Monitoring The SIGTARP: Continuing Lessons For Participants In The TARP Program

Companies participating in the federal government's TARP program should be aware that the role of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Assets Relief Program ("SIGTARP") in monitoring and investigating the use of TARP funds—and recommending criminal prosecution for allegedly improper use of such funds—has continued to expand. As discussed in an earlier Jones Day Commentary, "TARP Fund Recipients Should Be Cautious and Vigilant in Responding to TARP Inspector General Requests" (March 2009),¹ Congress provided SIGTARP with wide (and, in many ways, unchecked) statutory authority to probe and investigate companies that receive federal monies through TARP. Recent public comments, written reports, and official acts of the SIGTARP make clear that Neil M. Barofsky, the Special Inspector General, is functioning and acting as "a cop on the beat,"² with the goal of unearthing and seeking punishment for allegedly improper TARP fund usage or other misconduct on the part