The Latest Evildoing in Banksterdom

bankstersBanks running amok. Banks losing billions. Banks busted for fraud that went on for over 20 years. Banks overcharging customers. The hits just keep on coming. One would think, at this point, the business suit would be more a symbol of jailbirds than a uniform of respectability. Yet on and on it goes and with that we overview the latest adventures in Mafia style Banksterdom.

The headlines blare JPMorgan Chase Revives Markets when they announced a $5.8 billion dollar loss on their derivatives trades.

The largest U.S. bank tried to demonstrate Friday that the worst of the problem was in the rear-view mirror, reporting a $4.96 billion profit for the second quarter, down 8.7% from a year ago.

That's almost three times larger than the originally reported $2 billion loss and that loss could climb to $7.5 billion. What does Wall Street do with this news, why reward the bank of course!

Meanwhile new investigations against JPMorgan Chase are popping up with the bank refusing to release emails about manipulating the electricity market.

JPMorgan Chase & Co reasserted attorney-client privilege as the reason it will not hand over emails to U.S. regulators investigating the bank for possible electricity market manipulation, according to court documents filed on Friday.

The investigation by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission follows complaints from grid operators that JPMorgan traders may have bid up electricity prices by some $73 million in California and the Midwest.

Investors reacted positively, pushing up shares of the bank $2.03, or 6%, to $36.07.

While the LIBOR scandal rages out, we have a warning from the Bank of England that the financial and banking sector are a cess pit. Basically other markets need to be investigated for manipulation, fraud and corruption.

It's clearly election season. We now have announcements of criminal charges for LIBOR manipulation. Yet notice below, these potential charges are pressure to settle for yet another slap on the wrist civil fine.

The Justice Department has identified potential criminal wrongdoing by big banks and individuals at the center of the scandal.

The department’s criminal division is building cases against several financial institutions and their employees, including traders at Barclays, the British bank, according to government officials close to the case who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is continuing. The authorities expect to file charges against at least one bank later this year, one of the officials said.

The prospect of criminal cases is expected to rattle the banking world and provide a new impetus for financial institutions to settle with the authorities. The Justice Department investigation comes on top of private investor lawsuits and a sweeping regulatory inquiry led by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Collectively, the civil and criminal actions could cost the banking industry tens of billions of dollars.

This is in the midst of news that Treasury Secretary knew about Barclay's manipulation of the LIBOR. Literally the Bank of England released a memo showing Geithner and the Fed knew about LIBOR manipulation and did nothing:

Bank of England Governor Mervyn King said that then New York Fed President Timothy Geithner's recommendations for improvements to the calculation of the London InterBank Offered Rate, or Libor, "seem sensible," according to a June 3, 2008 email released by the BOE on Friday. The Libor rate is now at the center of an international banking scandal. In his June 1, 2008 memo to King, Geithner proposed six reforms of Libor. The emails show that the BOE passed the recommendations on to the British Bankers Association. In a statement, the BOE said that "no evidence of deliberate wrongdoing had been cited" at the time of the correspondence. Central bankers were responding to concerns about the difficulties in settling Libor in the stressed market conditions of late 2007 and 2008. The New York Fed is expected to release more documents later Friday in response to inquiries from members of Congress about Geithner's and the New York Fed's efforts to address questions about Libor. The New York Fed said the documents will show that the New York Fed took prompt action to highlight problems with Libor and press for reform.

Meanwhile banks get yet another slap on the wrist for extorting billions from businesses under the guise of credit card swipe fees.

Visa Inc., MasterCard Inc. and banks that issue their credit cards have agreed to a $7.25 billion settlement with U.S. retailers in what could be the largest antitrust settlement in U.S. history, according to Reuters. The settlement would resolve a lawsuit over the fixing of credit and debit card fees filed by retailers in 2005, Reuters and other media outlets reported after the settlement papers were filed Friday in a federal court in Brooklyn. A judge must approve the settlement. Reuters said the settlement proposal involves a payment to a class of stores of $6 billion from Visa (US:V), MasterCard (US:MA) and more than a dozen of the country's largest banks who issue the companies' cards. The card companies have also agreed to reduce swipe fees by the equivalent of 10 basis points for eight months for a total consideration to stores valued at about $1.2 billion, Reuters said, citing lawyers for the plaintiffs. An additional $525 million will be paid to stores suing individually, according to Reuters.

Then we have our classic Bankster sociopath cornered after running amok for over 20 years. What is even more disgusting about the fraud Peregrine Financial Group perpetuated on their customers is once again, we have whistle blowers and complaints, ignored by regulators:

Peregrine’s angry customers are asking how futures industry regulators could have missed another potential fraud. The scandal comes just months after MF Global, the defunct futures brokerage firm, lost more than $1 billion in clients’ money.

It now appears that regulators missed the red flags for years.
"The customers are just heartbroken over what happened," said Tom Power, a broker.

In 2004, a Peregrine client sent a letter to the National Futures Association, the firm’s primary regulator, and the C.F.T.C., asking it to intervene to prevent the firm from misusing its customers’ money, according to a person with knowledge of the correspondence and a copy of the letter obtained by The New York Times. Five years later, a tipster wrote to the N.F.A. asking it to review Peregrine’s bank account information for accuracy, according to people briefed on the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation was private. The tip was anonymous, and it is unclear how seriously the N.F.A. took it.

The auditor for Peregrine was a one-person shop run out of the accountant’s home in Glendale Heights, Ill., a Chicago suburb. As part of its investigation, the C.F.T.C. is looking into the role that the individual played, according to a person with knowledge of the case.

After the collapse of MF Global, the C.F.T.C. ordered a review of all futures firms to ensure the safety of customer money. The N.F.A. — where Mr. Wasendorf serves on an advisory committee — gave Peregrine a clean bill of health in January.

Since this guy was cornered, he did a lame ass suicide attempt, seemingly for us to feel sorry for him:

I have committed fraud. For this I feel constant and intense guilt. I am very remorseful that my greatest transgressions have been to my fellow man. Through a scheme of using false bank statements I have been able to embezzle millions of dollars from customer accounts at Peregrine Financial Group, Inc. The forgeries started nearly twenty years ago and have gone undetected until now.

It just never ends!  Seemingly, we routinely have a $1 billion or better scandal du jour at least every month, if not every week. Naked Capitalism pointed to two good video interviews on the history of the Libor as well as the potential for criminal charges, both shown below. Bloomberg interviewed Neil Barofsky who said banks are setting their own rules and regulators are captured by the banks.

 

 

The second find from Naked Capitalism is an interview with Ian Fraser. You must scroll the below video to the 11:45 time marker. He gives a history of England's lack of prosecutions against the financial sector and says literally, England gave the Banksters carte blanche to do as they pleased.

 

 

Finally, Bloomberg Law interviewed Chris Whalen who claims Libor has a history of collusion among banks, although clearly that needs to change. What you can get out of this interview is banks collude on a host of financial transactions, not just Libor and if you think things are above board, whoops, you need a walk up call.

 

 

Meta: 

Comments

It pays to be a big banksta

Apparently the feds can go after someone only after the CFTC repeatedly failed to catch wrongoing over many years, after a fraud has been ongoing, 100s of millions of dollars have been stolen, the key suspect tried to kill himself, AND HE IS NOT POLITICALLY CONNECTED to either party (Corzine and Dimon and other banksters are safe). Corzine still walking free after $1.2 billion went poof and much of it wound up with fellow bankster Dimon at JPMorgan? Really? I guess payoffs to both parties really do pay off.

Every single time these "best and brightest" do a press release, or an interview, or a regulatory filing, or enter into some civil settlement, they are just providing more and more evidence of their criminal conduct for the world to see (I gave up on the feds doing anything real). They can destroy all the documents and emails they want (last time I checked, that just proves obstruction of justice and doesn't destroy anything), the facts are there for all too see. Latest we have collusion with banksters' credit card fees and Wells Fargo entering into discriminatory loan practices, as well as JPMorgan helping launder $ for the Vatican (in addition to the LIBOR criminal collusion, and the white whale, aluminum price manipulation, Jefferson County, Alabam bankruptcy + bribery + fraud, etc., etc. going on for many years now).

Incredibly, I did see a bankster shill on Bloomberg "Rewind" saying Dimon did a great job this year, the white wale derivative losses were not that "bad" (not sure what bad would be, but why ask questions anymore), and Dimon actually deserved a larger bonus! Yes, you heard right, Dimon, head of a bankster criminal organization that settled a bribery case for helping destroy Jefferson County, manipulates aluminum and other commodities, takes part in LIBOR rigging, etc. deserves a bigger bonus. But hey, isn't anything he earns coming from our tax $ and FDIC back up of his losing bets and free money that primary dealers get from the Fed, etc., etc.? So you screw up and you deserve a bigger bonus? Truly epic crony capitalism. And once again, no shame, just more of the "gimme, gimme, gimme, the rest of the US and world be damned." SOCIOPATHIC, truly.

When the Bankers go to Jail

the Bible tells us not to steal
it’s there in black and white
our laws are based upon it too
do not do wrong - do right

but somehow since these laws were writ
we've seen the system fail
but things will change for all the best
when the bankers go to jail

when the bankers go to jail my friends
when the bankers go to jail
we’ll finally see justice done
when the bankers go to jail

when the vampire squid has been deep-fried
in the slime of Bernank’s words
when politicians tell the truth
and not be lying turds

when "austerity" applies to them
and fairness does prevail
we’ll finally see justice done
and the bankers go to jail

when the bankers go to jail ee-hah
when the bankers go to jail
we’ll all be dancing in the streets
when the bankers go to jail

if all was as it ought to be
when any business fails
investors take a haircut
amid their tears and wails

but in our mean kleptocracy
that the MSM does hail
the working class pay all the bills
and no banker goes to jail

when the bankers go to jail dear God
when the bankers go to jail
the haircuts will be number ones
when the bankers go to jail

we’re predators i must admit
it’s human nature too
to seek a better living for
our wives and children too

but animals we’re not you see
it not just fine detail
we keep the law, control ourselves
and the bankers go to jail

yes you bankers go to jail you thieves
all you bankers go to jail
you’ll be some brother’s jail-house bitch
when you bankers go to jail

you may think it’s a silly dream
to think of their demise
they’re oh so very powerful
and every banker lies

but one day soon we’ll overthrow
and have them by the tail
we’ll tar and feather all of them
and send them all to jail

when the bankers go to jail for good
when the bankers go to jail
we’ll hear the bells of freedom ring
when the bankers go to jail

awesome!

I hope it's turned into a song complete with youtube. Surely would go viral, esp. for today's poetry is yesterday's horror show.

"A pocket full of posies; Ashes! Ashes! We all fall down"