"NO ONE COULD HAVE PREDICTED"

That line was a standard MOTU response to the question of how could they have so badly hurt the economy.  We KNOW that many people suspected that these "AAA" securities were in fact nothing more than a Big Shitpile and some became wealthy because they knew.  The NY Times provides another example of someone who knew:

Naming Culprits in the Financial Crisis
By GRETCHEN MORGENSON and LOUISE STORY
Published: April 13, 2011
NY Times
Unlike Goldman, Deutsche Bank has not been accused of wrongdoing by government investigators. But the Senate report focuses on a trader named Greg Lippmann, who has since left the bank to join a hedge fund.

Mr. Lippmann was vocally negative about housing as early as 2005 and brought his idea of shorting the market to professional investors on Wall Street. He described risky mortgage securities before the crisis as “pigs,” according to the report. When he was asked to buy one such mortgage security, he responded that he “would take it and try to dupe someone,” according to the report.

Mr. Lippmann persuaded Deutsche to let him build a large short position, reaching $5 billion by 2007, the report says. The bank still lost money on other positive mortgage bets, but Mr. Lippmann’s trade helped reduce the company’s overall loss.

In a related article, the Times reports another civil suit against a MOTU:

Mr. Cuomo took a tough stance on Bank of America. While the S.E.C. settled its case with Bank of America without charging any executives with wrongdoing, Mr. Cuomo filed a civil fraud lawsuit against Kenneth D. Lewis, the former chief executive, and the bank’s former chief financial officer. The suit accuses them of understating the losses of Merrill Lynch to shareholders before the deal was approved; the case is still pending.