Operation Broken Trust, the largest investment fraud sweep by the Federal government of the United States, was conducted between August 16 and December 1, 2010.
On December 6, 2010, the Task Force went public announcing that it had examined scams targeting individual investors, not complex corporate fraud issues.
"[3] Operation Broken Trust included cases that were investigated already during the Bush administration or before the formation of the task force, and many were well on the way to completion before the sweep began.
[4][5] Reactions to Holder's announcement about Operation Broken Trust were framed by the apparent lack of governmental efforts of prosecuting individuals who may bear responsibility for the 2008 financial crisis, specifically since nobody at Lehman, Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, and Goldman Sachs (other than Fabrice Tourre) has been charged criminally.
[7] It was opined that rather than focusing on small-time operators, the government should prosecute individuals for their role in the 2008 financial crisis even if guilty verdicts were not assured; court proceedings would allow for transparency, serve as a deterrent, and provide lessons on how to prevent future grand scale fraud.