More than a dozen people staged a sit-in late last week at the office of New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, pressuring him, as co-chair of the federal Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force's Mortgage-Backed Securities Working Group, to make good on his pledge to investigate—and hold people accountable for—Wall Street’s crimes, which contributed to an economic crisis and more than 11 million underwater homeowners in the U.S.

Participants in the sit-in and demonstration expressed outrage at the lack of apparent progress investigating or prosecuting the crimes of the big banks against the American people and our economy.

Schneiderman recently called on the public to "help make this investigation as strong and thorough as it needs to be." Those who organized and participated in the sit-in said they were answering that call—the AG's own words appeared on several signs—and vowed to stay until Schneiderman agreed to attend a public forum in New York to provide answers about the working group's resources, staffing, and timeline.

Outside, dozens of people passed a hat to raise funds for the working group, which critics have decried as woefully underfunded and understaffed. The Obama administration has so far promised 55 investigators (who have yet to be appointed) compared with the approximately 1,000 federal investigators assigned to the much-smaller Savings & Loan crisis of the 1980s.

"Since its creation more than three months ago, the silence from the federal mortgage fraud working group has been deafening," said Han Shan, one of the sit-in participants. "We're here to make some noise and show we won't be satisfied with lip service and lies. Homeowners and working people across the country continue to suffer from the economic crisis created by Wall Street fraud, and we want accountability now."

Alex Krales, one of the people sitting arm-in-arm with Occupy Wall Street protesters on the floor of the building lobby, demanded that the task force "step it up," citing the fact that no banks or bankers have had to answer for their infamous crimes against the American people and our economy.

Outside of the office building at 120 Broadway, only about a hundred yards south of the Occupy Wall Street movement's birthplace in Zuccotti Park, scores of demonstrators rallied in support of the sit-in, holding banners that said "Banks Steal Homes" and "Bring the Banks to Justice."