Bush picks fraud prosecutor to oversee bailout funds

WASHINGTON: US President George W Bush on Friday nominated an anti-fraud prosecutor to monitor the use of funds in the 700-billion-dollar bailout of the financial sector, the White House said.

Bush named Neil Barofsky to become Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program at the Department of the Treasury.

His nomination now must be approved by the Senate. Barofsky "currently serves as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York and Chief of the Mortgage Fraud Group," and before that worked as a federal prosecutor on securities fraud cases, the White House said.

Barofsky was the lead prosecutor in the 2.4 billion dollar accounting-fraud case against former executives of the collapsed financial firm Refco.

The nomination comes amid criticism the Bush administration has failed to promptly fill newly created watchdog positions to oversee how bailout funds are paid out.

Congress last month approved the bailout proposed by the Bush administration to stem a financial meltdown - the worst since the Great Depression of the 1930s.