THE FBI hunts down America’s most wanted. But as the subprime loan crisis lurches into its collar-feeling stage, the Feds have a new problem. Who are they hunting?

American corporate scandals have three distinct phases. The first stage comes when the CEO is a hero.

In their heyday, Enron’s Ken Lay and WorldCom’s Bernie Ebbers were the supermodels of their set. They garnered magazine covers, glowing profiles and sky-high share prices. New business models had been created and the few cynics who didn’t “get it” were hopelessly out of touch.

Never trust anyone who says they have changed the business model. Sky-high valuations are difficult to maintain and Wall Street is watching carefully. When it spots a problem, the scandal enters its second stage.

It’s easy to be cynical about the mass hysteria on Wall Street about the “new new”, but the reality is, over the long term, these people get it right. The internet craze lifted a lot of sinking ships, but not for ever.

Once Wall Street has spotted the problem, there’s no hiding. Sliding share prices tend to expose plenty of other problems. They also attract lawyers. The third and final chapter of any corporate scandal ends in court.

A lot of scandals never make it off the business pages. The subprime crisis is not one of those. Millions of borrowers have been hit and many are losing their homes.

Last week the FBI said 14 unnamed corporations were being investigated for “possible accounting fraud” and other violations. The subprime mess literally reaches from main street to Wall Street.

The FBI is investigating the sale of the loans to low-income borrowers and how those loans were repackaged and sold to investors by bankers. Name a big bank and there is a good chance they are in the frame.

But the FBI isn’t naming names yet and that is unusual. The bureau’s press conferences usually set out specific charges. Often they follow dawn raids and, in corporate cases, photographs of executives being led away in handcuffs. This is not an organisation that likes to talk to the press in terms of generalities. It prefers to present its targets in chains.

Worryingly for all those bankers and mortgage firms, Robert Mintz, a white-collar crime specialist at McCarter & English law firm, says the closest parallel to last week’s FBI move is Enron.

“Something like this is only done in cases that reach such an extraordinary level that the Justice Department needs to demonstrate action is being taken,” he said.

After Enron’s collapse, the FBI set up the Enron taskforce and promised justice would be done, but the initial announcement was lacking in detail and criticism mounted as months went by. A few small fry got zapped, but the big fish were swimming free. It didn’t last.

This investigation too will come in for stick. Streets

and streets of subprime borrowers are going to get kicked out of their homes. There’s an election coming and the pressure to make arrests will mount after months of “inaction”.

But the FBI is on the case and soon, maybe not tomorrow or next month, but soon, some former stars of the business world are going to be doing the perp walk.

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