘All Those People On Wall Street Need To Be Investigated And Prosecuted’

A Republican congressional nominee in Michigan has called not just for investigations into Wall Street bankers, but prosecutions as well.

Kerry Bentivolio, who earned the Republican nomination in Michigan’s 11th congressional district on Tuesday following former Rep. Thad McCotter’s (R-MI) sudden resignation, detailed a surprising agenda for the financial sector during a radio interview late last year. Appearing on the Market Ticker show on October 17, 2011, Bentivolio told host Karl Denninger that Wall Street bankers “need to be investigated and prosecuted,” calling them “probably the biggest problem we have in this country.”

HOST: We talked about everything else, but [Gary Johnson] just would not say those people who committed these frauds and did these things, they need to go to jail.

BENTIVOLIO: On my Facebook page, go to a comment, I said, all those people on Wall Street need to be investigated and prosecuted. And those people outside protesting…[mic cuts out]. I think that says it all right there. The people on Wall Street, I think they’re probably the biggest problem we have in this country.

Listen to it:

That desired scrutiny would make Bentivolio unique as a Republican, given that some of potential colleagues have attempted to gut Wall Street reforms and even asked the banks for alternatives to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act signed by President Obama in 2010. Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-AL), for instance, has said that he feels Washington’s role is to “serve the banks.”

Bentivolio’s nomination comes the same week that the Justice Department wrapped up a year-long investigation into mortgage abuses perpetrated by Goldman Sachs without pressing any charges. Goldman isn’t unique: Wall Street’s biggest banks have received miniscule slaps on the wrist to settle fraud charges that resulted from the financial crisis.