Michael Lewis in his book 'The Big Short' names (amongst others) Greg Lipmann as the gentleman who took the short side of the bonds and CDO's backed by subprime mortgages. Lipmann was in the employ of one of the big banks (I believe it was Goldman Sachs although can't specifically immediately recall).
The ratings agencies (Moody's et.al) should also be put on trial IMO for fraud for agreeing to re-rate what was essentially shite into AAA (or almost riskless) assets that were then on-sold by the investment banks.
These investment banks knowingly and willingly engaged the ratings agencies in a serious mass deception and somebody should be held to account for what amounts to the biggest financial fraud in history.
