CNNMoney.com

Bernard Madoff, accused mastermind of a $50 billion financial fraud, is expected to plead guilty on Thursday to 11 criminal charges that could put him in jail for the rest of his life.

He was charged in court papers with securities fraud, mail fraud, wire fraud, three counts of money laundering, false statements and perjury among other charges. U.S. prosecutor Marc Litt said there was no plea agreement with Madoff, accused of bilking thousands of investors worldwide over many years.

The prosecutor told U.S. District Judge Denny Chin at a hearing that Madoff could face up to 150 years in prison under federal sentencing guidelines. The judge said he would sentence Madoff in several months in the event of a guilty plea.

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Louise Story
New York Times

Housing prices are falling around the country, but this one sounds hard to believe: A seaside mansion on Jupiter Island in Florida, bought for more than $13 million five years ago, was just sold for $10.

Richard S. Fuld Jr., the former chairman and chief executive of Lehman Brothers, testifying at a Congressional hearing last October.

That’s right, 10 bucks. But in this case, the transaction is likely to raise eyebrows for reasons other than the price.

The seller, according to county records, was Richard S. Fuld Jr., the former chairman and chief executive of Lehman Brothers. The buyer was his wife, Kathleen.

The motivation is unclear, but Mr. Fuld has been under intense scrutiny since Lehman declared bankruptcy in September.

The longtime leader of the brokerage firm is at the center of a federal investigation into whether Lehman executives misled investors about the state of the company. And he was grilled by lawmakers at a Congressional hearing in October.

Mr. Fuld said in sworn testimony before a Congressional panel last year that while he took full responsibility for the debacle, he believed that all his decisions “were both prudent and appropriate” given the information he had at the time.

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See who made our list for the ''Ten Most Wanted: Culprits of the Collapse''

Anderson Cooper

Over the last couple of weeks we’ve heard politicians tell us that now is not the time to point fingers and blame people for the financial crisis. I remember them saying that in the days after Hurricane Katrina as well.

The truth is that’s what politicians always say. They mean that now is the time to fix the problem, but once the world’s attention moves on, the time for hold people accountable never seems to arrive. Politicians point fingers at members of the opposite party, but no one ever seems to take real responsibility.

So who is to blame for this financial fiasco?

That’s the question we’ve begun investigating. We’ve put together a list of the Ten Most Wanted: Culprits of the Collapse. This week and next week, every night, we will be adding a name to the list and telling you what they have done, and how much it’s costing you.

It’s a rogues gallery of Wall Street executives, politicians, and government officials who did not do their jobs. It’s time you know their names, their faces, it’s time they be asked to account for their actions.

See who made the list...

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So who is to blame for this financial fiasco?
That’s the question we’ve begun investigating.
We’ve put together a list of the Ten Most Wanted: Culprits of the Collapse.
#1 on our list: This time we look at you, the consumer. CNN's Randi Kaye reports.

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So who is to blame for this financial fiasco?
That’s the question we’ve begun investigating.
We’ve put together a list of the Ten Most Wanted: Culprits of the Collapse.
#2 on our list: former CEO of mortgage giant Fannie Mae, Franklin Raines. CNN's Tom Foreman reports.

Program Note: Every night we add a new name to our list... Watch AC360° tonight 10p ET.
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So who is to blame for this financial fiasco?
That’s the question we’ve begun investigating.
We’ve put together a list of the Ten Most Wanted: Culprits of the Collapse.
#3 on our list: Former CEO of Bear Sterns, James Cayne. CNN's Gary Tuchman reports.

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So who is to blame for this financial fiasco?
That’s the question we’ve begun investigating.
We’ve put together a list of the Ten Most Wanted: Culprits of the Collapse.
#4 on our list: Former Countrywide Financial CEO Angelo Mozilo. CNN's David Mattingly reports.

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David Mattingly | Bio
AC360° Correspondent

Angelo Mozilo testifying at the government hearing on 'CEO Pay and the Mortgage Crisis' on March 7, 2008.

Angelo Mozilo founded Countrywide Financial and built it into a national mortgage giant. His ambition and drive to open the "American Dream" of home ownership to millions of families was unrivaled. But somewhere along the way his many critics say he turned that dream into a nightmare.

Mozilo stands accused by Attorneys General in multiple states of selling risky mortgages to thousands who could not afford them, leading to the current foreclosure crisis.

Mozilo told Congress the bad economy is to blame, but his critics blame Mozilo for the sinking economy.

He is the latest addition to our list of the 10 Most Wanted–Culprits of the Collapse.

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Ismael Estrada
AC360° Producer

The minute my wife and I walked in we knew the home was for us. It was perfect! There was plenty of room for our new baby, a huge back yard, a fantastic kitchen and tons of charm. This was just right. But there was a giant problem.

We didn’t have nearly enough money for a down payment and we already had a mortgage on our condo we were renting out and taking a loss on.

Our mortgage broker said our credit was outstanding and we could get a 100 percent loan, not a problem. I remember thinking, this guy is nuts! This is not supposed to be this easy, and can I really afford it?

We got caught up in the moment and bought the house.

This is the scenario that was played out over and over again all around the country. People getting into loans they probably shouldn’t have qualified for.

We were lucky: one year after we bought our house, I took a job out of state and we sold our home for a small profit.

But a few years later, the bottom fell out of the market and the values plummeted. People are now stuck with those crazy 100 percent loans or adjustable rate mortgages (ARMS) that now have them paying out the nose on a loan they shouldn’t have been able to sign in the first place.

Why were banks handing out money so easily? How were all these loans getting approved? Tonight, on AC360, we’ll tell you the story about the man who had originated a great many of these loans, and why he is one of the culprits of the collapse.

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So who is to blame for this financial fiasco?
That’s the question we’ve begun investigating.
We’ve put together a list of the Ten Most Wanted: Culprits of the Collapse.
#5 on our list: Beazer Homes USA. CNN's Gary Tuchman reports.

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So who is to blame for this financial fiasco?
That’s the question we’ve begun investigating.
We’ve put together a list of the Ten Most Wanted: Culprits of the Collapse.
#6 on our list: Former Federal Reserve Chariman Alan Greenspan. CNN's Tom Foreman reports.

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Ben S. Bernanke
Chairman, Federal Reserve
Wall Street Journal Op-Ed

The necessary policy tools are in place.

As Americans well know, the challenges we now face in the financial markets and in the economy are both extraordinarily complex and historic in scope. I firmly believe, however, that with the actions policy makers are announcing today, we will be able to meet those challenges.

Our strategy will continue to evolve and be refined, and we will adapt to new developments and the inevitable setbacks. But we will not stand down until we have achieved our goals of repairing and reforming our financial system, and thereby restoring prosperity to our economy.

Over the past year, the Federal Reserve has actively used all its powers and authority to try to help our economy through this difficult time. Central banks around the world have also consulted closely and cooperated in unprecedented ways to reduce strains in financial markets and to bolster our economies. We will continue to do so. However, clearly the time had come for a more comprehensive and broad-based solution.

History teaches us that government engagement in times of severe financial crisis often arrives very late, usually at a point at which most financial institutions are insolvent or nearly so. In these conditions, the consequences and costs of inertia and inaction can be staggering. Fortunately, that is not the situation we face today.

The Congress and the administration acted at a time when the great majority of financial institutions, though stressed by highly volatile and difficult market conditions, remain capable of fulfilling their critical function of providing new credit for our economy. Their prompt passage of the financial rescue legislation made possible the critical measures that will be announced this morning. These steps will allow us to restore more normal market functioning, and encourage private capital to further support the reinvigoration of financial markets.

I also find it heartening that we are seeing not just a national response but a global response to the crisis, commensurate with its global nature. Indeed, this weekend, the finance ministers and central bankers of the G-7 industrialized countries announced a comprehensive plan to unfreeze credit and money markets, increase capital in banks and other financial intermediaries, and protect deposits. Each of these governments is now moving quickly to put their own specific measures in place. The announcements we are making today are consistent with the G-7's statement of principles.

Read more

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So who is to blame for this financial fiasco?
That’s the question we’ve begun investigating.
We’ve put together a list of the Ten Most Wanted: Culprits of the Collapse.
#7 on our list: Former U.S. Senator Phil Gramm. CNN's Tom Foreman reports

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AC360's ongoing report on culprits of the collapse. CNN's Joe Johns reports on Lehman Brothers' Richard Fuld.

When assessing Richard Fuld, former CEO of the now bankrupt Lehman Brothers, one Wall Street watcher put it bluntly: "Either he should have known that the company was in difficult circumstances or if he did know and didn't tell, it creates another problem. On the one hand he is either a liar or else on the other hand, he is stupid." That from Sean Egan of Egan-Jones Ratings, who evaluates companies like Lehman for investors.

Fuld was at the helm of Lehman Brothers as it raked in record profits during the housing bubble and then last month filed the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history. Lehman's startling demise helped touch off a panic in the financial industry that is still rocking the markets and the economy today.

A 158-year-old firm like Lehman going under sure sent a signal that no one was untouchable. The government mulled over stepping in to save the company but ultimately decided Lehman was too flawed to rescue.

The attacks on Fuld are, like our national debt, growing by the second. In a scathing Congressional question and answer session last week, Fuld denied the charge that he purposely misled the public about Lehman's problems.

Amazingly, no one on Wall Street seemed to fully grasp the dimensions of a global crisis. The warning signs were there, with a weakening real estate market and deteriorating credit market . And while some competitors started to ease out of risky mortgage-related investments, Lehman put more money into them.

"Lehman wound up thinking, you know, these people are making a mountain out of a mole hill and if we go in now while everybody's in a state of quasi-panic and buy up a lot of these things, we'll make a lot of money. And it was a bad bet," Joe Nocera, a business columnist for the New York Times, told us.

Fuld maintained in his Congressional testimony that more recently, he sold off mortgage related assets to protect the company, but by then, analysts say, it was too late.

If there was a bigger culprit, it was Wall Street greed.

"Lehman Brothers is a symbol of everything that everybody on Wall Street did wrong," Nocera said. "Everybody lost their head, everybody forgot that housing values couldn't rise at two to three times their normal - everybody just forgot the sort of basic realities and truths of the market. Is Lehman a lesson we shouldn't forget? Yeah, of course it is, but I can guarantee you 50 years from now, we'll have another panic and another crisis, and this is just basic human nature."

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So who is to blame for this financial fiasco?
That’s the question we’ve begun investigating.
We’ve put together a list of the Ten Most Wanted: Culprits of the Collapse.
#8 on our list: SEC Chairman Chris Cox. CNN's Joe Johns reports

_____________________________________________________________________________

So who is to blame for this financial fiasco?
That’s the question we’ve begun investigating.
We’ve put together a list of the Ten Most Wanted: Culprits of the Collapse.
#9 on our list: Lehman Brothers' Richard Fuld. CNN's Joe Johns reports

_____________________________________________________________________________

So who is to blame for this financial fiasco?
That’s the question we’ve begun investigating.
We’ve put together a list of the Ten Most Wanted: Culprits of the Collapse.
#10 on our list: AIG's Joe Cassano. CNN's Joe Johns reports