[1] He was the Treasury Department's Special Inspector General (SIGTARP) overseeing the Troubled Assets Relief Program, from December 15, 2008, until his resignation on March 30, 2011.
[5] Until he was confirmed, the role was handled internally by the Treasury Department's inspector general, Eric Thorson, who had expressed concerns about the difficulty of properly overseeing the complex program in addition to his regular responsibilities.
The role of the chief watchdog of the government's $700 billion TARP program was to root out and prosecute waste, fraud and abuse.
[9][10] On February 14, 2011, Barofsky sent a letter to President Obama stating that he would resign his post on March 30, 2011, to spend more time with his family.
[9][11] "[O]ne Treasury official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, was quoted as saying "[H]e's been consistently wrong about a lot of big things.
[13] On February 15, 2024, Barofsky sent a letter to the UAW International Executive Board (IEB), forwarding a complaint from the Anti-Defamation League about the UAW's demand for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war, with Barofsky noting, "Although this issue is outside of the Monitor’s jurisdiction, we thought it was important to forward the message to the IEB given the serious concerns raised here."