Neil Barofsky talked about his book, Bailout: An Inside Account of How Washington Abandoned Main Street While Rescuing Wall Street, his account of serving as special inspector general of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). He described his efforts to prevent fraud and abuse in the $700 billion allocated for TARP. He detailed his establishment of SIGTARP, the office that employed 140 and won criminal convictions of 18 people, and was continuing work on 153 pending civil and criminal investigations when he resigned in 2011. He related conflicts with Treasury Department officials as his office tried to protect taxpayers from losses in the programs. He also detailed his prior jobs and what it was like to work for the federal government in Washington, D.C.
Mr. Barofsky is a senior fellow at the New York University School of Law where he received his law degree in 1995. He was Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York for eight years.