Academic

It's the biggest personal consequences suit of the financial crisis, and really the only one since Tanin and Cioffi, the Bear Stearns hedge fund principals, were acquitted.  That fact is emblematic of how different the government's approach to punishing financiers has been.  Last time, thousands of thrift executives were criminally prosecuted for the crisis in the 1980s.  And you all remember what happened after Enron collapsed

That's not going to happen again (and nor should it - much of the fraud uncovered in the thrifts in the 80s was directly attributable to Paul Volcker's hard money policy), but I've been shocked that no scalp has been sought.  Nobody?  That's what we do after financial crises, after all. 

This is definitely a scalp.  WaMu was the country's largest thrift (apparently the government's whipping boy when finance goes south), and 6th largest financial institution at the time it was seized.  And the FDIC hasn't only sued the individuals for disgorgement, but also, in two cases, their wives.  So it's a big target, and shoot-the-village tactics are being employed.  I'll be following this one with interest.

Here's Felix Salmon on it, with the complaint.  Here's Reuters.