The seizing up of credit markets led to the collapse of Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and sparked the worst economic slump in the U.S. since the Great Depression.

Much of the blame belongs to banks that profited from selling products that imploded with the housing market, according to an April 13 report by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Deutsche Bank AG sold collateralized debt obligations, investments backed by pools of bonds and loans, that the banks' own traders believed would lose value, the report said.

The report found that Goldman Sachs misled clients who bought the securities without knowing the firm would benefit if they fell in value. Goldman Sachs denied it misled anyone, and the Justice Department is reviewing the report. Last year, Goldman Sachs paid $550 million to settle SEC claims it misled investors in CDOs linked to subprime mortgages.

'Against the Norm'

"Can that many companies have collapsed -- large financial firms -- and not one criminal case comes out of it?" said Peter Henning, a law professor at Wayne State University in Detroit who previously was a federal prosecutor and attorney for the SEC. "That seems to go against the norm of the savings-and-loan crisis, and the accounting frauds 10 years ago."

Some of the biggest Wall Street firms rebounded from the crisis stronger than ever. Goldman Sachs's 2009 profits were a record for the firm and JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s earnings in 2010 and the first quarter of 2011 have been at an all-time high. Still, Goldman Sachs's stock has fallen 16 percent from April 13, just before the Senate report's release, closing May 20 at 134.99 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.

Lawmakers such as Representatives John Conyers of Michigan, the House Judiciary Committee's top Democrat, and Zoe Lofgren of California have criticized the Justice Department. At a May 3 hearing, Lofgren said prosecutors were more focused on immigration offenses than the financial crisis.

'Nannies and Busboys'

"The department is spending its resources prosecuting nannies and busboys who are trying to get back to their families," she said. "And yet we have not brought any prosecutions on the bandits on Wall Street who brought the nation and the world to the brink of financial disaster."

Holder, 60, told reporters on April 26 his department is reviewing the conduct of Wall Street firms to determine whether crimes were committed. "There is certainly a basis for us to look, as we are, at some actions that were taken by some institutions and by some individuals," he said. "Whether those will result in prosecutable cases, I don't know."

In at least two major cases linked to the financial crisis -- those of former AIG executive Joseph Cassano and Angelo Mozilo, former chief executive officer of mortgage lender Countrywide -- prosecutors concluded there wasn't enough evidence to bring charges, people familiar with the matter have said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigations weren't made public.