The banksters’ blatant fraud in the run-up to the financial crisis hasn’t gone unnoticed to one top lawyer in the nation. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman – who also chairs the President’s mortgage fraud task force – filed a civil suit against JP Morgan Chase for “widespread fraud in the sale of mortgage-backed securities.” This is the first legal action brought against the banks by this taskforce.

Most of the allegations are actually again failed bank Bear Stearns, which was bought by JP Morgan Chase just before the economy went into meltdown in 2008. According to the lawsuit – banksters at Bear Stearns knowingly sold defective loans and mortgage backed securities and kept their investors in the dark about how crummy these deals were.

Just like banksters at Goldman Sachs, Bear Stearns’ banksters openly bragged to each other about how bad the deals were and how much their customers are getting screwed. Officials within Schneiderman’s office are suggesting the JP Morgan Chase is just the first in a long line of banks that could be hit with similar lawsuits.

Yes, hitting the banks with lawsuits for their fraud is a good thing. But we need to go a step further – instead of civil lawsuits – we need criminal lawsuits. The only way to stop these billionaire predators from crashing our economy against – is to send some suits to jail.