Congressional Hearing Goof Pulls Back The Curtain On How Washington Really Works. Why Martin Shkreli was arrested. This story was updated at 7:55 p.m. on Dec. 17 Martin Shkreli may have become infamous for jacking up drug prices, but he was arrested Thursday morning for something more mundane — securities fraud. The grand jury indictment, unsealed in a Brooklyn federal court, paints a disturbing picture and closely tracks an August lawsuit filed against Shkreli by Retrophin, a drug company that Shkreli launched in 2011 but that ousted him last year amid allegations that he defrauded the company. “He essentially used his companies like a Ponzi scheme,” said Robert Capers, the US attorney for the Eastern District of New York, during a press conference on Thursday. “He used Retrophin like a personal piggybank.” Capers also accused Shkreli of using backdated documents and hiding records from investors and outside auditors. Shkreli was released on $5 million bond late Thursday.
“At a press conference, the government suggested that Mr. By November 2010, MSMB held about $700 in assets. Obama Officials Resurrect George W. Bush Deregulation Plan. Puerto Rico's Dance With Default Embraces A Fickle Partner: Wall Street. WASHINGTON -- Puerto Rico may stave off default by making a last-minute payment to creditors on July 1, but the island’s economic future rests on the whims of Wall Street. Gov. Alejandro Garcia Padilla threw investors and market-watchers for a loop Sunday when he deemed Puerto Rico “unable” to pay its debts of more than $70 billion. His comments put a spotlight on the island's troubling relationship with investors who own that debt. “One of the real issues there, and this is going to be the crux of the problem, are not only the [bond] insurers, but also some of the hedge funds that got involved," said Jon Mousseau, executive vice president at Cumberland Advisors, who spoke in Washington on Tuesday during a panel discussion about economic hardships facing Greece and Puerto Rico.
“Most of the hedge funds signed non-disclosure agreements with Puerto Rico so that they can get access to data, and basically bargaining chips in return for loaning them more money," Mousseau said. Here little lady, let me tell you how banking works: Jamie Dimon mansplains to Elizabeth Warren. Prosecuting Wall Street. Two whistleblowers offer a rare window into the root causes of the subprime mortgage meltdown. Eileen Foster, a former senior executive at Countrywide Financial, and Richard Bowen, a former vice president at Citigroup, tell Steve Kroft the companies ignored their repeated warnings about defective, even fraudulent mortgages.
The result, experts say, was a cascading wave of mortgage defaults for which virtually no high-ranking Wall Street executives have been prosecuted. The following is a script of "Prosecuting Wall Street" which aired on Dec. 4, 2011. Steve Kroft is correspondent, James Jacoby, producer. It's been three years since the financial crisis crippled the American economy, and much to the consternation of the general public and the demonstrators on Wall Street, there has not been a single prosecution of a high-ranking Wall Street executive or major financial firm even though fraud and financial misrepresentations played a significant role in the meltdown.
Eileen Foster: Yes. Matt Taibbi on Why Bankers Will Always Stay Out of Jail. HuffPost Live. The $9 Billion Witness: Meet JPMorgan Chase's Worst Nightmare. She tried to stay quiet, she really did. But after eight years of keeping a heavy secret, the day came when Alayne Fleischmann couldn't take it anymore. "It was like watching an old lady get mugged on the street," she says. "I thought, 'I can't sit by any longer.'" Fleischmann is a tall, thin, quick-witted securities lawyer in her late thirties, with long blond hair, pale-blue eyes and an infectious sense of humor that has survived some very tough times. She's had to struggle to find work despite some striking skills and qualifications, a common symptom of a not-so-common condition called being a whistle-blower. Featured News From Fleischmann is the central witness in one of the biggest cases of white-collar crime in American history, possessing secrets that JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon late last year paid $9 billion (not $13 billion as regularly reported – more on that later) to keep the public from hearing.
Thanks to a confidentiality agreement, she's kept her mouth shut since then. Must-see morning clip: Jon Stewart ridicules ex-AIG head for being a cry baby. Because there aren’t enough angering events in the world, Jon Stewart would like to call your attention to former AIG Chairman and CEO Hank Greenberg, who is suing the government because he’s unhappy with the terms of the generous $184.6 billion bail-out AIG received during the financial crisis.
This lawsuit is analogous to, as Stewart put it, receiving CPR and complaining about your savior’s bad breath. In exchange for the bailout, the government gained a 92 percent stake in the flailing company — which Greenberg argues is too much (despite its valuation of only $15 billion, as Stewart discovers). Essentially, “Your legal argument is, ‘Wahhh! It’s not fair!” Said the comedian, who then attempted to explain how finance works: “Your loan terms were worse than the bank’s because you were insolvent. You should know how that works — you’re an insurance company.” To make his point, Stewart then performed a one-man show about how normal people apply for a loan. Jon Stewart Explains The Most Outrageous Corporate Tax Dodge Yet. One percent’s rental nightmare: How Wall Street scheme blew up in its face. I’ve followed the Wall Street rental scheme for some time.
You know the basics by now: Big Money investors decided to buy up all the foreclosed properties their pals at the banks created during the financial crisis, and rent them out to many of the same people who lost their homes. Then, they started selling securities backed by the rental revenue, just like the mortgage-backed securities from the crisis. Profiting off their own failure: It was Wall Street’s perfect plan. There was just one problem: turns out that institutional investors have no idea how to manage rental properties. That has become clear through a series of new statistics from early investors, who regarded themselves as the trailblazers of a hot new asset class. As of May 31, the vacancy rate for the homes in 2014-SFR1 stood at 7.3 percent, a 33 percent increase over the previous month.
Word is getting around in these communities about the pitfalls of renting from Invitation Homes, leading renters to seek other options. The Vampire Squid Strikes Again: The Mega Banks' Most Devious Scam Yet | Politics News. Jamie Dimon's Raise Proves U.S. Regulatory Strategy is a Joke | Matt Taibbi. The Rumored Chase-Madoff Settlement Is Another Bad Joke | Matt Taibbi. Another Batch of Wall Street Villains Freed on Technicality | Matt Taibbi. JPMorgan Settlement Docs Show Every Large Bank in U.S. Committed Mortgage Fraud. JPMorgan's $5 Billion Mortgage Deal Will Not End Its Troubles. WASHINGTON -- WASHINGTON (AP) — The $5.1 billion that JPMorgan Chase has agreed to pay hardly ends its legal troubles over mortgage securities it sold. It's merely a down payment. JPMorgan still faces heavy financial burdens.
The bank has set aside $23 billion to cover legal costs — and it may need it all. In a statement Friday night, JPMorgan called its latest settlement an "important step" toward resolving allegations over mortgage-backed securities it sold. Fannie and Freddie were rescued in a taxpayer bailout in 2008 as they sank under the weight of mortgage losses. Between 2005 and 2007, JPMorgan sold $33 billion in mortgage securities to Fannie and Freddie, according to their regulator.
Fannie and Freddie own or guarantee about half of all U.S. mortgages, worth about $5 trillion. The Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees Fannie and Freddie, announced Friday's settlement with JPMorgan, the largest U.S. bank. Sweet contributed to this report from New York. Also on HuffPost: JPMorgan Reaches $5.1 Billion Mortgage Deal With FHFA. JPMorgan Chase, the country's biggest bank by assets, has reached a $5.1 billion settlement with the Federal Housing Finance Agency over alleged violations related to mortgage securities it sold in the lead up to the financial crash: According to the FHFA's press release on the settlement, JPMorgan will pay $2.74 billion to Freddie Mac and $1.26 billion to Fannie Mae over problematic securities that the bank -- along with Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual -- sold to the two housing giants in the years leading up to the financial crisis.
"This is a significant step as the government and J. P. Morgan Chase move to address outstanding mortgage-related issues,” FHFA Acting Director Edward J. DeMarco said in the release. “Further, I am pleased that a resolution of single family, whole loan representation and warranty claims could be achieved at the same time. This, too, will have a beneficial impact for taxpayers and the housing finance market.” Also on HuffPost: Jamie Dimon: Chase CEO Chastised by Alex Pareene From 'Salon' | Matt Taibbi. Forbes Calls Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein Holier Than Mother Teresa | Matt Taibbi.
Larry Summers and the Secret "End-Game" Memo. March 16, 2003—Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner (left) talks alone with NEC Director Lawrence "Larry" Summers (right) in the West Wing Hall. Photo Credit: By White House (Pete Souza) [CC-BY-2.0 ( via Wikimedia Commons August 23, 2013 | Like this article? Join our email list: Stay up to date with the latest headlines via email. When a little birdie dropped the End Game memo through my window, its content was so explosive, so sick and plain evil, I just couldn't believe it. The Memo confirmed every conspiracy freak's fantasy: that in the late 1990s, the top US Treasury officials secretly conspired with a small cabal of banker big-shots to rip apart financial regulation across the planet.
The Treasury official playing the bankers' secret End Game was Larry Summers. The memo is authentic. To get that confirmation, I would have to fly to Geneva and wangle a meeting with the Secretary General of the World Trade Organization, Pascal Lamy. 16 Firms May Have Gotten Early (Illegal) Market Info. The 2005 Bankruptcy Bill: Knowing a Financial Crisis Was Imminent, Banks Lobbied Government to Pass Laws to Preserve Their Wealth. Our government representatives would like us to believe that the subprime mortgage crisis(2, 3, 4, 5) could not have been predicted.
The truth is, the collapse was expected and authorities were well aware that crimes were being committed. I. Introduction It is said that if you want to find the corrupt, follow the money. This catchphrase, however, cannot be used as a preventative measure; it can only be used in retrospect to punish perpetrators of a crime. In our current centralized economic system, the best way to avoid pitfalls and preserve wealth, improving lifestyle, is to pay close attention to changes in laws and be mindful of their implications.
“Referred to colloquially as the ‘New Bankruptcy Law’, the Act of Congress attempts to, among other things, make it more difficult for some consumers to file bankruptcy under Chapter 7; some of these consumers may instead utilize Chapter 13…. Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention, Consumer Protection Act Signed II. Peter Schiff Was Right 2006 - 2007. Goldman Sachs Announces They’re Blowing Up A Nursing Home And There’s Nothing Anyone Can Do About It. NEW YORK—Executive board members of Goldman Sachs called an afternoon press conference today to announce they will be exploding a local intermediate care facility, adding that “we’re doing it, and there’s basically nothing anyone can do about it.”
“We decided today we really want to blow up a nursing home, so we’re going to do that and, honestly, I can’t think of a single thing that any one of you could possibly do to stop us—in fact, I’d like to see you try,” said company chairman and CEO Lloyd Blankfein, who later added that residents of the Ocean Trail Care Center in Jamaica, Queens “can leave the facility if they want, or stay right there for all we care, but either way that whole damn nursing home is going up in smoke at 6 p.m.” “So, anyway, that’s what’s going on. We’re placing the explosive charges now and, again, you are all completely powerless to stop us.
Have a good day and fuck all of you.” At press time, well, they did it. Billy Tauzin Rides Again, This Time Battling Against Big Pharma (UPDATE) WASHINGTON -- When Billy Tauzin stepped down as the high-profile head of the pharmaceutical lobby in 2010, The New York Times penned his political obituary, highlighting the deal he had made with the White House that helped ease the passage of Obamacare. "The agreement that Mr. Tauzin struck on health care -- capping the drug industry's costs at $80 billion over 10 years and turning a perennial foe into a Democratic ally -- was in some ways a fitting climax to a career of such capers," the Times wrote. But Tauzin, in a tearful farewell address to the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, waxed lyrical about the life-saving work being done by drugmakers and promised that he would keep up the fight he'd been waging on their behalf for more than a decade in Congress and at PhRMA.
"I'm not abandoning this journey, don't ever believe that. I'm just changing lanes in a long, long course," he said. It turned out the Times was half right. Last week, Sen. Also on HuffPost: The Chase and Bank of America Investigations: Real Action, or More of the Same? | Matt Taibbi. 7 Things About Prosecuting Wall Street You Wanted to Know (But Were Too Depressed to Ask) President Obama's Justice Department, under the direction of Attorney General Eric Holder, hasn't indicted a single bank executive for the massive Wall Street crime wave that devastated the economy. The regulatory reform which followed the 2008 crisis wasn't nearly enough, and yet Republicans are trying to weaken even that.
And just this week there were several news stories about bank crime. What do they mean? Why haven't any bankers gone to jail? What's going on in this country? Here are seven things about Wall Street crime and Washington "justice" you might have wanted to know, but were probably too depressed to ask. It's true that there's a shortage of justice where bankers are concerned. 1.
Attorney General Holder recently said the Justice Department can't indict too-big-to-fail banks because it would endanger the nation's, and possible the world's, economy. Criminal indictments against bankers are necessary -- both for the cause of justice, and the safety of our economy. 2. 3. 4. The Daily Show: Still No Accountability For the Big Banks. Goldman Sachs Has 4,000 Separate Corporate Entities and Other Facts About Multinationals You Might Not Want to Know But Probably Should Anyway.
Seeking to follow the oligarchy's money, the London-based Open Data Institute has collected and mapped corporate data, much of it made public for the first time, showing the complex relationships between multinational companies and their global subsidiaries. Stunning visuals on the corporate networks of the six biggest banks in the U.S. - Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo, Citigroup and JP Morgan - show the tangled webs they weave. ODI's Nigel Shadbolt on identifying "the extensive, complex, and sometimes opaque connections which exist amongst global corporations: Understanding their networks will enable governments, businesses and citizens to make better decisions - be they legislative, commercial, ethical or environmental.
The tide has already turned towards openness. Those who do not turn with it will be left behind. " The Daily Show: You Can't Jam Banking Regulation Down a Country's Throat. The Last Mystery of the Financial Crisis | Politics News. Financial Sector Thinks It’s About Ready To Ruin World Again. NEW YORK—Claiming that enough time had surely passed since they last caused a global economic meltdown, top executives from the U.S. financial sector told reporters Monday that they are just about ready to completely destroy the world again.
Representatives from all major banking and investment institutions cited recent increases in consumer spending, rebounding home prices, and a stabilizing unemployment rate as confirmation that the time had once again come to inflict another round of catastrophic financial losses on individuals and businesses worldwide. “It’s been about five or six years since we last crippled every major market on the planet, so it seems like the time is right for us to get back out there and start ruining the lives of billions of people again,” said Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein. “People are beginning to feel at ease spending money and investing in their futures again,” Blankfein continued. Bank of America Lied to Homeowners and Rewarded Foreclosures, Former Employees Say. Thomson Reuters Gives Elite Traders Early Advantage. Citigroup Settles FHFA Lawsuit Accusing It Of Misleading Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac.
The Biggest Price-Fixing Scandal Ever | Politics News. Dan Loeb Simultaneously Solicits, Betrays Pension Funds | Matt Taibbi. Billionaire Dan Loeb Turtles, Flees Investor Conference, After Political Affiliations Exposed | Matt Taibbi. Matt Taibbi Explains JP Morgan Chase’s Crime Spree. Lesson of JPMorgan’s Whale Trade: Nothing Was Learned. Wall Street Whistleblower Gets Reamed. Jamie Dimon Dong-Slaps Inquisitive Analyst in Hilarious Exchange | Matt Taibbi. 'Bailout': Neil Barofsky's Adventures in Groupthink City | Matt Taibbi. Outrageous HSBC Settlement Proves the Drug War is a Joke | 9 Emails Wall Street Hoped You'd Never See. Royal Bank of Scotland Settles Case on Rigging. New Questions Raised Over a Bank of America Settlement. Bill Moyers and Matt Taibbi: Everyone Pays If the Banksters Don't Go to Jail. Doubt Is Cast on Firms Hired to Help Banks. A Bigger Paycheck on Wall Street. Wall Street’s War on the Cities.
The Bailout: By The Actual Numbers. Your Bailout Questions Answered: A Reddit Chat with Paul Kiel. JPMorgan posts record earnings. Grand Theft Wall Street. Fiscal Cliff Deal Sneaks In Wall Street Gifts, NASCAR Perk. Secret and Lies of the Bailout | Politics News. Wall Street Rolling Back Another Key Piece of Financial Reform | Matt Taibbi. The 'I Don't Remember' Files, Part II: Hedge Fund Chief Stevie Cohen |
Frontlines' 'Untouchables' Asks: Why Aren't Any Wall St. Execs in Jail?