Yes, they gave millions to Obama, who voted against regulation of the investment banking sector in 2005. McCain voted for it. You wont hear it from Obama, the man who ran Freddy during this mess is now working to get him elected!

William, Atlanta, USA

Fine Auditors.
If a company becomes bankrupt within 1 year of an audit fine the auditors:- all audit fees received in the last year x (12 - months since failed audit) / 12. UNLESS the cause of bankruptcy was clearly identified in the audit or THEY can prove the company acted fraudulently

j Bunton, Carcassonne, France

Kneejerk reaction that is coming far too late and designed to make the government look like they care. If they cared they would not have let this happen in the first place

David Sars, exeter, UK

Criminals are criminals - anyone who has stolen, lied or misled to feather their own extraordinarily opulent nest should be treated in the same way as a street criminal.

We need to stop deifying them and start to wonder about the great decisions they've made that have got us where we are.

Alan Davidson, Bournemouth,

The sub-prime fiasco depended above all on the credit ratings given to the securities traded. I would expect that all of the agencies who gave these instruments their imprimatur would be the first organizations to feel the heat, followed in short order by their sources of 'information'.

john Reid, Wellington, New Zealand

Valuing assets is so subjective because they are only opinion as to what something is worth. Their real worth is determined by what someone is prepared to pay for them and at the moment they seem to be almost worthless. Amount of cash and rate at which cash is spent is key.

Rupert, London, UK

This is the BEST JOKE of the year.

Uma Shankar, UK,

Worrying of all is that the banks may see this as a green light to continue their high earning but high risk policies, knowing that governments will bail them out if their greed and risk attitude goes too far. Its writing a blank cheque to bankers without control of basic mark to market limits

Gerard Klijn smit, London, UK

as those questioned will say, "cant talk about it, its under investigation".........how about "cant do the bailout because of ongoing FBI investigation about fraud".......something is way fishy here......again, i ask, what is the rush?????

S. Field, McHenry IL, USA

Oh come on, does anyone believe that the FBI will do anything more - after spending millions in public treasure on Lawyers, of course - than give these multimillionaire bankers a tiny slap on the wrist? You think they'll send any of them to prison for any amount of time? Get real. Smoke and mirrors.

Steve, London,

Lehman said their net asset value per share was $40.

So - yes, they lied to investors. The company was worthless.

Dick Fuld and his deputy Joe Gregory should go to jail

Maureen Miskovic, New York,

What's the point of investigating financials that have already defaulted or been rescued - they should investigate Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Barclays, RBS, all those names that the whole market knows have been misrepresenting their asset values and that are still out there at risk of failing.

Andries, London,