You can’t throw a rock [in the direction of Wall Street] without hitting a bank that cost Fannie Mae billions of dollars in loss, but you know it’s not in this courtroom.
-- Kevin Puvalowski (Chapter 1 paragraph Page 12, 3)

Importance: Puvalowski was making the point that the big banks that had caused the financial crisis were responsible for it but were not being prosecuted like his defendant, Abacus, a small bank in Chinatown.

There were two pieces of evidence in that case; the needle and the trainer, and it still took them ten weeks to put on the trial. And they lost.
-- Federal Prosecutor (Chapter 1 paragraph Page 37, 2)

Importance: An unnamed federal prosecutor is lamenting the prosecution of Roger Clemens for lying about using steroids.

We were now officially in the realm of an Edward Lorenz ‘butterfly effect’ theory of crime fighting: a single indictment might be felt all the way around the world, and forever.
-- Author Taibbi (Chapter 2 paragraph Page 68, 6)

Importance: Taibbi points out that the U.S...