Massive Bank and High Profile Resignations Across the World

[Sabrina]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18742140

6 July UK

Serious Fraud Office launches Libor investigation



The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has confirmed that it has formally launched an investigation into the rigging of inter-bank lending rates.


The case could lead to criminal charges being brought against individuals.

Its involvement follows an investigation by US and UK regulators into the manipulation of Libor, which resulted in a record fine for Barclays.

The Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander, said he was "delighted" by the decision.

"As a government, we will make sure the SFO has all the resources it needs to conduct this investigation in full," he said.

"I want the SFO to follow the evidence wherever it goes, to bring prosecutions if they can."

Last week the bank agreed to pay £290m in penalties after its traders tried to rig inter-bank lending rates, sometimes working with staff at other financial institutions.

Regulators are continuing to look into possible rate manipulation at other banks, while the US Department of Justice is carrying out its own criminal investigations.



An SFO spokesperson confirmed that a dedicated case team had now started work, but would not say whom it was investigating.

Its short statement said only: "The SFO Director David Green QC has today decided formally to accept the Libor matter for investigation."

The Libor affair, described by the prime minister as a scandal, has led to the resignation of three of Barclays' most senior executives in a matter of days, including chief executive Bob Diamond.

He appeared before MPs on the Treasury Select Committee this week, when he called the behaviour of those responsible for Libor rigging at the bank "reprehensible".

Regulators in the UK and the US found that Barclays staff had tried to affect rates over a number of years, first for profit and then to reduce concerns about how much it was being affected by the financial crisis.

The SFO is responsible for investigating allegations of serious and complex frauds. It considers whether to prosecute using a number of criteria, including whether it is a matter of public concern, and whether the value of any fraud is more than £1m.

The government agency said a few days ago that it was considering whether a criminal prosecution was appropriate and possible, and said this could take a month.

"Normally when there is such a public outcry, the law enforcement agencies manage to act in a more accelerated pace," said Bradley Simon, a former US federal prosecutor who now defends clients in fraud cases.

He said the SFO would be sensitive to criticism that it had been slow to respond in the past.

"They have to show they are on top of this. There are a lot of angry people out there," he told BBC News.


and


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/9381683/SFO-to-launch-criminal-investigation-into-Libor-scandal.html

[Sabrina]

http://www.eitb.com/en/news/detail/918439/bankia-fraud-case--court-opens-case-former-bankia-executives/

Spain

Spanish Court Opens Fraud Case Against Former Executives of Bankia

The lawsuit was brought by one of Spain's smaller political parties and accuses 33 officials, including former chairman Rodrigo Rato, of fraud, price-fixing and falsifying accounts.

A Spanish court opened a fraud case against former executives of lender Bankia on Wednesday amid mounting public anger against the state-rescued bank.

The lawsuit was brought by one of Spain's smaller political parties and accuses 33 officials, including former chairman Rodrigo Rato, of fraud, price-fixing and falsifying accounts.

The High Court demands that Rato and the other executives appear in person, and that former Bank of Spain governor Miguel Angel Fernandez Ordoñez appears as a witness.

The government took over Bankia in May after it became clear the bank could not cope with losses stemming from indiscriminate lending during a property boom which crashed four years ago. The bailout forced Spain to seek a European rescue package.

Bankia holds more than 10 percent of Spanish deposits and is the biggest bank likely to receive a capital injection when the European bailout funds materialise later this year. Under new management, the bank has requested a 19-billion-euro ($24 billion) bailout.

Bankia's rescue, and the subsequent heavy losses for thousands of retail investors who took part in a stock market flotation of the bank last year, has angered Spaniards who are suffering from swingeing government spending cuts.
Protestors have staged street demonstrations in their thousands, banging pots and pans and blowing whistles outside bank branches.

Small-scale investors vented their fury at Bankia's new head Jose Ignacio Goirigolzarri at a shareholder meeting last week.

[turiya]

Regardless of what's been posted... The Bottome Line is:

http://curezone.com/upload/Members/Newport/Wall_Street_Cartoon.jpg

[Sabrina]

Softly softly catchee monkey Turiya - there's a process going on to get to this IMO - as in above stories.... got to get the veil to really fall from the public's eyes on the lack of credibility of the financial world to make it really interesting...

[Alie]

========> Credible Video about LIBOR with Matt Taibibi of Rolling Stone on Viewpoint with Eliot Spitzer

It's over for the banking cabal. 4.jul.2012

0oV2mI0IYp8


FYI: I found the following info on Facebook Global Voice 2012

Here are the 17 banks that form the committee to set LIBOR Bank of America

Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd
Barclays Bank plc
BNP Paribas
Citibank NA
Credit Agricole CIB
Credit Suisse
Deutsche Bank AG
HSBC
JP Morgan Chase
Lloyds Banking Group
Rabobank
Royal Bank of Canada
Société Générale
Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation Europe Ltd (SMBCE)
The Norinchukin Bank
The Royal Bank of Scotland Group
UBS AG

It is important to note that of these 17 banks that colluded to set phoney LIBOR rates, 9 of these banks are "Authorized Participants" colluding to rig the gold and silver markets in the phoney Gold and Silver ETF's (GLD & SLV).

Barclays Capital Inc
Citigroup Global Markets Inc.
Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC
Deutsche Bank AG
HSBC
JP Morgan Securities Inc.
Merrill Lynch (Bank of America)
RBC Capital Markets, LLC,
UBS Securities LLC

[foreverfan]

========> Credible Video about LIBOR with Matt Taibibi of Rolling Stone on Viewpoint with Eliot Spitzer

It's over for the banking cabal. 4.jul.2012

0oV2mI0IYp8


FYI: I found the following info on Facebook Global Voice 2012

Here are the 17 banks that form the committee to set LIBOR Bank of America

Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd
Barclays Bank plc
BNP Paribas
Citibank NA
Credit Agricole CIB
Credit Suisse
Deutsche Bank AG
HSBC
JP Morgan Chase
Lloyds Banking Group
Rabobank
Royal Bank of Canada
Société Générale
Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation Europe Ltd (SMBCE)
The Norinchukin Bank
The Royal Bank of Scotland Group
UBS AG

It is important to note that of these 17 banks that colluded to set phoney LIBOR rates, 9 of these banks are "Authorized Participants" colluding to rig the gold and silver markets in the phoney Gold and Silver ETF's (GLD & SLV).

Barclays Capital Inc
Citigroup Global Markets Inc.
Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC
Deutsche Bank AG
HSBC
JP Morgan Securities Inc.
Merrill Lynch (Bank of America)
RBC Capital Markets, LLC,
UBS Securities LLC

No chit huh? GTFOOH. WOW... Was that RT? That couldn't have been on cable. WTF? Play it again Sam.

http://ruthdobsontorres.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/play-it-again-sam1.jpg

[Alie]

From Forbes Online ...

It's Not Libor Stupid, Central Banks Are The Problem

http://www.forbes.com/sites/shahgilani/2012/07/06/its-not-libor-stupid-central-banks-are-the-problem/



"The Libor scandal is about to get a whole lot worse. And, that’s the good news.

Not only are at least twenty more big banks under investigation as part of a massive fraud to manipulate interbank lending rates that affect some $800 trillion in loans and derivatives, but the Bank of England is about to take center stage in the scandal.

And that’s bad news for central banks around the world.

Well, actually, it could be good news, as in really good news if it’s the beginning of the end of what central banks do to manipulate free markets to the benefit of their only real constituents, the world’s big banks."

More at link ...

[Sabrina]

Well use discernment as you would with any other story obviously, and we've seen this info. via Drake already, but interesting to know how far this gets out the other side of the pond from me to the none 'conspiracy nut cases' unlike ourselves and what the reaction is :) and what happens when the power of intent comes into play?



full article is at the link, snippet here:
http://americannationalmilitia.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/146-THE-PENTAGON-WANTS.....pdf

The Pentagon wants this information to go viral


Background information
Many have already heard of the abnormally large number of arrests and resignations of officials in banking, money funds, investment houses, insurance companies, and governments throughout the world that have taken place since September 2011.

What Americans have not known is that a huge operation is about to take place in the United States. In order to comprehend why we have heard nothing of this event, we must understand that the major newspaper and television media is very tightly controlled by the dark cabal or Illuminati. It is the Illuminati who intend to establish the New World Order by killing off huge segments of the planet’s population and enslaving the rest.

These are the persons who will be arrested and removed to a location where they can perpetuate no more harm, and for their protection before being brought to trial

Before you stop reading and refuse to take 3 hours of your time to listen to the audio listed below, you need to consider: Do I want to know what is about to happen? Do I as a parent, minister, news reporter, teacher, or citizen want to remain ignorant of what is ready to take place that will impact every phase of my life and that of my family and community?
Much preparation is and has taken place behind the scenes to prepare for the forthcoming mass arrests of top officials of corporations and government.

As you will hear on the audio, the Pentagon had already drawn up The Plan for such an event by around 1979. The legal preparation is in place. Extremely detailed planning has the goal of disrupting the general public and the activities that make up our lives as little as possible. However there will be a few days—hopefully not weeks—in which services may be disrupted.


During the actual mass arrests, a period of up to 72 hours (3 days) will involve the closing of our borders and the shutting off of satellites. This will be required to prevent escape of those to be arrested.

This is the period for which we need to be prepared. We will be given 24 hours notice in advance.
In order to prepare the American people, the Pentagon recently asked a former Vietnam veteran who has been involved in the legal preparations to go on the radio and internet and explain what is about to happen. This veteran is going by the name of ‘Drake’.


(for Drake lovers or detractors, their website for him is incorrect and it's now: http://americannationalmilitia.com/ )


and another interesting one: info. sent to the Hague

http://americannationalmilitia.com/2012/07/notice-to-the-world-was-delivered-to-the-office-of-private-international-law-at-the-hague/

[Sabrina]

via Huffington Post 6 July

Barclays Criminal Probe Begins, Experts Speculate Other Banks Involved In Libor Manipulation

As the Libor manipulation scandal at British banking giant Barclays continues to escalate with the launch of a criminal probe, U.S. traders, former regulators and finance executives say other firms likely engaged in such behavior -- and that inquiries could even lead to jail time.

On Friday, U.K. regulators announced that Britain's Serious Fraud Office is launching a criminal investigation into bank manipulation of the key global interest rate known as Libor.

The announcement comes on the heels of Barclays' agreeing in late June to pay $450 million, admitting misconduct in connection with U.S. and U.K. regulators' charges that it had manipulated Libor to its own benefit. Since then the spotlight has been cast on a dozen other banks, with other firms including Bank of America, Citigroup and UBS under scrutiny, as Bloomberg has reported.

Faced with angry questions during a parliamentary inquiry in London on Tuesday, Barclays CEO Robert Diamond added fuel to the speculation that attempts at Libor manipulation were not limited to his institution, suggesting during his testimony that other banks were also involved in similar behavior. Diamond stepped down earlier this week.

A spokesman for Barclays declined to comment for this story.

The criminal probe raises the prospect of jail time for those responsible, said Michael Greenberger, professor at the University of Maryland School of Law and former director of the division of trading and markets at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. "This is not just a civil problem," said Greenberger. "Manipulation ... can mean time spent in jail for those who do it."

And finance industry insiders are betting that Barclays was not the only bank involved in Libor manipulation.

"I don't believe Barclays was the only bank doing it," said Kamal Mustafa, a former Citigroup executive and CEO of Invictus Group. Mustafa added that if Barclays had been the only firm involved, "it would stand out like a sore thumb."

Peter Tchir, founder of TF Market Advisors, a trading strategy platform, agreed. "I assume you’ll find similar activities took place at other banks," he said, adding that he wouldn't recommend buying bank stocks in the short term. "It's become quite clear they're incentivized to make as much money for themselves as possible."

Despite the scandal, some say that it is unlikely traders will sour on the banking sector. "This is going to make me more cautious about investing in banks until this plays out," said Tchir, adding, though, that he thinks the industry will emerge relatively unscathed. "The banks were already not the most popular industry out there," said Dan Alpert, founding managing partner of real estate-focused investment bank Westwood Capital. "So those who were inclined to be cynical have already reflected it in their investing."

But Alpert is skeptical that bank executives will face prison because of the scandal. "There's no question that market manipulation is a very, very serious crime, and it's something we've thrown people into jail for," he said. But "I don't think anyone's going to jail," he added. If they do, "it won't be for a long time."


Well they say we're being softened up for ET disclosure... perhaps we're being softened up for banksters going to jail as well... :)

[Sabrina]

http://www.businessinsider.com/its-starting-to-look-like-romney-has-a-dirty-tax-secret-2012-7

6 July

It's Starting To Look Like Romney Has A Dirty Tax Secret

Mitt Romney has so far released only one year of tax returns (2010), plus an estimate for 2011. This stands in stark contrast to his father, Michigan Governor George Romney, who released 12 years of tax returns when he began running for President in 1967. As his father said at the time, "One year could be a fluke." So the questions remain about what is in Romney's older returns.

Two stories this week and last have ratcheted up the pressure. One is a recent web exclusive for "The Last Word with Laurence O'Donnell" where David Cay Johnston has five questions for Romney that can only be answered with his tax returns. The other is a blockbuster story by Nicholas Shaxson (h/t TPM) in the new Vanity Fair on the shadowy world of Romney's tax havens. Together, they put a laser-like focus on the finances of the man who could become our 45th President.

Johnston is a well-known former New York Times reporter, Pulitzer Prize winner, and the author of the major books Perfectly Legal and Free Lunch. If you don't have time to watch his 3:45 video, here are the five questions:

"1. Did you buy any illegal or gray area tax shelters?
"2. Did an IRS audit ever uncover serious problems with any of your tax returns?
"3. Did you make use of offshore vehicles to defer, or avoid paying, federal income taxes?
"4. Did you take advantage of any tax strategies that the IRS did not uncover in audits?
"5. Did you fully tithe to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints every year and take a deduction on your tax return that shows that?"

These are important questions. We know that Governor Romney has had a Swiss bank account, as well as money in other tax havens like the Cayman Islands, Luxembourg, Bermuda, and Ireland. Romney's answer to any question about his taxes has basically been, "Trust me." But the guy's running for President, for Pete's sake. He owes us more than that.

full story at link

[Sabrina]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/exclusive-barclays-insider-lifts-lid-on-banks-toxic-culture-7920809.html

7 July UK

Exclusive: Barclays insider lifts lid on bank's toxic culture

Whistleblower: bosses ‘would have known’ what the traders were doing


A former senior Barclays employee today exposes the “culture of fear” that operated at the bank and claims Bob Diamond would have been aware of his traders' activities.

Speaking exclusively to The Independent, the banker alleges that senior executives would have known of Libor fiddling in 2008.

The Serious Fraud Office announced yesterday that it had launched a criminal inquiry into interest rate fixing amid increasing clamour for rogue bankers to be prosecuted.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the banker says that senior Barclays bosses would have been told about Libor concerns because staff were drilled to pass anything untoward up to their managers. Failure to do this meant the sack.

"Libor fixing was escalated by several people up to their directors, they would then have escalated it up the line because at Barclays if you don't escalate, and it is found out that you haven't, it is grounds for disciplinary action. You will be dismissed."

The banker also describes the dark side of working for Mr Diamond's bank. He spoke of management by intimidation, even physical threat, punishing hours and a ruthless grading system that left workers in terror of their annual appraisals. Employees were often reduced to tears by the end of a day, but only when they had departed from the building. Such weakness would not be tolerated inside.

The SFO gave no details about who would be the subject of its investigations. It said: "The SFO director, David Green QC, has today decided formally to accept the Libor matter for investigation."

Danny Alexander, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, said he was "delighted" by the decision, which helped to strangle a muted recovery in the bank's shares over the past couple of days. Barclays finished down at 164.75p.

Investigations into other banks are continuing on both sides of the Atlantic. Misreporting of Libor figures is thought to have been common practice in the run-up to the financial crisis. Mr Diamond has claimed the scandal engulfing Barclays could put other banks off alerting regulators about such issues in future. He has argued that Barclays has been punished for being a "first mover".

Mr Diamond has always denied prior knowledge of Libor fixing and told MPs on Wednesday he was only made aware of it last month.

Connections between Mr Diamond and Barclays are understood to have been severed. "He's history," said a source. The scandal led to heated exchanges in the Commons between the Chancellor, George Osborne, and shadow Chancellor, Ed Balls. A parliamentary inquiry into the affair, as opposed to a judge-led public enquiry advocated by Labour, was agreed on Thursday.

Lord Ashcroft, a Tory peer, raised the temperature ahead of Monday's appearance before MPs of Paul Tucker, deputy governor of the Bank England. A note of a conversation between Mr Tucker and Mr Diamond, published by Barclays last week, appeared to suggest that senior government officials were endorsing Libor fixing.

Writing on the Conservative Home website, Lord Ashcroft criticised the Tory approach of "trying to establish shady motives on the part of Labour for demanding one type of inquiry rather than another; speculating about the role of former Labour ministers; and wondering what sort of 'senior figures' a Bank of England official was referring to in a conversation with the Barclays chief executive four years ago". He added: "The Libor scandal happened on Labour's watch, but voters have already passed judgement on Labour's time in office."

Mr Tucker is expected to face a grilling from MPs who will want to know exactly who the officials he talked to Mr Diamond about were.

Mr Diamond said he viewed the memo as a warning that the Barclays Libor submissions, which were higher than those of other banks, were worrying government officials.

Last night, a Barclays spokesman pointed out that Rich Ricci, head of the investment banking division, conducted the investigation into the Libor issue and reported to the board. Mr Diamond could not be contacted in time for publication.

Ricci’s tears: Banker who broke down

Rich Ricci, the man with the most notorious name in banking, has feelings, too. The Barclays’ investment banking boss reportedly wept as he tried to reassure staff the bank would be able to pull through the outrage after the Libor rate-rigging scandal.

[Sabrina]

arrests that matter:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/9381305/Chinese-police-eliminate-child-trafficking-gangs.html

Chinese police 'eliminate child trafficking gangs’

Police in China say they have “eliminated” two major child trafficking gangs, freeing 181 children and making 802 arrests.

In a statement released on Friday, security officials said 10,000 police operatives took part in a series of raids on addresses spread across 15 provinces.

One of the operations was launched after the high number of pregnant women visiting a health clinic in Hebei province aroused suspicions.

Police claimed the clinic was being used to arrange the sale of babies, a widespread practice in China partly as a result of rural poverty and the one-child policy.

Among those arrested was Guo Yanfang, a trained gynaecologist who ran a private clinic in Xingtai, Hebei province.

full story at link

[Sabrina]

arrest that shouldn't happen of a founder of 'The Lawful Bank': UK

http://www.thebcgroup.org.uk/blog/roger-hayes-arrested-tried-secret-court-imprisoned

Roger Hayes Arrested, Tried In Secret Court, Imprisoned

BLOG | JULY 2, 2012 - 9:38PM
At 0930 this morning, in scenes reminiscent of Stasi East Germany, 2 police cars and 4 policemen from Merseyside Police arrested British Constitution Group Chairman Roger Hayes at his Wirral home and drove away.

The first his family heard of him was at 18:30 this evening via a telephone call from a Warder in Liverpool prison, to say that Roger had been tried and sentenced to prison.

At no time were the family or any other members of the public informed of his arrest, and it is understood that he was tried in a secret court without a Jury.

Denied the right to argue his case, denied the right to a Jury, denied the right for the public to see justice being done, Roger was imprisoned in the secretive gulag system that Britain has become in 2012.

Roger's "crime" is that he has been refusing to pay his Council tax, because along with other state taxes, a proportion of the tax revenue gathered is being sent to the European Union, used to fund unlawful wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Syria, and promote terrorism right around the world. To pay tax under these circumstances is, at the very least, unlawful under Section 15(3) of the Terrorism Act 2000.

As such the present government of UK in Westminster is complicit to terrorist action and war crimes and therefore the payment of taxes to an unlawful, criminal regime is itself a criminal act - one in which Roger refused to participate.

The state has never forgiven him for the arrest of Judge Peake at Birkenhead court as part of this campaign.

In addition to his stance on taxes for unlawful purposes, Roger has also been campaigning for the Lawful Bank - a monetary initiative in which money can be issued to the public as credit, rather than as crippling debt under the existing corrupt and fraudulent International Monetary System.

As Chairman of the British Constitution Group, Roger Hayes has been an outspoken public speaker warning the British public that their rights and freedoms under Common Law and the Constitution are being stripped away and replaced by a dictatorship of secret courts operating under Administrative and Statute Law.

There is no doubt that his success in alerting ever more people to the dangers of the British / EU dictatorship being built by a criminal element now masquerading as British politicians, has caused the state to imprison Roger. His challenge to the fraudulent banking system, as evidenced by the criminal acts of Barclays bank and todays resignation by arch Bilderberger and BBC advisor Marcus Agius, will also have made Roger enemies within Britain's wide criminal banking cabal.

Roger's family is shocked both at his arrest, and at the realisation that Britain is now sliding into a police state, where husbands, fathers and other good people can be lifted off the streets and imprisoned. There is now no doubt that Britain is further under the control of domestic terrorists in Westminster.

We ask that all those who value their freedoms and liberty call Meryside Police for further information and an explanation of their actions, and also call Liverpool prison to establish Roger's physical safety and well-being.

Merseyside Police Tel: 101 local or +44 (0)151 709 6010 in UK.

Liverpool Prison Tel: +44 (0)151 530 4000

Crimestoppers (UK only) Tel: 0800 555 111


Roger Hayes' site here - he's being staging talks across the UK recently.

http://lawfulbank.com/

more here:

http://americankabuki.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/uk-lawful-bank-founder-roger-hayes.html


YTVK3byiJcA

[Sabrina]

Some good links here on the range of major events actually going on at the moment - this is key stuff IMO.... (and no he is not a Drake or Cobra fan, and he's looked worldwide :) )....

http://lightworkersxm.wordpress.com/2012/07/06/mass-arrests-6th-july-some-more-stuff-for-you-to-chew-on-and-some-on-saying-drake-and-cobra-are-pschyops-guys-and-not-on-our-side-will-not-give-name-so-brush-him-under-the-carpet/




Quite a chunck of stuff still going on

Pick the bones out of these Vatican get police check < Queen lizzie up for more charges > Argentina dictators nicked for running off with kids and most surprisingly many banksters jailed globally for being crooks, i had no idea they were crooked... enjoy Dave

Romanian Leader Impeached -
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-18704048 Mexico demands recount -
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-18698641 ACTA killed in Euro Parliament -
https://torrentfreak.com/acta-is-dead-after-european-parliament-vote-120704/ Ex-France Telecom chief Lombard probed over suicides -
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-18717025 Blackout looming: Thousands to lose Internet access as FBI shuts down servers -
http://www.rt.com/news/fbi-internet-dnschanger-shutdown-440/ Former IMF chief Rodrigo Rato faces court probe -
http://business-standard.com/india/news/newsmaker-former-imf-
chief-rodrigo-rato-faces-court-probe/177473/on Fraud trial for Rodrigo Rato over Bankia collapse -
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/9376938/Fraud-trial-for-
Rodrigo-Rato-over-Bankia-collapse.html Spanish royal family embroiled in corruption scandal - http://goo.gl/yHWJW
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/spain/8943747/Spanish-royal-
family-embroiled-in-corruption-scandal.html Major banks say they are ready to go under -
http://rt.com/business/news/banks-crisis-failure-plans-381/ Swiss bankers drop holiday plans on fear of arrest -
http://www.silverdoctors.com/australia-and-china-strike-another-nail-
into-the-us-dollar-for-independence-day/ U.S. Banks Greatly Benefiting Off Colombian Cocaine Trade - http://goo.gl/bS5xV
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/03/colombian-cocaine-trade-western-
banks_n_1646684.html?1341336738 Colombia To Legalize Marijuana And Cocaine -
http://www.disinfo.com/2012/07/colmbia-to-legalize-marijuana-and-cocaine/ GlaxoSmithKline Forced to Pay $3 Billion Over Faking Research, Bribing Doctors -
http://naturalsociety.com/glaxosmithkline-forced-to-pay-3-billion-over-faking-research/ Lawsuit Filed Against Convicted Felon George Soros & Donald Trump -
http://politicalvelcraft.org/2012/06/29/breaking-convicted-felon-george-soros-
donald-trump-colluded-in-multi-billion-money-launderingbankruptcy-fraud-scheme/ French police raid home of former president Nicolas Sarkozy -
http://www.rt.com/news/police-raid-sarkozy-home-324/ A Former Wall Street Trader May Have Swallowed A Deadly Pill In Court Before
Dying Minutes Later -
http://www.businessinsider.com/michael-marin-swallows-pill-
in-court-2012-6#ixzz1zlqUywy1
Irish Politicians Demand Their Finance Minister Be Arrested For Attending
2012 Criminal Bilderberg Meeting -
http://www.freedumbnation.com/?p=2835 Disgraced British Banker Says U.S. Regulators Complicit in Massive Price-Fixing
Scandal - http://goo.gl/N6bwc
http://news.coffeepartyusa.com/p/2106643835/disgraced-british-
banker-says-u-s-regulators-complicit-in-massive-price-fixing-scandal Detective Probes Obama SSN Mystery Đ Files Suit In Ohio -
http://www.westernjournalism.com/forgerygate-detective-probes-obama-ssn-
mystery-files-suit-in-ohio/

Fukushima nuclear disaster was 'man-made' says damning new report - http://goo.gl/YOdF7
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2169061/Fukushima-nuclear-disaster-
man-says-damning-new-report.html#ixzz1zmmqgWBy Italian Financial Police Searches the Vatican It 's the
first time in history - http://goo.gl/ehZms
http://soundofheart.org/galacticfreepress/content/breaking-news-italian-financial-
police-searches-vatican-it-s-first-time-history-almost-touch Bob Diamond says banks across the world were fixing interest rates in the run-up
to the financial crisis -
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/bob-diamond-says-banks-across-the-
world-were-fixing-interest-rates-in-the-runup-to-the-financial-crisis-7912148.html HOMELAND SECURITY-FUNDED STUDY LISTS PEOPLE ÔREVERENT OF INDIVIDUAL LIBERTYŐ
AS ÔEXTREME RIGHT-WINGŐ TERRORISTS -
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/homeland-security-funded-study-lists-people-
reverent-of-individual-liberty-as-extreme-right-wing-terrorists/ NHP Troopers Sue Department Over K-9 Program - http://goo.gl/bSH9t
http://www.8newsnow.com/story/18886948/2012/06/26/nhp-troopers-sue-department-
over-k-9-program Three central banks take action in sign of alarm -
idUSBRE8640RN20120705 Soros Propaganda Supporting UN Global Gun Control Hits Mainstream -
http://beforeitsnews.com/story/2349/736/Soros_Propaganda_Supporting_
UN_Global_Gun_Control_Hits_Mainstream.html WikiLeaks releases Syria Files, almost 2.5 mln emails to be published -
https://rt.com/news/wikileaks-syria-files-revealed-478/ Unprecedented: Class Action Lawsuit against Church, State and Big Pharma given Green Light -
http://www.activistpost.com/2012/07/unprecedented-class-action-lawsuit.html#more Minister of Social Development of Kyrgyzstan will be interrogated by Security Services
http://www.kabar.kg/eng/society/full/4662 Countrywide issued hundreds of VIP loans to buy influence, report says -
http://money.cnn.com/2012/07/05/real_estate/countrywide-mortgage/index.htm?iid=Lead Australia and China Strike Another Nail into the US Dollar for Independence Day -
http://www.silverdoctors.com/australia-and-china-strike-another-nail-into-the-us-
dollar-for-independence-day/
Third whistle blower confirms ObamaŐs participation in CIA jump room
program of early 1980Ős - http://goo.gl/0AGvY
http://exopolitics.blogs.com/exopolitics/2012/07/third-whistle-blower-confirms-
obamas-participation-in-cia-jump-room-program-of-early-1980s.html Big pharma is cut out by India's plan to bring medicine to masses - http://goo.gl/JUoQn
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/big-
pharma-is-cut-out-by-indias-plan-to-bring-medicine-to-masses-7917944.html Benjamin Netanyahu involved in smuggling nuclear triggers -
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/07/05/249440/israeli-pm-involved-in-nuclear-smuggling/
2 ex-Argentine dictators convicted in baby thefts -
http://news.yahoo.com/2-ex-argentine-dictators-convicted-baby-thefts-225851059.html

Libor Banking Scandal Đ Let the Mass Arrests Begin! -
http://lightworker29501.com/2012/07/05/libor-banking-scandal-let-the-mass-arrests-begin/
Banks' Living Wills -
http://www.federalreserve.gov/bankinforeg/resolution-plans.htm IRS hit with audit for mismanagement and fraud -
http://www.wthr.com/story/18936653/irs-hit-with-audit-for-mismanagement-and-fraud Oldies but goodies ------------------ Arrests made in Italy after discovery of $6 trillion in fake U.S. bonds -
http://edition.cnn.com/2012/02/17/world/europe/italy-counterfeit-bonds/index.html?hpt=hp_t3 UK queen accused of drug trafficking -
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/233402.html
Tony Blair Branded 'War Criminal' in Court; Pelted With Eggs While Leaving -
http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/scarce/former-british-pm-branded-war-criminal-cour
Former Liberian President, 64, will serve his prison time in a British jail - http://goo.gl/fEvua
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2152097/Charles-Taylor-Liberian-
President-sentenced-50-years.html#ixzz1znsGNEUz Abacus Federal Savings Bank Charged With Mortgage Fraud Worth Hundreds Of Millions -
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/31/abacus-bank-mortgage-fraud_n_1559460.html
Then there is this guy ,,very interesting stuff but i cannot corroborate this
http://formerwhitehat.wordpress.com/2012/07/02/a-close-one-the-cia-hooker-trail-the-truth-about-drake-and-the-mongoose-calvary/#comment-23014

[Bryn ap Gwilym]

arrest that shouldn't happen of a founder of 'The Lawful Bank': UK

http://www.thebcgroup.org.uk/blog/roger-hayes-arrested-tried-secret-court-imprisoned

Roger Hayes Arrested, Tried In Secret Court, Imprisoned

BLOG | JULY 2, 2012 - 9:38PM
At 0930 this morning, in scenes reminiscent of Stasi East Germany, 2 police cars and 4 policemen from Merseyside Police arrested British Constitution Group Chairman Roger Hayes at his Wirral home and drove away.

The first his family heard of him was at 18:30 this evening via a telephone call from a Warder in Liverpool prison, to say that Roger had been tried and sentenced to prison.

At no time were the family or any other members of the public informed of his arrest, and it is understood that he was tried in a secret court without a Jury.

Denied the right to argue his case, denied the right to a Jury, denied the right for the public to see justice being done, Roger was imprisoned in the secretive gulag system that Britain has become in 2012.

Roger's "crime" is that he has been refusing to pay his Council tax, because along with other state taxes, a proportion of the tax revenue gathered is being sent to the European Union, used to fund unlawful wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Syria, and promote terrorism right around the world. To pay tax under these circumstances is, at the very least, unlawful under Section 15(3) of the Terrorism Act 2000.

As such the present government of UK in Westminster is complicit to terrorist action and war crimes and therefore the payment of taxes to an unlawful, criminal regime is itself a criminal act - one in which Roger refused to participate.

The state has never forgiven him for the arrest of Judge Peake at Birkenhead court as part of this campaign.

In addition to his stance on taxes for unlawful purposes, Roger has also been campaigning for the Lawful Bank - a monetary initiative in which money can be issued to the public as credit, rather than as crippling debt under the existing corrupt and fraudulent International Monetary System.

As Chairman of the British Constitution Group, Roger Hayes has been an outspoken public speaker warning the British public that their rights and freedoms under Common Law and the Constitution are being stripped away and replaced by a dictatorship of secret courts operating under Administrative and Statute Law.

There is no doubt that his success in alerting ever more people to the dangers of the British / EU dictatorship being built by a criminal element now masquerading as British politicians, has caused the state to imprison Roger. His challenge to the fraudulent banking system, as evidenced by the criminal acts of Barclays bank and todays resignation by arch Bilderberger and BBC advisor Marcus Agius, will also have made Roger enemies within Britain's wide criminal banking cabal.

Roger's family is shocked both at his arrest, and at the realisation that Britain is now sliding into a police state, where husbands, fathers and other good people can be lifted off the streets and imprisoned. There is now no doubt that Britain is further under the control of domestic terrorists in Westminster.

We ask that all those who value their freedoms and liberty call Meryside Police for further information and an explanation of their actions, and also call Liverpool prison to establish Roger's physical safety and well-being.

Merseyside Police Tel: 101 local or +44 (0)151 709 6010 in UK.

Liverpool Prison Tel: +44 (0)151 530 4000

Crimestoppers (UK only) Tel: 0800 555 111


Roger Hayes' site here - he's being staging talks across the UK recently.

http://lawfulbank.com/

more here:

http://americankabuki.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/uk-lawful-bank-founder-roger-hayes.html


YTVK3byiJcA

Hi..


The same happend to me 3 times between 1990/91 over the poll tax. When I informed various organistions about this they screamed & still scream conspiracy theories. Ironic that 21/22 years later these same people are being arrested themselves.

The moral of the story is. If folk had done something 21/22 years ago when this was pointed out, then in theory we wouldn't be in the cach now. The writing was on the walls & no one choice to listen.


“The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it.”
- Albert Einstein

[gripreaper]

Are things really that bad that our leaders cannot agree on what to do about the situation?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3DHKni1mu8&feature=player_embedded

[Robert J. Niewiadomski]

Are things really that bad that our leaders cannot agree on what to do about the situation?

Link to YouTube video of fighting MP's (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3DHKni1mu8&feature=player_embedded)


These are children not grown ups and should be expelled immediately from their posts every time they engage themselves in melee fights (or worse)...

[Sabrina]

http://sherriequestioningall.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/deutsche-postbank-ag-atms-not-working.html


Deutsche Postbank AG ATMS not working in Germany? Banks in Europe shutting down due to glitches or are they Bank Holidays?
I got word from a financial expert that the Deutsche Post Bank ATMs in Germany are not working this weekend.

I have not been able to confirm this from another source as of yet.

Considering that RBS is saying their glitches won't be fixed until July 31st and now Russia's largest bank Sberbank is stopping all credit and debit card transactions. Then there is BNI who are saying they will not reopen until July 31st. Something big is happening with the banks shutting down.



(believe it's now working, but intriguing the amount of ATM and banking glitches going on at the moment. S.)

[Sabrina]

http://news.yahoo.com/greek-opposition-leader-says-government-wont-last-191952366--finance.html

ATHENS, Greece (AP) —

Greek opposition leader says government won't last

The leader of Greece's main opposition party has accused the country's three-party coalition government of wanting to sell Greece's resources and public companies on the cheap.


Alexis Tsipras, head of the Coalition of the Radical Left party, known as Syriza, told Parliament Saturday he was especially warning those who want to "grab state property on the cheap." He warned would-be buyers of state property that they might lose all their money and face criminal proceedings.

Tsipras proposes a moratorium on the payment of Greece's debt until the country, mired in a deep recession, returns to growth. He predicts his party will soon come to power because the coalition government will fail.

The newly-elected Parliament will stage a vote of confidence on the government at midnight on Sunday.

[penn]

arrest that shouldn't happen of a founder of 'The Lawful Bank': UK

http://www.thebcgroup.org.uk/blog/roger-hayes-arrested-tried-secret-court-imprisoned

Roger Hayes Arrested, Tried In Secret Court, Imprisoned

BLOG | JULY 2, 2012 - 9:38PM
At 0930 this morning, in scenes reminiscent of Stasi East Germany, 2 police cars and 4 policemen from Merseyside Police arrested British Constitution Group Chairman Roger Hayes at his Wirral home and drove away.

The first his family heard of him was at 18:30 this evening via a telephone call from a Warder in Liverpool prison, to say that Roger had been tried and sentenced to prison.

At no time were the family or any other members of the public informed of his arrest, and it is understood that he was tried in a secret court without a Jury.

Denied the right to argue his case, denied the right to a Jury, denied the right for the public to see justice being done, Roger was imprisoned in the secretive gulag system that Britain has become in 2012.

Roger's "crime" is that he has been refusing to pay his Council tax, because along with other state taxes, a proportion of the tax revenue gathered is being sent to the European Union, used to fund unlawful wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Syria, and promote terrorism right around the world. To pay tax under these circumstances is, at the very least, unlawful under Section 15(3) of the Terrorism Act 2000.

As such the present government of UK in Westminster is complicit to terrorist action and war crimes and therefore the payment of taxes to an unlawful, criminal regime is itself a criminal act - one in which Roger refused to participate.

The state has never forgiven him for the arrest of Judge Peake at Birkenhead court as part of this campaign.

In addition to his stance on taxes for unlawful purposes, Roger has also been campaigning for the Lawful Bank - a monetary initiative in which money can be issued to the public as credit, rather than as crippling debt under the existing corrupt and fraudulent International Monetary System.

As Chairman of the British Constitution Group, Roger Hayes has been an outspoken public speaker warning the British public that their rights and freedoms under Common Law and the Constitution are being stripped away and replaced by a dictatorship of secret courts operating under Administrative and Statute Law.

There is no doubt that his success in alerting ever more people to the dangers of the British / EU dictatorship being built by a criminal element now masquerading as British politicians, has caused the state to imprison Roger. His challenge to the fraudulent banking system, as evidenced by the criminal acts of Barclays bank and todays resignation by arch Bilderberger and BBC advisor Marcus Agius, will also have made Roger enemies within Britain's wide criminal banking cabal.

Roger's family is shocked both at his arrest, and at the realisation that Britain is now sliding into a police state, where husbands, fathers and other good people can be lifted off the streets and imprisoned. There is now no doubt that Britain is further under the control of domestic terrorists in Westminster.

We ask that all those who value their freedoms and liberty call Meryside Police for further information and an explanation of their actions, and also call Liverpool prison to establish Roger's physical safety and well-being.

Merseyside Police Tel: 101 local or +44 (0)151 709 6010 in UK.

Liverpool Prison Tel: +44 (0)151 530 4000

Crimestoppers (UK only) Tel: 0800 555 111


Roger Hayes' site here - he's being staging talks across the UK recently.

http://lawfulbank.com/

more here:

http://americankabuki.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/uk-lawful-bank-founder-roger-hayes.html


YTVK3byiJcA


Thanks for all your postings! I look everyday to see what else you have found and posted here. Please keep us updated on Roger Hayes.

[Alie]

http://sherriequestioningall.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/deutsche-postbank-ag-atms-not-working.html


Deutsche Postbank AG ATMS not working in Germany? Banks in Europe shutting down due to glitches or are they Bank Holidays?
I got word from a financial expert that the Deutsche Post Bank ATMs in Germany are not working this weekend.

I have not been able to confirm this from another source as of yet.

Considering that RBS is saying their glitches won't be fixed until July 31st and now Russia's largest bank Sberbank is stopping all credit and debit card transactions. Then there is BNI who are saying they will not reopen until July 31st. Something big is happening with the banks shutting down.



(believe it's now working, but intriguing the amount of ATM and banking glitches going on at the moment. S.)

It was quite strange last Friday am EST, and it was the first time ever. I drove up to the SECU (state employees credit union). I put in my check to deposit as always. The teller comes back --- ever so factual --- "THE COMPUTERS ARE DOWN, I CAN"T DO ANYTHING FOR YOU NOW. I heard the branch across the town is open, but I'm not sure."

I asked WHY? The answer ... " We never know why our computers are down. Sorry. "

I really must remember how I felt, as this was remedied a few hours later; however, what will it be like for a day ... or a week?

[Alie]

==============>

Don't miss this International Webinar on 7-8-12 --- http://larouchepac.com/webcasts/20120708.html



International Webcast with Helga Zepp-LaRouche, Chairwoman of the Civil Rights Solidarity Party, & Jacques Cheminade, former French Presidential Candidate

A Global Economic Miracle or a Collapse of Civilization: Two-tiered Banking System and a Reconstruction Plan for Southern Europe, the Mediterranean, and Africa!



** Edit **
From CNBC (Mainstream info) which supports the purpose of this webinar ...

Euro Zone Fragmenting Faster Than EU Can Act

http://www.cnbc.com/id/48116148


"Signs are growing that Europe's economic and monetary union may be fragmenting faster than policymakers can repair it.

Euro zone leaders agreed in principle on June 29 to establish a joint banking supervisor for the 17-nation single currency area, based on the European Central Bank [cnbc explains] , although most of the crucial details remain to be worked out. "

more at link

[Timreh]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18742140

6 July UK

Serious Fraud Office launches Libor investigation



The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has confirmed that it has formally launched an investigation into the rigging of inter-bank lending rates.


The case could lead to criminal charges being brought against individuals.

Its involvement follows an investigation by US and UK regulators into the manipulation of Libor, which resulted in a record fine for Barclays.

The Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander, said he was "delighted" by the decision.

"As a government, we will make sure the SFO has all the resources it needs to conduct this investigation in full," he said.

"I want the SFO to follow the evidence wherever it goes, to bring prosecutions if they can."

Last week the bank agreed to pay £290m in penalties after its traders tried to rig inter-bank lending rates, sometimes working with staff at other financial institutions.

Regulators are continuing to look into possible rate manipulation at other banks, while the US Department of Justice is carrying out its own criminal investigations.



An SFO spokesperson confirmed that a dedicated case team had now started work, but would not say whom it was investigating.

Its short statement said only: "The SFO Director David Green QC has today decided formally to accept the Libor matter for investigation."

The Libor affair, described by the prime minister as a scandal, has led to the resignation of three of Barclays' most senior executives in a matter of days, including chief executive Bob Diamond.

He appeared before MPs on the Treasury Select Committee this week, when he called the behaviour of those responsible for Libor rigging at the bank "reprehensible".

Regulators in the UK and the US found that Barclays staff had tried to affect rates over a number of years, first for profit and then to reduce concerns about how much it was being affected by the financial crisis.

The SFO is responsible for investigating allegations of serious and complex frauds. It considers whether to prosecute using a number of criteria, including whether it is a matter of public concern, and whether the value of any fraud is more than £1m.

The government agency said a few days ago that it was considering whether a criminal prosecution was appropriate and possible, and said this could take a month.

"Normally when there is such a public outcry, the law enforcement agencies manage to act in a more accelerated pace," said Bradley Simon, a former US federal prosecutor who now defends clients in fraud cases.

He said the SFO would be sensitive to criticism that it had been slow to respond in the past.

"They have to show they are on top of this. There are a lot of angry people out there," he told BBC News.


and


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/9381683/SFO-to-launch-criminal-investigation-into-Libor-scandal.html

Is this REALLY happening??? WOW!!!

Lets hope we see criminal charges and imprisonment not just fines!

Widespread implications if many of the top banks are under investigation..
If Libor is so big will this be the start of an outward domino effect?

[GoodETxSG]

Sabrina, love this thread as always... get ready to go crazy with posts as this LIBOR scandal is just starting to unfold... the tip of the ice berg as they say. Keep up the great posts. I do think you should start your own "Bank Watch" web site... with all of this organized and in a timeline. It really is great research. As one that has worked at some of these banks and saw a LOT I look forward to more coming out and more smug bastards go to jail.
TY,
Corey

[Sabrina]

This is a petition from the Avaaz campaign group. Looks as tho' the fight back is starting :). And thanks ALie for the Larouche 1272 story info. here again:

(Don't miss this International Webinar on 7-8-12 --- http://larouchepac.com/webcasts/20120708.html
International Webcast with Helga Zepp-LaRouche, Chairwoman of the Civil Rights Solidarity Party, & Jacques Cheminade, former French Presidential Candidate

A Global Economic Miracle or a Collapse of Civilization: Two-tiered Banking System and a Reconstruction Plan for Southern Europe, the Mediterranean, and Africa!)




Feels as tho' we've got the last chaotic death rattle of the old corrupt financial system and the seeds springing up of the new...


Avaaz.org is a 14-million-person global campaign network that works to ensure that the views and values of the world's people shape global decision-making. ("Avaaz" means "voice" or "song" in many languages.) Avaaz members live in every nation of the world; our team is spread across 19 countries on 6 continents and operates in 14 languages. Learn about some of Avaaz's biggest campaigns here, or follow us on Facebook or Twitter.


Dear friends,



Big banks have been rigging the interest rates on our mortgages and student loans! They've finally gone too far. The EU finance regulator is bringing new laws to put bankers behind bars for these crimes but needs popular support to face down the banking lobby and bring global change -- let's get 1 million people to stand with him in the next 3 days:


Big banks have been caught in a massive scam to rig global interest rates, ripping off millions of people on their mortgages, student loans and more! We'd go to jail for this, but Barclays bank has only been fined, and just a fraction of their profits! Outrage is mounting -- this is our chance to finally turn the tide of the banks' reign over our democracies.

The EU finance regulator, Michel Barnier is standing up to the powerful bank lobby and championing reform that would put bankers behind bars for fraud like this. If the EU goes first, accountability could quickly spread across the globe. But the banks are lobbying hard against it, and we need a massive surge of people power to drive these reforms through.

If we can get 1 million people to stand with Barnier in the next 3 days, it will give him momentum to face down the banking lobby and push governments to bring reform. Click below to sign, and our growing numbers will be represented by adding mock bankers to a jail right in front of the EU Parliament:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/bankers_behind_bars_f/?bwSJecb&v=15952

The full scale of the scandal is still unknown, but what we know is breathtaking: "Several" unnamed major banks were involved, and the rigging of the LIBOR interest rate, the rate on which many of the world's interest rates are based, affected the value of literally hundreds of trillions of dollars in investments. Barclays alone has admitted to committing this fraud "hundreds" of times.

For too long, our governments have been cowed by powerful banks who threatened to move elsewhere if challenged. For too long, banks have manipulated our market economies, tilting the playing field in their favour, and engaging in reckless risk-taking, secure in the knowledge that they could force governments to hand them our taxpayer money when they got into trouble.

The system is rigged, and that's a crime. It's time to put the criminals behind bars for it. It starts in Europe -- let's make it happen:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/bankers_behind_bars_f/?bwSJecb&v=15952

There may never have been a time in modern history when the big banks didn't have excessive and extraordinary power that they regularly abused. But democracy is on the march -- we've seen this march overcome tyrants across the world, and together, we'll help end the reign of the banks as well.

With hope,

Ricken, Iain, Alex, Antonia, Giulia, Luis, and the entire Avaaz team

P.S. -- Last week 94,000 people joined Avaaz member David R.'s campaign against foul-play in the Mexican elections which he launched on the new Avaaz Community Petitions platform. Get support for the things you care strongly about by starting your campaign here: http://www.avaaz.org/en/petition/start_a_petition

More information:

FSA’s Turner Says Banks Culture One of ‘Cynical Entitlement’ (Bloomberg)
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-03/fsa-s-turner-says-banks-have-culture-of-cynical-entitlement-1-.html

Barclays Libor scandal: how can we change banking culture? (The Guardian)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/jul/02/barclays-libor-scandal-change-banking-culture

Barclays just the tip of the iceberg as banking braced for more scandals (The Guardian)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/jul/08/banking-scandals-barclays?intcmp=239

The rotten heart of finance: A scandal over key interest rates is about to go global (Economist)
http://www.economist.com/node/21558281

Banking Reforms after the Libor scandal (Financial Times)
http://blogs.ft.com/martin-wolf-exchange/2012/07/02/banking-reforms-after-the-libor-scandal/#axzz1zY8LnZHS

EU's Barnier pushes for criminal sanctions for Libor abuse (Reuters)
http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/07/09/idINL6E8I91PR20120709

Barnier Seeks to Widen EU Rules to Bar Libor Manipulation (Business Week)
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-07-08/barnier-seeks-to-widen-eu-market-abuse-rules-to-include-libor

[Sabrina]

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/07/10/report-finds-wall-street-short-on-ethics/
10 July
How ethical is Wall Street?


It is a question that has been asked countless times since the financial crisis, especially when scandals like the rate-rigging case at Barclays and prominent insider trading trials expose questionable behavior in the financial industry. A new study offers an answer: Wall Street is not very ethical at all.

According to the law firm Labaton Sucharow, which represents investors and whistle-blowers, 24 percent of Wall Street workers who participated in a study said they believed unethical or illegal behavior could help people in their industry be successful. In addition, 26 percent of respondents said they had observed or had firsthand knowledge of wrongdoing in the workplace.

The study, which involved 500 financial workers in the United States and Britain, also found that 30 percent of respondents said their compensation structure created pressure to compromise their standards or violate the law. And 16 percent of respondents said they would commit insider trading if they believed they could get away with it.

“When misconduct is common and accepted by financial services professionals, the integrity of our entire financial system is at risk,” Jordan Thomas, partner and chair of the law firm’s whistle-blower representation practice, said in a statement.

The findings resonate with a popular perception of the industry. The scandal at Barclays, which led to the resignation of top bank officials last week, including the chief executive, Robert E. Diamond Jr., has fueled protests and other denunciations. On Friday, The Economist magazine’s British edition ran the headline “Banksters” on its cover.

One former Wall Street executive found that the report showed a troublesome trend. Sallie Krawcheck, who once led Bank of America’s wealth management division, posted a response on Twitter: “Oh dear …”

[Sabrina]

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/07/10/u-s-regulators-sue-peregrine-financial-group-for-fraud/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story%29While

10 July via AFP

U.S. regulators sue Peregrine Financial Group for fraud

NEW YORK — Eight months after the shock bankruptcy of MFGlobal, another respected futures brokerage, PFG, is being sued for fraud by US regulators in the latest black eye to confidence in futures trading.

In a complaint filed Tuesday in an Illinois federal court, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission accused Peregrine Financial Group and its sole owner and chief executive, Russell Wasendorf, of misusing customer funds.

The CFTC alleged that PFG and Wasendorf — who it said tried to commit suicide at PFG’s Iowa office on Monday and is thought to be in a coma — “failed to maintain adequate customer funds in segregated accounts.”

The CFTC alleged they falsified information in filings and overstated the company’s bank deposits, leaving a shortfall that currently, and has previously since 2010, exceeded $200 million.

The CFTC alleged that PFG and Wasendorf used customer funds for purposes other than those intended by its customers, and said “the whereabouts of the funds is currently unknown.”

Tuesday is a “sad day for the futures industry (and) what’s left of PFG,” said Phil Flynn, an energy analyst who left the company on May 31.

Flynn told AFP that one of the reasons he quit the company was news reports saying that PFG was allegedly involved in a Ponzi scheme in Minnesota.

Since February a string of US press reports, in Minnesota and in Iowa, where PFG is based, have suggested links between PFG and a $200 million Ponzi scheme run by Trevor Cook, who is serving a prison sentence.

Victims of Cook’s Ponzi scheme filed a federal lawsuit against PFG, alleging the firm played a key role in the fraud.
full story at link.

[Sabrina]

These petitions are starting to roll!

http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/arrest-the-bankers-and-politicians-responsible-for-cred.html

Another Arrest the Bankers Petition (and see 1275)

Petition Background (Preamble):
The credit crunch that started the global downward economic spiral was the responsibility of irresponsible bankers, businessmen and politicians.

We have all paid the price for this and will continue to do so for a long time. The idiots that caused this headache however, well they still get their high salaries and bonuses. They don't loose their jobs, like the rest of us, they don't get prosecuted, like the rest of us would for breaking the law.

Why should we suffer because of the stupidity and greed of these few, very wealthy, individuals?

In Iceland they are in the process of punishing the people responsible. Their economy is stabilising and their politics have improved. So, it works. Protect the citizens and punish the rich, selfish, criminals that have ruined Europe because of their greed.

I think it is time we taught these people a lesson. The men and woman that caused this financial collapse are sitting with a pot of security called YOUR MONEY in THEIR bank accounts whilst we loose our jobs and costs of everything go up.......

Are you going to do nothing and let these people destroy us?

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/four-five-want-bankers-prosecuted-015549786.html

We, the undersigned, call on the government to bring those responsible for the credit crunch and on going recession to justice. We want those guilty named and shamed. ALL OF THEM.

We want these individuals investigated, arrested and SEVERELY punished.
see link to sign.

[Sabrina]

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/07/10/uk-broker-pfgbest-idUKBRE8681CD20120710

10 July


U.S. broker missing $220 million in client funds; founder attempts suicide

(Reuters) - More than $200 million (128.8 million pounds) in customer funds appears to be missing from the accounts of U.S. futures broker PFGBest, regulators said on Monday just hours after the firm's founder attempted suicide outside the company's Iowa headquarters.

The suicide attempt and missing money renewed anxiety over the stability of the brokerage industry less than a year after the collapse of much larger MF Global. PFGBest told customers their funds had been frozen and clients would be allowed to liquidate open trading positions, but would not be able to withdraw funds or make new trades until further notice.

The National Futures Association (NFA), an industry group that also plays a regulatory role, said it had issued an emergency order to effectively freeze PFGBest's operations after finding that a U.S. bank account the broker said contained $225 million in customer funds actually held only $5 million.

"It appears that PFG does not have sufficient assets to meet its obligations to its customers," the NFA said.

The disclosure came hours after owner Russell Wasendorf Sr., a 40-year veteran of futures markets, was found in his car near the company's new headquarters, having apparently attempted suicide. He is in critical condition at the University of Iowa Hospitals, according to local news reports.

PFGBest, which has brokered trades in U.S. commodity and forex futures and options for 20 years, told clients it was in liquidation-only status as "some accounting irregularities are being investigated regarding company accounts."

"What this means is no customers are able to trade except to liquidate positions. Until further notice, PFGBEST is not authorized to release any funds," the note said.

PFGBest officials were not immediately available to comment. Local law enforcement officials said the investigation would soon likely pass to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

With about $400 million in segregated customer accounts, less than a tenth the amount MF Global had when it filed for bankruptcy, the fallout will be less severe. But the news still sent shockwaves through the futures industry and added new agony for some traders still missing money from MF Global.

"For the futures market, it's horrible," said James Koutoulas, a commodities trader and president of hedge fund Typhon Capital, who has led a campaign among former MF Global customers to recoup their funds. "It's a crisis of confidence."

Koutoulas said he had nine accounts at PFGBest. His initial instructions to traders were not to liquidate the accounts. Instead, he will keep them open as long as he wants to be in the trades. He will liquidate if he does not like the positions before they are bulk transferred somewhere.

"WE'RE DOOMED"

One broker at PFGBest said that Wasendorf's son, Russ Wasendorf Jr., briefed employees about the events earlier in the day, saying that a suicide note had been found alluding to some kind of financial troubles with the company. The younger Wasendorf "sounded like he was in another world."

"Everybody here is obviously in shock," said the broker, adding that some employees had begun packing up shortly after the announcements. "Pretty much everybody around here said we're doomed."

One former employee of the firm said he had grown concerned that Wasendorf did not do more to distance the company from a massive $194 million forex-trading Ponzi scheme run by Trevor Cook in Minnesota, who admitted defrauding more than 700 investors. Cook is serving 25 years in prison.

In February PFGBest, which had acted as Cook's broker, was fined $700,000 by the NFA for failing to notice the scheme. The company was subsequently sued for $48 million by the receiver rounding up the assets from Cook's scheme.

The NFA said on Monday that on June 29, PFGBest clearing unit Peregrine Financial Group (PFG) told the NFA that it held $400 million in customer segregated funds, of which more than $225 million was on deposit at an unnamed U.S. bank.

But on Monday, after receiving information that PFG's founder and owner may have falsified bank records, the NFA said that only $5 million was on account at the bank days earlier. It also said that previous bank balances from February 2010 and March 2011, reported in excess of $200 million, may in fact have held less than $10 million at those times.

FROM BASEMENT TO COMPOUND

PFGBest is far smaller than the big investment banks that dominate the brokerage business, but was among a dozen or so well-known independent firms that tended to cater to local traders, farmers or smaller market players.

Russell Wasendorf Sr. started as a commodities trader in the basement of his Cedar Falls home in 1972, offering seminars and educational programs to other traders. In 1990 he launched Peregrine Financial Group, which would become PFGBest, and was an early promoter of electronic trading systems.

He expanded the business in the late 1980s after making a windfall profit for himself and customers by advising them to short the financial futures market 10 days before the "Black Monday" stock market crash of 1987, the firm's website says.

The firm grew significantly over the past decade, opening offices in Canada and Shanghai and buying smaller rival Alaron in 2009. It also moved its headquarters from Chicago back to a purpose-built facility in Wasendorf's hometown of Cedar Falls, with plans to accommodate up to 300 employees.

It was outside the firm's 50,000 square-foot, three-story glass headquarters - an $18 million structure that was celebrated for its eco-friendly construction and four-star employee cafeteria - that local authorities found him shortly after 8 a.m. local time.

The Black Hawk County Sheriff's Office responded to a report of a suicide attempt and transported the victim to the local hospital, Sheriff Tony Thompson said. He declined to identify the victim or say how the victim had attempted suicide.

The county sheriff will likely pass the investigation over to the U.S. Attorney's Office within the next 12 hours "based on the nature of the investigation," Thompson said. He said he could not release additional information.

[Sabrina]

LrKKRyQiFoQ

[Sabrina]

More of the groundswell sentiments for change - but not hanging pleez....


http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2012/07/mainstream-economist-we-might-need-to-hang-some-bankers-to-stop-illegal-behavior.html

Mainstream Economist: We Might Need to Hang Some Bankers to Stop Criminal Looting

Even Nouriel Roubini Says We Need to Jail or Hang Some Bankers

Nobel prize winning economist Joe Stiglitz – and many other experts – have said nothing will change unless dishonest bankers are jailed.

Former trader Max Keiser has been calling for years for crooked bankers to be hanged, to send a message that crime won’t be tolerated.

But Nouriel Roubini is a lot more mainstream than Keiser – or even Stiglitz – being very close to Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner. See this and this.

Roubini told Bloomberg that nothing has changed since the start of the financial crisis, and we might need to throw bankers in jail – or hang them in the streets – before they’ll change:

Nobody has gone to jail since the financial crisis. The banks, they do things that are illegal and at best they slap on them a fine. If some people end up in jail, maybe that will teach a lesson to somebody. Or somebody hanging in the streets.

(Roubini video at link)

I noted 7 years ago:

I am NOT calling for the overthrow of the government. In fact, I am calling for the reinstatement of our government. I am calling for an end to lawless dictatorship and a return to the rule of law. Rather than trying to subvert the constitution, I am calling for its enforcement.

***

The best way to avoid all types of revolution would be for the government to start following the rule of law. I passionately hope it will do so.

The fact that even mainstream economists like Roubini are talking about hanging bankers shows that this is the last chance for the justice system – the only thing which stands between criminals on Wall Street and pitchforks – to work.

[Sabrina]

http://londonbanker.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/lies-damn-lies-and-libor.html

10 July London Banker Blog

Lies, Damn Lies and LIBOR


I've been hesitant to write about the LIBOR scandal because what I want to say goes so much further. We now know that Barclays and other major global banks have been manipulating the calculation of LIBOR through the quotation data they provided to the British Bankers Association. What I suspect is that this is not a flaw but a feature of modern financial markets. And if it was happening in LIBOR for between 5 and 15 years, then the business model has been profitably replicated to many other quotation-based reference prices.

Price discovery is not a sexy function of markets, but it is critical to the efficient allocation of scarce capital and resources, and to the preservation of the long term wealth of investors and the economy as a whole. If price discovery is compromised by manipulation, then we will all be gradually impoverished and the economy will be imbalanced and unstable.

Over the past 25 years the forces of regulatory liberalisation and demutualisation of markets have allowed the largest global banks to set the rules, processes and infrastructure of global markets to their own self-interested requirements. Regulatory complexity and harmonisation benefit the biggest banks disproportionately, eroding the competitive stance of smaller, local banks and market participants. This has led to a very high degree of concentration in a very few banks in most markets that determine global reference rates for interest rates, currencies, commodities and investments. If those few collude with each other - as Adam Smith warned was always the result - then they impoverish us all.

We have allowed markets to evolve in ways that make supervision of markets almost impossible. Many instruments trade off-exchange or in multiple venues, making it nearly impossible for any single investor or regulator to supervise trading to prevent or detect manipulation or abuse. Many financial instruments are now synthetic compilations of underlying assets and derivatives, with multiple pricing components determined by reference to other prices or rates. Demutualisation and regualtory reforms stripped exchanges of the self-regulating interest in preventing manipulation and abuse by their members as mergers, profits and market share came to dominate governance objectives.

Off-exchange trading has been allowed to proliferate, creating massive ill-transparent and largely illiquid markets in almost every sector of finance. Pricing in these markets is based around calculated reference rates which, like LIBOR, are open to abusive quotation and data input practices. Many OTC derivatives are priced and margined using reference rates calculated against quotations unrelated to actual reported transactions. Synthetic securities such as ETFs are another example of an instrument that prices off a reference rate rather than the actual contents of an underlying asset portfolio. These instruments are open to consistent abusive pricing as a means of incrementally impoverishing those market participants who are the krill on which the global banks thrive.

How has it been possible for banks to grow from less than 4 per cent of the global economy to more than 12 per cent of the global economy without impoverishing others? How has it been possible for profits in the financial sector to be consistently higher than profits from other human endeavors with more tangible products or impacts on our daily lives - such as agriculture, transport, health care or utilities? How has it been possible that banks derive their profits not from the protected and regulated activities of deposit-taking and lending, but from the unsupervised and often unknowable escalation of off-balance sheet assets and liabilities? How has it been possible that pension savings have increased while pension returns have declined to the point where only bankers can expect a comfortable old age? Global banks have built the casinos and tilted the odds in the house's favour by rigging the data that determines the outcomes of most of the bets on the table. Every one of us that sits at the table long enough - whether saver, investor, borrower, taxpayer or pensioner - will be a loser. It is not a flaw; it is a feature.

There is a reason that financial infrastructure used to be dominated by mutuals. Mutual gain and mutual liability created a natural discipline on excess and on rogue elements that would impoverish their peers.

There is a reason why trading was restricted to exchanges, and exchanges and clearing houses used to be self-regulating, and even had responsibility for resolution and liquidation of their members. Direct responsibility, authority and financial control meant that they could exert very powerful and immediate consequences on those members identified as abusing the market or investors.

The investigations into market rigging are just beginning. Paul Tucker opened the box yesterday when he admitted that he could not know whether the abuses discovered in setting LIBOR had spread to other synthetically calculated reference rates. As events unfold, it may be that we begin to appreciate just how deeply vulnerable we have become to predation by bankers with no stake in a local economy or in the local quality of life of the people they impoverish. A reckoning is needed, and then a rebalancing toward more local and mutual provision of essential services and market infrastructure that serves markets rather than those few bankers on the board.

As a start, regulators should consider punitive restrictions on the sale of instruments which price on reference rates unrelated to reported market transactions or underlying asset portfolios. Pricing should reflect real market transactions rather than guesstimates talking the banker's book.

We need to rethink as a society what banks are for, what exchanges are for, and what clearing houses are for. If they are for the profit of the few at the expense of the many now, that is because it is the business model we have permitted. If banks, markets and clearing are protected because they have a social function, we should make certain that social function is adding value. If it isn't, then we need some new models and some new rules.

[Sabrina]

The squeeze is on in Spain:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/9393818/Debt-crisis-Spain-bows-to-EU-ultimatum-with-drastic-cuts.html

12 July Spain

Debt crisis: Spain bows to EU ultimatum with drastic cuts

Spanish premier Mariano Rajoy has raised VAT sharply in a humiliating volte-face and pushed through €65bn (£51bn) of drastic austerity measures to comply with a European Union ultimatum, risking a downward spiral into full depression.

In Churchillian tones of blood and toil – even as Asturian miners and their wives clashed violently with police after a three-week march on Madrid – Mr Rajoy called for yet another round of cuts, admitting that Spain was obliged to take “urgent” action under the terms of the latest EU summit deal.

“We Spanish no longer have the choice whether or not to make sacrifices. We no longer have such liberty,” he said.
Hours before, daily newspaper El Pais had stunned the nation by publishing the leaked “Memorandum” imposed by the eurozone’s creditor bloc as the condition for Spain’s €100bn bank rescue.

The draconian terms include an EU takeover of the Spanish financial system, with calls for haircuts on €67bn of junior and hybrid bank debt, a bad bank to wind down crippled lenders, “on-site” raids by inspectors, and intrusive demands across the gamut of fiscal policy.

The 20-page list of diktats – ending with an ice-cold ultimatum – has shattered the illusion that Spain would escape lightly, avoiding the sort of EU-IMF Troika regime inflicted on Greece. “The EU is trying to do a ‘Greece’ without putting up the money that Greece got, because there isn’t any,” said Luis Arroyo, a former Bank of Spain economist.

Mr Rajoy said VAT will rise from 18pc to 21pc – though a 4pc rate will remain for food – breaching a key election pledge. “These are not pleasant measures. I said I would cut taxes and I am raising them. Circumstances have changed,” he said.
“Our public spending exceeds our income by tens of billions of euros. We have to get out of this mess and we have to do it as soon as possible. This is the reality that we face,”

Unemployment benefits will be cut. Interest on mortgages will no longer be tax deductable. Public employees will lose their Christmas bonus – a de facto pay cut – and will have to work longer, prompting a general strike threat from the country’s unions.
United Left leader Cayo Lara said Spain was now under “full-blown” occupation, accusing the government of “throwing petrol on to the country’s streets”.

The cuts come at a grim time, as Mr Rajoy himself admitted. “Never before has the Spanish economy suffered two back-to-back recessions of such severity. In the last year, unemployment has risen by half a million people and 32,094 businesses have closed.”
Fiscal tightening will amount to 2.7pc of GDP this year, 2.5pc next and 1.9pc in 2014 in the midst of a deep slump without monetary stimulus or devaluation to cushion the blow. “It is pointless pain,” said Nobel economist Paul Krugman. “The new austerity measures make no sense. This will clearly deepen Spain’s depression.”

Mr Krugman said the EU-imposed strategy of “internal devaluation” relies on pushing the jobless rate ever higher to break the back of labour resistance to pay cuts, a cruel and slow way to regain competitiveness.
A chorus of Spanish economists warned that the country cannot endure a further fiscal squeeze at a time when the banks are already crippled and unemployment is 24pc.

Professor Arcadi Oliveres from Barcelona University said the only way to break out of the vicious circle is to “leave the euro” – a minority view, but one emerging in academic circles.

Mr Rajoy said the sacrifices are needed to regain the trust of investors and lower borrowing costs but this misjudges the mood in London and New York.

While yields on 10-year Spanish bonds dropped 23 basis points to 6.5pc after the cuts were announced, traders say this chiefly reflects short-term relief that EU aid for Spain’s banks will go ahead smoothly.

“The market view is that extreme austerity is likely to destabilise peripheral economies and send them into a downward spiral,” said Stephen Lewis from Monument Securities. “What people are worried about is mounting social tension.”

Dario Perkins from Lombard Street Research said Spain’s cuts go beyond any useful therapeutic dose. “This is going to put Spain on the same track as Greece, intensifying a deflationary slide into depression,” he said.

“It is what happens if you tighten fiscal policy when the private sector is deleveraging after a housing bust.

“Isn’t Einstein’s definition of insanity to do the same thing again and again, expecting a different result?”

and

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/9392799/Violent-protests-erupt-in-Spain-after-miners-protest.html

Violent protests erupt in Spain after miners' protest

Riot police and protesting miners clashed in Madrid today as the Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy announced further austerity measures.

full story at link

[Sabrina]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/9392060/Lloyds-could-face-1.5bn-claim-over-Libor-analysts.html

UK 11 July
Lloyds could face £1.5bn claim over Libor - analysts

Lloyds Banking Group could have to pay out more than £1bn over claims it was involved in the manipulation of Libor, according to City analysts.

Lloyds Banking Group could have to pay out more than £1bn over claims it was involved in the manipulation of Libor, according to City analysts.

In a note to clients this morning, analysts at broker Liberum Capital warned the market reaction to Lloyds’ potential exposure had been “too sanguine” and said the bank could face having to pay out at least £1.5bn.

Liberum said investors were under the “mistaken impression” that because of the relatively small size of Lloyds’ derivatives book, which at £2.1 trillion is less than a tenth the size of Barclays’, the bank was “relatively insulated from this issue”.

"The potential liability is likely to extend well beyond each bank's own customers. On that basis, the market reaction appears too sanguine regarding Lloyds' potential exposure," said Liberum.

A payout of £1.5bn would be equal to about 7pc of the lender’s market value and is arrived at by calculating the likelihood of successful litigation against the breakdown of the cost for the 16 banks implicated in Libor rigging.

So far, Barclays is the only bank to have admitted it attempted to manipulate the world’s key borrowing rate, however more settlements are expected in the coming months and years.

Barclays paid £290m to the US and British authorities to close their investigations into over Libor rigging and also agreed a clause with the US Department of Justice that removes the chance of further action being taken against it.

Along with Lloyds, Royal Bank of Scotland is also being investigated over its involvement, while HSBC is providing help to the authorities, but is not itself being investigated.

Analyst estimates have varied widely on the costs of settling the various investigations going on around the world, as well as meeting legal claims.

Under some estimates, the costs of settling Libor cases purely related to interest rate swaps could end up in the multiple billions of dollars.


and

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/jul/11/barclays-jerry-del-missier-libor-mps?newsfeed=true

Jerry del Missier to be questioned on Libor instructions

Former Barclays chief will be asked by MPs why he issued instructions to lower the bank's interest rate submissions

Jerry Del Missier, who resigned as chief operating officer of Barclays in the wake of the Libor rate-fixing scandal, will appear before MPs on Monday to be asked why he issued instructions to reduce the bank's interest rate submissions.

His resignation came barely a week after the Canadian had been promoted from co-head of the investment banking arm to the new role of chief operating officer and followed the announcement of Bob Diamond's departure as chief executive of the bank.

He was named by Barclays (pdf) as having interpreted a memo written by Diamond as a signal to cut Libor. Diamond wrote the memo following a conversation on 29 October 2008 with Paul Tucker, deputy governor of the Bank of England, who also appeared before MPs to tell them he had not intended issuing any such instruction to the bank.

Barclays has said that Del Missier was investigated by the Financial Services Authority for his actions – which were not ultimately deemed to have changed the level of Libor – and that it did not take any enforcement action. His pay is not disclosed because he does not sit on the board, but under disclosures made in 2010 (pdf) it emerged that his salary was £734,000, bolstered to more than £40m when performance-related deals were factored in from the previous five years.

Following Del Missier in front of the committee will be Lord Turner, chairman of the FSA, banking regulator Andrew Bailey, and Tracey McDermott, the acting head of enforcement, who was involved in fining Barclays. She has made it clear that other banks are being investigated for their actions in the Libor market.

McDermott can expect to be questioned about why Barclays was first to be fined, while Turner may be asked about his role in Diamond's departure following the admission by the Barclays chairman Marcus Agius that Sir Mervyn King, governor the Bank of England, had told him that Diamond had "lost the confidence of regulators".

[Sabrina]

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2012/0712/1224319859703.html

Bishop held in China after his resignation


THADDEUS MA Daqin, Shanghai’s auxiliary bishop, has been detained since he made a defiant announcement of his resignation from China’s Patriotic Catholic Association, which oversees China’s state-sanctioned Catholic Church, at his ordination Mass on Saturday.

The incident, at the Cathedral of St Ignatius, highlights the parlous state of relations between Beijing and the Vatican. The Vatican does not have diplomatic relations with the communist government but rather with rival Taiwan, which China considers a renegade
province.

story at link.

and Australia:

The managing director of Research in Motion Australia has resigned after only a few months in the top job, the company has confirmed.

The resignation comes at a horrible time for the BlackBerry maker, as its executive team attempt to convince customers the company is on the right track despite a shocking loss in value and a massive restructuring operation.

Ray Gillenwater was appointed as local MD in May, but RIM has now announced he will leave effective July 13.

"We appreciate his contributions to RIM through the various positions he held in North America and Asia over the past five years, and we wish him well," the company said, according to The Australian.

[Sabrina]

http://www.tribune.net.ph/index.php/nation/item/1432-aquino-effects-a-minor-shake-up-new-appointments-resignations

Philippines 12 July

Malacañang has effected what is seen as a minor revamp in the government offices embarking on banking and finance, the civil service and the judicial body litigating cases filed against government officials.

In a press briefing, deputy presidential spokesman Abigail Valte announced the appointment of a new associate justice for the Sandiganbayan and a new commissioner to the Civil Service Commission (CSC).

On top of new appointments, President Aquino was also said to have accepted the resignation of Development Bank of the Philippines president and chief operating officer Francisco del Rosario.

Named as new associate justice of the Sandiganbayan was Amparo Cabotaje-Tang replacing Francisco Villaruz Jr.

Likewise appointed as CSC Commissioner for a term ending on February 2018 is Robert Martinez.


and Cyprus 12 July


http://www.bankofcyprus.com/en-GB/Start/News/Resignation-of-Group-Chief-Executive-Officer-/


Resignation of Group Chief Executive Officer

The Board of Directors of Bank of Cyprus announces that the Group Chief Executive Officer, Mr Andreas Eliades has submitted his resignation from the Group with immediate effect. The Board of Directors will convene on Thursday 12 July 2012 to discuss various issues arising following the resignation of Mr Andreas Eliades including the issue of succession.

[Sabrina]

From a Brit's perspective, amazing to see this happening in California. Going to force new ways for communities to exist as part of the financial changes?

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-san-bernardino-bankruptcy-20120712,0,2433019.story

12 July USA

Rising costs push California cities to fiscal brink

Throughout the state, local governments are slashing services to avoid bankruptcy. For some, it's too late.


Facing the same financial stressors that pushed San Bernardino toward bankruptcy, cities across California are slashing day-to-day services and taking other drastic actions to skirt a similar fiscal collapse.

For some, it may not be enough.

San Bernardino on Tuesday became the third California city to seek bankruptcy protection in the last month and, while no one expects the state to be consumed by municipal insolvencies, other cities teeter on the abyss.




"There are likely to be more in the future, but it's hard to know, since a lot of struggling cities may manage to work things out,'' said Michael Coleman, a fiscal policy advisor for the California League of Cities. "Some cities may not go into a bankruptcy, but they may dissolve. They may cease to exist.''

Once rare, turning to bankruptcy has become a painful but enticing option for cities whose labor costs and municipal debt far outpace anemic tax revenues. The Bay Area city of Vallejo began the current trend in May 2008, filing for Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection because, city leaders said, salaries and benefits for its public safety workers were eating up too much of the general fund.

Last month, Stockton became the largest city in the state to seek bankruptcy protection after it was unable to come to agreement with its employee unions and creditors on a plan to close a $26-million gap in its general fund. On July 2, the tiny resort town of Mammoth Lakes filed bankruptcy papers in part because it was saddled with a $43-million court judgment it couldn't pay.

San Bernardino couldn't close a $45.8-million budget shortfall and would be unable make its payroll this summer. Days before Tuesday's City Council vote, the city of 211,00 people had just $150,000 in the bank. The city barely scraped together enough money to cover its June payroll.

The city had largely patched over its growing fiscal ills, exacerbated by the struggling economy, by tapping out its reserves over the last several years, according to a fiscal report submitted to the council before Tuesday's vote.

That 4-2 decision to file for bankruptcy protection was the easy part, San Bernardino Mayor Patrick Morris said Wednesday. Now the city has to pull together a plan to emerge from its fiscal crisis. It has already cut its workforce by 20% over the last four years.

Morris, a former judge elected on an anti-gang platform, says the city may have to dissolve its Fire Department or portions of the Police Department, an unavoidable reality when public safety accounts for nearly 75% of the general fund budget. The city would then contract with county and state agencies for those services.

"I think all possibilities should be on the table," Morris said. "That includes privatizing services; that includes regionalizing services."

Steve Tracy, a fire engineer and spokesman for the city firefighters union, said San Bernardino's labor groups already gave up $10 million in concessions. He blamed the financial crisis on the mayor and former city manager spending money on such pet projects as a new downtown movie theater.

"Before you start putting blame on the labor groups, get your own fiscal house in order," Tracy said.

Vallejo was in a similar bind when it filed for bankruptcy four years ago. Now Mayor Osby Davis wonders if the painful road to recovery was worth the cost.

The Bay Area city of 112,000 was forced to shut down two of its fire stations and today fixes just 10% of its crumbling roads. Its workforce, including police and firefighters, is about half its pre-bankruptcy size and those people left are "insanely" overworked.

Meanwhile, Vallejo spent $10 million on legal fees. It ended up with employee contracts that Osby thinks the city could have struck more cheaply if it had stayed out of bankruptcy court and turned to the bargaining table.

His advice to other cities on the financial brink? Don't do it.

"It takes an enormous toll on everyone,'' Davis said. "And you have the stigma of being a bankrupt city. How do you come out of being labeled a bankrupt city to one that is a desirable place to live?"

The San Bernardino City Council meets Monday to hash out the painful road ahead, including how to scrape together enough money to sustain city services before officially filing for bankruptcy protection. That could take a month or longer.
full story at link

¤=[Post Update]=¤

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2012/07/11/world/europe/ap-eu-germany-morgan-stanley.html?_r=1&ref=global-home

12 July Germany via AP

Morgan Stanley Executive Investigated in Germany

BERLIN (AP) — A former governor from Chancellor Angela Merkel's party who is being investigated with the head of Morgan Stanley's German branch in connection with the sale of shares in a local power company always acted in the interests of his state, his attorney said Thursday.

Dirk Notheis, who has been on indefinite leave from Morgan Stanley since last month, and former Baden-Wuerttemberg governor Steffen Mappus are being investigated on suspicion of accessory to breach of trust and breach of trust, prosecutors said in a statement.

Notheis in 2010 helped his long-time friend Mappus, then governor, buy a 45 percent stake in the local power company EnBW on behalf of the state. The state bought it from France's government-owned utility EdF for €4.7 billion ($6 billion).

The deal — organized by Morgan Stanley and Mappus without consulting lawmakers — was later found to be unconstitutional by a state court, and a Parliamentary inquiry is still under way.

Prosecutors, citing an official probe into the purchase, said "for no obvious reasons" the state was charged €40 per share instead of the initial price cited by EdF of €39.90 — raising the cost by €11.2 million for Baden Wuerttemberg. Mappus then agreed on the price being raised to €41.50 per share "as compensation for the dividend for the year 2010 without further negotiations" — raising the price another €170 million, prosecutors said.

Mappus, was voted out of office in 2011, losing Merkel's CDU party's nearly six-decade hold on Baden-Wuerttemberg.

Germany's Bild newspaper published pictures Thursday of investigators removing files from Mappus' home in Pforzheim, and quoted his attorney Stephan Holthoff-Pfoertner as saying the evidence would show there was no breach of trust on his client's part.

"Our client always negotiated in the interests of the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg," Holthoff-Pfoertner said.

Overall, investigators searched five homes and five businesses were searched in eight cities, including Morgan Stanley's office in Frankfurt, in conjunction with the investigation.

Morgan Stanley said it is cooperating with the investigation.

[Timreh]

Very appreciative of your constant supply of quality news and information Sabrina..

Keep it rolling.. :nod:

[Robert J. Niewiadomski]

Another Opel CEO steps down
By Christiaan Hetzner and Ben Klayman
MUNICH/DETROIT | Thu Jul 12, 2012 3:08pm EDT

(Reuters) - General Motors Co (GM.N) pushed aside another chief executive at Opel in a surprise move analysts said shows the U.S. automaker's growing impatience with 12 years of losses in Europe.

GM said Opel CEO Karl-Friedrich Stracke had stepped down to take on "special assignments" for GM CEO Dan Akerson. GM Vice Chairman Steve Girsky, who heads Opel's board, will serve as acting head of Europe while GM searches for a successor to Stracke.

Analysts said GM appeared to be panicking as the change comes so soon after a turnaround plan for the struggling Opel was approved and a replacement was not named.

"I spoke to Stracke recently and it looked as if he very much wanted to carry out his duties," said Stefan Bratzel, a professor at the University of Applied Sciences in Bergisch Gladbach specializing in the auto industry.

"GM must not have been satisfied with the business plan," he added. "I thought things had gotten better between Detroit and Opel over the past couple of months, but sending this kind of message is catastrophic."

(...)

Full story: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/12/us-gm-opel-ceo-idUSBRE86B18L20120712

[penn]

Very appreciative of your constant supply of quality news and information Sabrina..

Keep it rolling.. :nod:

I am wondering if Sabrina's on vacation. Surely this mess is not over. Sabrina where are you? Thanks for all you postings!

[Robert J. Niewiadomski]

North Korean media: Army chief relieved of all posts
By Leigh Ann Caldwell Topics In The News
July 15, 2012 10:25 PM

(AP) SEOUL, South Korea - Kim Jong Un's top military official - a key mentor to North Korea's new young leader - has been removed from all posts because of illness, state media said Monday.

At least one analyst speculated that a more likely reason for Ri Yong Ho's departure is Kim's desire to put his own mark on the government he inherited from his father late last year.

The decision to relieve Ri of his duties was made at a Workers' Party meeting Sunday, according to the North's official Korean Central News Agency. It was not immediately clear who would take Ri's place, and the North Korean media dispatch did not elaborate on Ri's condition or future.

Ri was vice marshal of the Korean People's Army and the military's General Staff chief, as well as a top figure in the Workers' Party.

He has been at Kim Jong Un's side since the young man emerged as father Kim Jong Il's successor in 2010, often standing between father and son at major events. That role appeared to deepen after Kim Jong Il's death in December, helping Kim to solidify support among the military.

(...)

Full story: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57472665/north-korean-media-army-chief-relieved-of-all-posts/

[PathWalker]

Was the petrol price rigged too? (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/energy/fuel/9401934/Libor-scandal-Was-the-petrol-price-rigged-too.html)

Motorists may have been paying too much for their petrol because banks and other traders are likely to have tried to manipulate oil prices in the same way they rigged interest rates, an official report has warned.

Concerns are growing about the reliability of oil prices, after a report for the G20 found the market is wide open to “manipulation or distortion”.

Traders from banks, oil companies or hedge funds have an “incentive” to distort the market and are likely to try to report false prices, it said.

Politicians and fuel campaigners last night urged the Government to expand its inquiry into the Libor scandal to see whether oil prices have also been falsely pushed up.

They warned any efforts to rig the oil price would affect how much drivers pay at the pump, which soared to a record high of 137p per litre of unleaded earlier this year.

Robert Halfon, who led a group of 100 MPs calling for lower fuel prices, said the matter “needs to be looked at by the Bank of England urgently”.

[Sabrina]

Very appreciative of your constant supply of quality news and information Sabrina..

Keep it rolling.. :nod:

I am wondering if Sabrina's on vacation. Surely this mess is not over. Sabrina where are you? Thanks for all you postings!

:) I'm back Penn - was supposed to go camping for the weekend - but constant rain here in UK - I hope the rain's the world seriously cleansing all the dross so we can create the world that works!

[Sabrina]

Protests are growing across the world:


http://wayseernews.com/news/the-largest-protest-the-world-has-ever-seen-in-mexico/172/

“the largest protest the world has ever seen” in Mexico

Tens of thousands of protestors took to the streets in cities throughout Mexico the day after presidential elections declared Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) candidate, Enrique Peña Nieto, the winner, and yet the news media has been largely quiet. Protesters accuse him of buying votes and paying off television networks for support.

The PRI previously ruled Mexico for seven decades, during which time it was accused of rigging elections, corruption and repression.

Protestors allege that vote-buying, an illegal act in Mexico, is responsible for the 7 percentage point win for the PRI.

full story and pix at link

and

a recap on Iceland's revolution this year:


http://wayseernews.com/news/iceland’s-amazing-peaceful-revolution-–-ignored-by-the-news/169/



and

I like this one :) (and Reuters are reporting it folks....).

http://uk.reuters.com/assets/print?aid=UKBRE86E09V20120715

Egyptians pelt Clinton motorcade with tomatoes

Sun, Jul 15 2012
By Arshad Mohammed and Marwa Awad

CAIRO (Reuters) - Protesters threw tomatoes and shoes at U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's motorcade on Sunday during her first visit to Egypt since the election of Islamist President Mohamed Mursi.

A tomato struck an Egyptian official in the face, and shoes and a water bottle landed near the armoured cars carrying Clinton's delegation in the port city of Alexandria.

A senior state department official said that neither Clinton nor her vehicle, which were around the corner from the incident, were struck by any of the projectiles.

Protesters chanted: "Monica, Monica", a reference to Former President Bill Clinton's extra-marital affair. Some chanted: "leave, Clinton", Egyptian security officials said.

It was not clear who the protesters were or what political affiliations they had. Protesters outside Clinton's hotel on Saturday night chanted anti-Islamist slogans, accusing the United States of backing the Muslim Brotherhood's rise to power.

The assault on her motorcade came on a day Clinton spoke at the newly re-opened U.S. consulate in Alexandria, addressing accusations the United States, which had long supported former President Hosni Mubarak, of backing one faction or another in Egypt following his ouster last year.

"I want to be clear that the United States is not in the business, in Egypt, of choosing winners and losers, even if we could, which of course we cannot," Clinton said.

Clinton also met the country's top general, Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, on Sunday to discuss Egypt's turbulent democratic transition as the military wrestles for influence with the new president.

RIGHTS OF ALL
The meeting came a day after she met Mursi, whose powers were clipped by the military days before he took office.
Mursi fired back by reinstating the Islamist-dominated parliament that the army leadership had disbanded after a court declared it void, deepening the stand-off before the new leader even had time to form a government.

The result has been acute political uncertainty as the various power centres try to find a way to get along in a country that still has no permanent constitution, parliament or government more than a year after Mubarak's downfall.

In their hour-long meeting, Clinton and Tantawi discussed Egypt's political transition and the military's "ongoing dialogue with President Mursi," a U.S. official travelling with Clinton said in an email brief.

"Tantawi stressed that this is what Egyptians need most now - help getting the economy back on track," the official said.
Clinton "stressed the importance of protecting the rights of all Egyptians, including women and minorities".

The talks also touched on the increasingly lawless Sinai region and the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

Speaking after the meeting, Tantawi said the army respected the presidency but would not be deterred from its role of "protecting" Egypt.
"The armed forces and the army council respects legislative and executive authorities," he said in a speech to troops in the city of Ismailia. "The armed forces would not allow anyone to discourage it from its role in protecting Egypt and its people."

TIES STRAINED
Ties with the United States, which provides Egypt with an annual $1.3 billion in military aid, were strained this year when Egyptian judicial police raided the offices of several U.S.-backed non-governmental organisations on suspicion of illegal foreign funding and put several Americans on trial.

The spat ended when Egyptian authorities allowed the U.S. citizens and other foreign workers to leave the country.
During her speech, Clinton said: "When we talk about supporting democracy, we mean real democracy."
"To us real democracy means that every citizen has the right to live, work and worship as they choose, whether they are man or woman, Christian or Muslim."
"Real democracy means th
at no group or faction or leader can impose their will, their ideology, their religion, their desires on anyone else."
That was a message she is likely to have repeated in meetings on Sunday with women and Christians, both groups that fear their rights may be curtailed under a Muslim Brotherhood-dominated government.

"She wanted, in very, very clear terms, particularly with the Christian group this morning, to dispel that notion and to make clear that only Egyptians can choose their leaders, that we have not supported any candidate, any party, and we will not," a senior U.S. official told reporters.

and Spain 16 July

http://www.expatica.com/es/news/spanish-news/protests-multiply-against-cuts-in-spain_237824.html

Protests multiply against cuts in Spain

Hundreds of Spanish firemen, police officers and nurses marched yelling through the streets Monday, denouncing as "robbery" the pay cuts enforced under Spain's latest fiscal emergency plan.

"Hands up, this is a robbery," cried protestors as they blocked a major thoroughfare in central Madrid in a demonstration organised through messages on social networking sites such as Twitter.

The latest protests erupted after Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy last week announced new pay cuts and tax increases, aiming to save 65 billion euros ($80 billion) in order to lower the public deficit.

Spain is suffering its second recession in four years, with an unemployment rate of more than 24 percent.
Cuts to public budgets are already affecting services such as schools and hospitals and critics say Rajoy's new austerity measures will worsen economic conditions for ordinary people.
full story at link

and

Greece July


http://photoblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/07/12/12700405-greek-seniors-protest-pension-cuts?

pix at link

[Sabrina]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/9404454/Libor-scandal-Diamond-gave-fix-order-says-former-right-hand-man.html

16 July UK


Libor scandal: Diamond gave fix order, says former right-hand man

Bob Diamond was rounded on by his former right-hand-man and three top City regulators today as he was accused of giving the direct instruction to lower the Libor rates at the heart of the rigging scandal.

Jerry del Missier, former chief operating officer at Barclays, told the Treasury Select Committee that Mr Diamond had clearly told him in October 2008 to “get our Libor rates down”.

The disclosure came as the former Barclays boss was branded as being “less than candid” with MPs over the Libor scandal.
Mr Diamond’s testimony from last week - that Mr del Missier asked traders to lower Libor in October 2008 after “misinterpreting” an email - was crushed by Mr del Missier’s claims that the order was relayed to him in a telephone conversation.

Mr del Missier, the third of the three senior directors ejected from Barclays to be grilled by MPs over the scandal that cost the bank £290m in fines, confirmed that he had given the low-balling orders.

“I passed the instruction on to the head of the money market desk,” he said. “I relayed the content of the conversation I had with Mr Diamond and fully expected the Bank of England views would be fully incorporated in the Libor submission. I expected that they would take those views into account.” But he added: “I took the action on the basis of the phone call that I had had with Mr Diamond.”

MPs pointed out that his evidence did not fit with Mr Diamond’s. Mr del Missier replied: “I only know what I clearly recollect from the conversation.”
Mr del Missier also revealed that Barclays’ compliance team had been told “in a note” about the board-level order to lower Libor submissions.

An hour later, Lord Turner, chairman of the Financial Services Authority told MPs that Mr Diamond’s evidence to them was another example of the “pattern of behaviour” at Barclays which he summarised as “trying it on, gaming the system”.
Andrew Bailey, head of banking supervision at the FSA, said Mr Diamond had been “highly selective” in his description of Barclays’ relationship with the regulators.

Mr Bailey said he went to a Barclays board meeting in February where he read the “riot act” and he expressed concerns with the tone from the top. Last week Mr Diamond told MPs that the regulators had been “happy”.

The series of conversations over lowering Libor submissions from October 2008 have become pivotal, not just to the Libor scandal but to the reputations of Mr Diamond, Barclays and Paul Tucker, deputy Governor of the Bank of England.

Mr del Missier said he could not shed any more light on the now infamous telephone conversation between Mr Tucker and Mr Diamond when the pair discussed Barclays’ borrowing levels. But he told MPs that Mr Diamond had not just emailed him a summary of the call, he also rang to discuss it.

Mr del Missier said: “[Mr Diamond] said that he had a conversation with Mr Tucker ... that the Bank of England was getting pressure from Whitehall around Barclays, on the health of Barclays as a result of Libor rates, and that we should get our Libor rates down and that we should not be outliers.”

Grilled over whether he knew the action was illegal, he said: “At the time it did not seem an inappropriate action given that this was coming from the Bank of England.”

He later acknowledged that it was illegal in US law.

[Sabrina]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/9404574/Debt-crisis-Moodys-downgrades-13-Italian-banks.html

16 July

Debt crisis: Moody's downgrades 13 Italian banks

Moody's cut its rating for 13 Italian banks this evening, citing the weakened borrower standing of the Italian government after its credit grade was downgraded last week.

The ratings fell by one to two notches, with Unicredit and Intesa Sanpaolo both falling to Baa2 from A3.

"Today's actions follow the weakening of the Italian government's credit profile," Moody's said in a statement.
"Along with the increase in the risk of sovereign bond defaults, the downgrade of Italy's long-term ratings to Baa2 also indicates a similarly increased risk that the government might be unable to provide financial support to its banks in financial distress."

Moody's said that banks are normally rated no higher than a government "due to multiple channels of shared exposure and contagion."
Italian banks, it said, have substantial exposure to the domestic economy and "high direct exposure" to sovereign debt.

Last Thursday Moody's cut the Italian government's rating two steps to Baa2 from A3, saying that Italy was now "more likely to experience a further sharp increase in its funding costs or the loss of market access" for borrowing to service its budget deficit.

[Sabrina]

http://www.businessinsider.com/iceland-has-hired-an-ex-cop-bounty-hunter-to-go-after-the-bankers-that-wrecked-its-economy-2012-7

Iceland Has Hired An Ex-Cop To Hunt Down The Bankers That Wrecked Its Economy

If you were involved in Icelandic high finance in the runup to the recession, you might want to start watching your back.

That's because the government has appointed a white collar crime bounty hunter who wants to haul your behind in (alive, to be sure).
LeMonde reporter Charlotte Chabas has a profile of Ólafur Þór Hauksson, a former local police lieutenant whom the Iceland government appointed to track down individuals likely to have helped sink the country's banking sector during the credit crunch.

Hauksson's job description, according to PressEurop's translation of the piece:

"On one hand, we have to investigate all suspicion of fraud and offences committed before 2009, on the other hand, we bring the lawsuits against the suspects to court ourselves," Hauksson explains. This is a 'totally new' method which allows the investigators to "follow the case" and the judicial system to "know the cases like the back of their hand". This is indispensable in order "to compete with the well-prepared defence attorneys".

Hauksson oversees a posse of 100 researchers to help track down outlaws. He's netted some major convictions since starting in 2009, including the former chief of staff of the country's finance minister on insider trading charges. Many others await their day in court, Chabas writes.

And he will track you down even if you've fled abroad.

"Searches continue and the team pursues its investigations abroad in the foreign subsidiaries of the Icelandic banks and includes questioning foreigners," Chabas writes. " 'We enjoy full international cooperation,' stresses Olafur Hauksson."

[Sabrina]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ausui72k1og


Ausui72k1og

¤=[Post Update]=¤

and

Irish Petition

http://www.avaaz.org/en/petition/Remove_Bankers_Veto_from_new_Irish_Debtors_Law_and_Provide_for_Shared_Banker_Debtor_Property_Risk_as _in_the_USA/

Remove Banker's Veto from new Irish Debtor's Law and Provide for Shared Banker / Debtor Property Risk (as in the USA)

Dear Taoiseach and Tánaiste, We petition you to fairness for the currently distressed Irish citizens. We ask that priority be given to the protection of Irish homes and that the principles of social justice and the common good enshrined in the Irish Republican Constitution prevail. Bankers must not be given a Veto on participation in the debt resolution processes of the new Insolvency law. We ask your Government to ensure that the playing field between the vulnerable citizen and the powerful banks be level and fair. Your Minister for Finance, Noonan has pointed out that even the state cannot believe anything the Banks say. The citizen cannot be left at their mercy. You must also consider shared risk in mortgage debt as between the lender and the borrower as is in the United States. You must also change existing law to allow a Judge deciding on an eviction order to take all the circumstances of a case into account and not only the bankers paperwork.


Why this is important

Irish Premier Enda Kenny described the homeowner debt crisis - following economic collapse; bursting of the property bubble and the treasonous merging of Sovereign and Banker Debt a the biggest national crisis facing Irish people since the Land Wars in the British Colonial Days of the late 19th Century. In Ireland there is no sharing of debt risk between the lender and borrower. However, Government is bringing in reasonably progressive new legislation on debt management BUT unbelievably are giving the Bankers a Veto on participation in its debt resolution processes. This will make the new law useless. Banks, through the courts have already evicted over 800 Irish families this year. The present law disables a Judge from taking any circumstances into account other than the bank paperwork. This is unjust on a population of 4.5 million (2 million workforce) on which some €50 billion of Bank bailout debt has been placed and which will impoverish generations to come.

[Sabrina]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-11/south-korean-president-s-brother-arrested-over-banking-scandal.html

July

S. Korean President’s Brother Arrested Over Banking Scandal

South Korean President Lee Myung Bak’s older brother was arrested and detained over a savings bank bribery scandal, prosecutors said today.

Lee Sang Deuk, 76, who served six terms in parliament, was taken into detention early this morning, said Choi Woon Sik, head of the team investigating wrongdoing at savings banks. Prosecutors can detain a suspect up to 20 days before making an indictment, Choi said.
Enlarge image


The arrest is a blow to President Lee and his New Frontier Party as the campaign to elect his successor later this year intensifies. The NFP narrowly held power in an April 11 parliamentary election after a former speaker in the National Assembly and long-time mentor to President Lee resigned over alleged vote-buying.

The allegations against Lee’s brother relate to receiving illegal political donations, said Cho Won Kyoung, a judge and spokeswoman at the Seoul Central District Court.
full story at link

[Sabrina]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/charles-ferguson/bank-crimes_b_1675714.html

16 July

blog

Banking Is a Criminal Industry Because Its Crimes Go Unpunished


Consider just this month's news in financial services.

First, Barclay's has been manipulating the Libor, the main interest rate upon which most other interest rates and financial transactions are based, since 2005. Moreover, Barclay's traders were colluding with traders in many other banks to assist them in manipulating the Libor too, so that they could all profit from their bets on it.

Second, JP Morgan Chase is having a really great month. Recent reports describe how it is resisting Federal subpoenas related to price-fixing in U.S. electricity markets. It is also accused (by former employees among others) of deliberately inflating the performance of its investment funds to obtain business. And finally, JP Morgan's failed "London whale" trade, which has now cost over $5 billion, is being investigated to determine whether the loss was initially concealed from regulators and the public.

Third, HSBC is paying a fine because it allowed hundreds of millions, perhaps billions, of dollars of money laundering by rogue states and sanctioned firms, including some related to terrorist activities and Iran's nuclear efforts. But HSBC is only one of at least 12 banks now known to have tolerated, and in some cases aggressively courted, money laundering by rogue states, terrorist organizations, corrupt dictators, and major drug cartels over the last decade. Others include Barclay's, Lloyds, Credit Suisse, and Wachovia (now part of Wells Fargo). Several of the banks created special handbooks on how to evade surveillance, created special business units to handle money laundering, and actively suppressed whistleblowers who warned of drug cartel activities.

Fourth, a new private lawsuit cites documents indicating that Morgan Stanley successfully pressured rating agencies into inflating the ratings of mortgage-backed securities it issued during the housing bubble.

Fifth, Visa and Mastercard have just agreed to pay $7 billion to settle a private antitrust case filed by thousands of merchants, who alleged that Visa and Mastercard colluded to fix fees and terms of service.

Just another month in financial services. Is it unusual? No, it's not. If we go back just a little further, we have UBS, HSBC, Julius Baer, and other banks actively marketing tax evasion services to wealthy U.S. and European citizens. We have senior executives of several banks (including JP Morgan Chase and UBS) strongly suspecting that Bernard Madoff was running a Ponzi scheme, but deciding to make money from him rather than turn him in. And then, of course, we have the financial crisis and everything that led to it. As I show in great detail in my book Predator Nation, we now possess overwhelming evidence of massive securities fraud, accounting fraud, perjury, and criminal Sarbanes-Oxley violations by mortgage lenders, investment banks, and credit insurers (including senior executives of Countrywide, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Bear Stearns, AIG, and Lehman Brothers) during the housing bubble that caused the financial crisis. If we go back to the late 1990s, we have the massively fraudulent hyping of Internet stocks, and several banks (including Merrill Lynch and Citigroup) actively aiding Enron in committing its frauds.

So, July 2012 really isn't abnormal at all. The reason for this is very simple. Over the past two decades, the financial services industry has become a pervasively unethical and highly criminal industry, with massive fraud tolerated or even encouraged by senior management. But how did that happen?

Well, deregulation helped, of course. But something else was far more important. It is the one critical factor that unites all of the episodes cited above, including those of this month. This critical unifying factor is the total number of criminal prosecutions of major firms and senior executives as a result of all of these crimes combined.

And what is that number?

Zero.

Literally zero. A number that neither President Obama nor Mitt Romney shows the slightest interest in changing.

Consider the Obama administration's choices for the four most important positions in financial sector law enforcement. The attorney general (Eric Holder) and the head of the Justice Department's criminal division (Lanny Breuer) both come to us from Covington & Burling, a law firm that represents and lobbies for most of the major banks and their industry associations; indeed Breuer was co-head of its white collar criminal defense practice, and represented the Moody's rating agency in the Enron case. Mary Schapiro, the head of the SEC, spent the housing bubble in charge of FINRA, the investment banking industry's "self-regulator," which gave her a $9 million severance for a job well done. And her head of enforcement, perhaps most stunningly of all, is Robert Khuzami, who was general counsel for Deutsche Bank's North American business during the entire bubble. So zero prosecutions isn't much of a surprise, really.

In contrast, what do you think would happen to you if, as a lone individual, you were caught supporting Iran's nuclear program? Do you think that you would get off with a "deferred prosecution agreement" and a fine equal to a few percent of your annual salary? No?

But that's because you don't live right. You probably haven't been to the White House a dozen times since President Obama took office, or attended White House state dinners, like Lloyd Blankfein has. Nor have you probably overseen millions of dollars in lobbying and campaign donations, or hired senior administration officials, or sent your executives into the government in senior regulatory positions, or paid $135,000 for a speech by someone who later became chairman of the National Economic Council. And, well, you get the law enforcement that you pay for.

Charles Ferguson is the author of Predator Nation: Corporate Criminals, Political Corruption, and the Hijacking of America.

[Sabrina]

7_dsoV9bcjQ


In this episode, Max Keiser and co-host, Stacy Herbert, discuss the mainstream media joining the 'hang bankers' bandwagon, as it becomes increasingly obvious that the space race has been replaced with a fraud race and getting your Series 7 broker's license makes stealing a risk-free business proposition. In the second half of the show, Max talks to analyst and newslettter writer, Rob Kirby of Kirby Analytics, about the derivatives complex as a price control grid and about the fact that every time the JP Morgan monster needs a feeding, something must die.

[Sabrina]

http://thewatchers.adorraeli.com/2012/07/14/solar-storms-and-pineal-gland-riding-the-power-wave/

Guest Post: U.S. TREASURY SECRETARY GEITHNER IS “DEAD MEAT”

The EIR European Strategic Alert

by Harley Schlanger, LaRouche Pac:

As the LIBOR “Crime of the Century” is unfolding internationally, it will mean the end of the career, and possibly prison time, for Timothy Geithner, currently U.S. Treasury Secretary, and formerly President of the New York Federal Reserve branch. Lyndon LaRouche’s characterization of Geithner as “dead meat,” is not extreme, considering that former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, in an interview, compared Geithner’s role in covering up LIBOR’s rigging of interest rates to the cover-up of the crimes of former football coach, and convicted serial child molester, Jerry Sandusky, by his employers at Pennsylvania State University!

Geithner’s role emerged during testimony by Barclay’s former CEO, Robert Diamond, before a British Parliamentary inquiry. Diamond revealed that Barclay’s had been in contact with the New York Federal Reserve branch, about the rigging of interest rates, when Geithner was its President. The NY Fed, which oversees Wall Street, has a special regulatory role, as a watchdog agency. Yet, a series of emails released, following Diamond’s testimony, shows that Fed officials – including Geithner – were not only aware that the LIBOR banks were rigging interest rates, and did nothing to stop it, but later rewarded those same banks, with trillions of dollars in bailout funds and credits.

Barclays alone received $868 billion in bailout loans, at no interest!

Geithner personally sent an email to British authorities on June 1, 2008, suggesting they “strengthen governance and establish a credible reporting procedure.” He added that it would be necessary to “eliminate incentive to misreport.” Thus, Geithner knew that the “reporting procedure” was flawed, as it involved flagrant lying about the rates reported by LIBOR. As to eliminating “incentive to misreport,” why were no criminal charges brought against those involved, which would have been a strong, and legitimate, disincentive?

Geithner was rewarded by being appointed Treasury Secretary by Obama, and has continued the cover-up to this day!

The legal wheels are spinning in the U.S., as trillions of dollars have been given to banks which engaged in outright fraud, while their victims have been forced to impose killer austerity. Twelve U.S. Senators, including senior Democrats such as Carl Levin of Michigan and Diane Feinstein of California, sent a letter calling for criminal investigations into the LIBOR crimes.

There is also action on the state and local level, as state and city governments, public pension funds, and others, have been victimized by the rigging of rates. Such entities have been swindled out of billions of dollars, as the investment divisions of the “universal” banks sold “interest rate swaps” and other forms of “risk insurance” to them, to protect against rising interest rates, knowing that the bank divisions of those same banks were rigging the rates – thus forcing their clients to pay up, when their bets went bad. Officials in Baltimore charged that they had to pay when bankers manipulated the interest rate on hundreds of millions borrowed by the city, while Oakland, California has “fired” Goldman Sachs for the fraudulent interest rate “insurance” it sold the city. Seventy-five percent of major U.S. cities have swap contracts linked to LIBOR. In 2010, municipalities paid $4 billion in penalties, to opt out of such deals.

In the meantime, to pay the fees to the swindlers, governments are forced to cut budgets in public safety, health care and education, closing police and fire stations, hospitals and health care centers, to balance budgets – at the cost of human life.

A full investigation into these crimes will incriminate not only Geithner, but President Obama, providing a compelling reason for his removal from office.

[Sabrina]

Ironic considering what really goes on, but no doubt there is more to it all and info. is being made public.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18866018

17 July USA

Senate report: HSBC 'allowed drug money laundering'

HSBC executives will appear before the Senate committee



The report into HSBC, released ahead of a Senate hearing on Tuesday, says huge sums of Mexican drug money almost certainly passed through the bank.

Suspicious funds from Syria, the Cayman Islands, Iran and Saudi Arabia also passed through the bank.

HSBC said it expected to be held accountable for what went wrong.

The damning report comes at a difficult time for the British banking sector, which is having its standards and practices scrutinised by regulators and policymakers.

Critics say the current furore over the manipulation of the Libor inter-bank interest rate is the latest example of a banking system in need of fundamental reform.

The report also concludes that the US bank regulator, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, failed to properly monitor HSBC.

'Held accountable'
The report into HSBC was issued by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, a Congressional watchdog that looks at financial improprieties.


The year-long inquiry, which included a review of 1.4 million documents and interviews with 75 HSBC officials and bank regulators, will be the focus of a hearing on Tuesday at which HSBC executives are scheduled to testify.

These will include HSBC's chief legal officer Stuart Levey, who joined the bank in January and was previously one of the top officials on terrorism and finance at the US Treasury Department.

In a memo released ahead of the hearing, HSBC chief executive Stuart Gulliver said: "It is right that we will be held accountable and that we take responsibility for fixing what went wrong.

"As well as answering the subcommittee's questions, we will explain the significant changes we have already made to strengthen our compliance and risk management infrastructure and culture," he said.

A separate HSBC statement said its executives will offer a formal apology at the hearing.

"We will apologise, acknowledge these mistakes, answer for our actions and give our absolute commitment to fixing what went wrong," the bank said.

Senator Carl Levin, chairman of the sub-committee, spoke of a "polluted" system that allowed black-market funds to move through the US banking system.

In 2010, Wachovia agreed to pay $160m as part of a Justice Department probe that examined Mexican transactions.

Last month, ING agreed to pay $619m to settle US government allegations that it violated US sanctions against Cuba and Iran.

[Sabrina]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/jul/17/hsbc-executive-resigns-senate

17 July

HSBC 'sorry' for aiding Mexican drugs lords, rogue states and terrorists

Executive quits in front of US Senate as bank faces massive fines for 'horrific' lapses that resulted in laundering money for drugs cartels and pariah states

Executives with Europe's biggest bank, HSBC, were subjected to a humiliating onslaught from US senators on Tuesday over revelations that staff at its global subsidiaries laundered billions of dollars for drug cartels, terrorists and pariah states.

Lawmakers hammered the British-based bank over the scandal, demanding to know how and why its affiliates had exposed it to the proceeds of drug trafficking and terrorist financing in a "pervasively polluted" culture that persisted for years.

A report compiled for the committee detailed how HSBC's subsidiaries transported billions of dollars of cash in armoured vehicles, cleared suspicious travellers' cheques worth billions, and allowed Mexican drug lords buy to planes with money laundered through Cayman Islands accounts.

Other subsidiaries moved money from Iran, Syria and other countries on US sanctions lists, and helped a Saudi bank linked to al-Qaida to shift money to the US.

David Bagley, HSBC's head of compliance since 2002, and who had worked with the bank for more than 20 years, resigned before the committee.

"Despite the best efforts and intentions of many dedicated professionals, HSBC has fallen short of our own expectations and the expectations of our regulators," he said.

The bank has been under investigation for nearly a decade, and faces a massive fine from the US justice department for lapses in its safeguards. Senators Carl Levin and Tom Coburn, who conducted the hearing, said the permanent subcommittee of investigations had examined 1.4m documents as part of its review and thanked the bank for its co-operation.

The bank has apologised for its lapses and said reforms had been put in place. Paul Thurston, chief executive of retail banking and wealth management, who was sent in to try and clear up HSBC's Mexican banking business in 2007, said he was "horrified" by what he found.

"I should add that the external environment in Mexico was as challenging as any I had ever experienced. Bank employees faced very real risks of being targeted for bribery, extortion, and kidnapping – in fact, multiple kidnappings occurred throughout my tenure," he said.

The committee had released a damning report on Monday, which detailed a collapse in HSBC's compliance standards. The report showed executives at the bank has consistently warned of problems. At its Mexican subsidiary, one executive had warned the bank was "rubber-stamping unacceptable risks", according to one email gathered by the committee.

HSBC's Mexican operations moved $7bn into the bank's US operations, and according to its own staff, much of that money was tied to drug traffickers. Before the bank executives testified, the committee heard from Leigh Winchell, assistant director for investigative programs at US immigration & customs enforcement. He said 47,000 people had lost their lives since 2006 as a result of Mexican drug traffickers.

The senators highlighted testimony from Leopoldo Barroso, a former HSBC anti money-laundering director, who told company officials in an exit interview that he was concerned about "allegations of 60% to 70% of laundered proceeds in Mexico" going through HSBC's affiliate.

"In hindsight," said Bagley, "I think we all sometimes allowed a focus on what was lawful and compliant rather than what should have been best practices."

Levin and Coburn directed particular ire at a Cayman Islands subsidiary set up by the Mexico division of HSBC. That bank handled 50,000 client accounts and $2.1bn in holdings, but had no staff or offices. Money from the Cayman Islands was used to buy planes for Mexican drug traffickers, said the senators. Bagley said those accounts were all now in the process of being closed.

"Forget hindsight," said Levin. "Is there any way that should have been allowed to happen?"

"No, senator," said Thurston.

Levin repeatedly said that HSBC must have been aware of the problems. "This is something that people knew was going on at the bank," he said.

Bagley and Thurston said that HSBC's compliance had been fragmented and that oversight had been poor. They said that had now been changed. The bank has now adopted a global compliance structure and doubled the amount of money it is spending on oversight.

"Criminals operate globally and if we are to combat them and stop them from accessing and abusing the financial system, we must look at issues from a global perspective. Institutions which operate internationally, like HSBC, will be targeted by these criminals, and our experience in Mexico vividly demonstrates that you are no stronger than your weakest link," said Thurston.

While much of the hearing focused on Mexico, the senators also slammed the bank for dealings in Iran, Syria, Cuba, and other countries on US sanctions lists. HSBC executives continued to so business with Al Rajhi Bank in Saudi Arabia, even after it emerged that its owners had links to organizations financing terrorism and that one of the bank's founders was an early financial benefactor of al-Qaida.

While Coburn was unsparing of his criticism of HSBC, he thanked the bank for its co-operation and said there were issues at other institutions including Citigroup, Wachovia and Western Union.

But the report comes at a highly sensitive moment for British banks in the US. Following Barclays fine in the Libor-interest rate scandal and the massive losses at JP Morgan Chase's London offices US politicians have become increasingly critical of the UK's financial services sector.

At a recent hearing into the JP Morgan losses, Carolyn Maloney, a Democratic representative from New York, said: "It seems to be that every big trading disaster happens in London."

¤=[Post Update]=¤

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-07-17/barclays-said-to-stay-in-u-dot-a-dot-e-dot-rate-setting-panel-for-3-months

17 July

Barclays Plc (BARC), which plans to leave a 12-bank group in the United Arab Emirates whose quotes determine the interbank lending rate, will stay on the panel for the next three months, two people familiar with the matter said.

Barclays was asked by the U.A.E. central bank to remain on the panel to give it time to find a replacement, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private. Yesterday’s meeting didn’t address possible replacements for Barclays on the panel, according to the people.

The bank, Britain’s second-biggest bank by assets, paid a 290 million-pound ($449 million) fine to U.S. and U.K. regulators last month for manipulating the benchmark Libor rate. Barclays’ U.A.E. unit submitted a request to the central bank this month to exit the rate-setting panel in the second-biggest Arab economy, a person familiar with the matter said July 15.

A spokesman for Barclays in Dubai declined to comment. A central bank spokesman also declined to comment.

The central bank uses lending rates from 12 banks operating in the U.A.E. to compute the Emirates Interbank Offered Rate, or Eibor. The interbank rate, used as a benchmark by banks to price loans to customers, is an average after excluding the two lowest and the highest lending rates from the 12 banks.

Citigroup Inc. (C) (C), HSBC Holdings Plc (HSBA) and Standard Chartered Plc. are the other foreign banks on the panel, which also includes eight local lenders including Emirates NBD PJSC (EMIRATES) and National Bank of Abu Dhabi PJSC, according to the central bank website.

[Sabrina]

Tunisia’s Ex-President Willing To Return Stolen Assets



Tunisia’s (Ex-President) Ben Ali to Give Up Swiss-based Assets: Lawyer


By Lin Noueihed, Reuters, Tunis, July 16, 2012

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/16/us-tunisia-benali-assets

(Reuters) – The Tunisian president ousted last year in a popular uprising is willing to hand over to his country any assets found in Switzerland, widely believed to be worth tens of millions of dollars, his lawyer said on Monday.

Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali fled to Saudi Arabia on January 14, 2011 after weeks of protests against his rule, and the new Tunisian government has been trying to recover cash and assets it believes the former leader and his family had stashed abroad.

Ben Ali’s Beirut-based lawyer said he had sent a letter to the Swiss Foreign Ministry to inform it of his client’s willingness to give up any assets held in Switzerland.

“I hereby permit … you to transfer all the alleged assets to the Tunisian state without any further legal or other measures and without the need to make checks with my client,” the letter said, according to a statement by the lawyer, Akram Azoury.

He did not put a number on the assets in question.

During his 23 years in office, Ben Ali, his wife Leila Trabelsi and their extended family are believed by many Tunisians to have accumulated fortunes, stashing money in foreign accounts while unemployment soared at home.

The lavish lifestyle of Trabelsi, a former hairdresser, and her circle was especially seen by many Tunisians as a symbol of corruption in the Ben Ali era.

The new Tunisian leaders have come under immense public pressure to retrieve any Ben Ali assets held abroad and to speed up the slow pace of justice for former officials associated with him.

It is not clear how much money Ben Ali and his entourage held abroad, but the government believes it runs into the billions of dollars.

The justice minister told Reuters in May that Tunisia expected to recover assets held in Lebanon and Switzerland first.

Lebanon has said it would return $45 million in assets belonging Ben Ali’s wife, and Switzerland said a year ago that it had found about 60 million francs ($63 million) linked to Ben Ali and had frozen the accounts.

In October, Switzerland formally accepted a request from Tunisia for judicial assistance in recovering the money.

Switzerland has sent financial and legal experts to fledgling Arab democracies to help authorities unlock a web of transactions. But new governments looking to reclaim cash often have difficulty tracing money that is usually hidden in a network of interlinked trusts, companies and associates.

[foreverfan]

READ BETWEEN THE LINES

HSBC Holdings - Hot Shot Banking Cabal Holdings

[ThePythonicCow]

Interesting, Sabrina. Thanks for updating this thread.

It sure looks to me like we're heading (in 2012) into another, more substantial (than 2008), economic/financial/monetary collapse, and that more major banks and banking executives are going to be taken down, and nations bankrupt.

It's still a "game" ... the real powers that be behind the drug trade on which HSBC was profiting remain quite hidden, and the long history of the use of the drug trade by the Anglo-American empire to finance operations and control other nations colonies remains unmentioned, except in conspiracy circles.

But some of the fronts (governments, banks and executives) are being taken down, as part of the show.

[Alie]

=========================>

At this time and in this thread, it might be interesting to revisit Christopher Story's Last Report:

4 days before he died he claimed he was poisoned ... once you see what he was exposing (cabal & bank related) you'll understand why ...

Source: http://gl-w-documents.blogspot.com/2010/08/gd019-christopher-story-frsa-in.html



"Edward Harle’s (Christopher Story’s) last report:
U.S. CADRES TOO COWARDLY, WEAK AND FECKLESS TO ARREST BUSH SR. FOR FINANCIAL TERRORISM AND OPEN-ENDED WANTON MAFIOSO SABOTAGE
Saturday 10 July 2010 00:01
NEW INFORMATION:
BELOW:
CIA/MI6.OBAMA/BUSH SR./CHENEY ORDERED CHISTOPHER STORY’S ASSASSINATION
AND ARE SUPRISED AND TERRIFIED THAT HE IS NOT DEAD
OBAMA AND BUSH ‘SPOKEN TO’ BY MEN WITH GUNS

• When ‘President’ Barack Hussein Obama touched down on the White House Lawn at 5:30pm on 9th July, he was ‘spoken to’. Enquiries by this service confirm that those doing the ‘speaking’ were not Secret Service operatives. On the contrary they were men with guns.
• Within the past 24-30 hours, private citizen George Godfather H. W. Bush Sr. has likewise been ‘spoken to’ twice. The people doing the ‘speaking’ were men with guns.
• The Chinese have had enough and are ready to take drastic lethal measures.
• Private citizens George H. W. Bush Sr. and Neil Bush think they are immortal and can take the loot they are blocking to the grave.
• Obama, who answers to the private citizen George H. W. Bush Sr., is saying he’s a ‘national citizen’. In order to be President of the United States, under the Constitution and the Soldiers and Sailors Act, you have to be a NATURAL citizen born in the United States or born in a US military family serving abroad.

CIA/CHENEY/MI6/OBAMA/BUSH SR. HAVE ATTEMPTED TO ASSASSINATE CHRISTOPHER STORY

A detailed report on this assassination attempt and the horrible illness inflicted on the Editor as a consequence will be published as soon as feasible.
•We now have proof that the CIA/MI6/Obama/Bush/Cheney issued an assassination order against this Editor. We have proof that they are suprised that the Editor is not dead.
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
• THE WHOLE WORLD AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL KNOWS IN DETAIL ABOUT THIS U.S. CORRUPTION AND CRIMINAL FINANCIAL TERRORISM CRISIS, NOT LEAST FROM THIS WEBSITE. THEY RIGHTLY REGARD THE UNITED STATES AS AN ARROGANT, RUTHLESS PARIAH STATE THAT IMAGINES IT CAN DO WHAT IT PLEASES AS IT DESTROYS ITSELF
• LIENHOLDERS HAVE SEIZED CONTROL OF BANK OF AMERICA, CHARLOTTE, NC., AND OF DEUTSCHE BANK, FRANKFURT AND HAVE CLEANED OUT THE SABOTEURS: SEE BELOW
• HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN SIGNED THE NECESSARY PAYOUT DOCUMENTS, AS EXPECTED, DURING HER VISIT TO NEW YORK. SHE WAS DOUBLE-CROSSED BY BUSH SR.
• SEE KEY POINTS BELOW AND CONFIRMATION IN ATTORNEY-AT-LAW A. CLIFTON HODGES’ LETTER TO THE BRITISH CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER, GEORGE OSBORNE, DATED 8TH JULY 2010. THIS LETTER CONFIRMS ALL OF THE KEY POINTS OUTLINED BELOW.
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
MISPRISION OF FELONY: U.S. CODE, TITLE 18, PART 1, CHAPTER 1, SECTION 4:
‘Whoever, having knowledge of the actual commission of a felony cognizable by a court of the United States, conceals and does not as soon as possible make known the same to some Judge or other person in civil or military authority under the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both’.
‘Seeing what’s at the end of one’s nose requires constant effort’. George Orwell.
• Please be advised that the Editor of International Currency Review and associated intelligence services cannot enter into email correspondence related to this or to any of the earlier reports on the US/German/French official criminality underlying this crisis.
• BOOKS: Edward Harle Limited has so far published FIVE intelligence titles: The Perestroika Deception, by Anatoliy Golitsyn; Red Cocaine, by Dr Joseph D. Douglass, Jr.; The European Union Collective, by Christopher Story; The New Underworld Order, by Christopher Story; and The Red Terror in Russia, by Sergei Melgounov. All titles are permanently in stock.
• By Christopher Story FRSA, Editor and Publisher, International Currency Review, World Reports Limited, London and New York. For earlier reports, press the ARCHIVE. Order your intelligence subscriptions and ‘politically incorrect’ [i.e., correct] intelligence books online.
• CMKM/CMKX CASE DOCUMENTS:
Press Archive for this report [29th January 2010]
Case Number CV10-00031 JVS (MLGx):
SERVICE OF CMKM.CMKX $3.87 TRILLION SUIT VS. S.E.C.
You can also access the CMKM/CMKX text at: http://viewer.zoho.com/docs/paKdda
The biggest lawsuit in world legal history: The phantom share giga-scandal.
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
• OUR U.S. LANDLINES ARE NOW PERMANENTLY CLOSED BECAUSE OF U.S. HARASSMENT.
WE CAN BE CONTACTED VIA EMAIL, UK FAX OR VIA THE WEBSITE ‘CONTACT US’ FACILITY.
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
• FOR LATEST INFORMATION ON OUR INTELLIGENCE PUBLICATIONS, SEE SECOND PANEL.
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
EMAIL POLICY: All anonymous emails from parties who are too wet and scared to provide their full coordinates as required by our ‘Contact Us’ facility are trashed unread. All uncouth, New Age, rude, discourteous, blasphemous, satanic, goss, filthy and otherwise objectionable emails, including ignorant rants promoting ‘Black’ revisionist claptrap about e.g. the British Monarchy ‘owning’ America and other old Nazi ‘Black’ propaganda emanating from the CIA’s massive lie and disinformation apparat, are trashed. For many years this website has carried a statement at the foot of the reports stating in crystal clear English that we will NOT enter into correspondence concerning the current and earlier reports posted on this website.
• We use simple, plain English so that people can understand what we say.
• We correspond with known and trusted correspondents only. Stray questions about of the blue on matters connected with the Settlements are not answered.
As you can see from the above, we have closed down all our communications because of interminable and intolerable harassment from the United States. We have also added a large number of parties to our ‘Black List’ so that their incessant emails bounce.
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••*
NEW REPORT STARTS HERE:
• KEY POINTS:
• The Lienholders exercised a foreclosure and management takeover on Friday 2nd and Saturday 3rd July 2010 of Deutsche Bank, Frankfurt, Germany and of Bank of America, Charlotte, NC. They took this action due to ongoing sabotage by the US official keptocracy.
• They immediately removed people in both banks working for the saboteurs and opponents of the necessary resolutions and cleared derivatives (toxic debt) off the balance sheets.
• This took Deutsche Bank out of the control of Bush Sr.’s agent [see earlier reports: Archive], Chancellor Angela Merkel, and the saboteurs in Germany.
• Likewise they took the CIA’s compromised Bank of America out of the control of the corrupt bankers and CIA saboteurs in the United States.
• Her Majesty The Queen signed the necessary authorities for the Refunding Programme, the Loan Facility and other necessary papers during her visit to New York, as expected.
• As a result of the above the necessary funds were available for distribution
on Tuesday 6th July 2010.
• As usual, George Bush Sr. interfered, as a consequence of which the Chinese parties had a ‘talk’ with the corrupt, demonic Godfather Bush Sr.
• By 7th July (Wednesday) a full meeting of Compliance Officers had taken place and the parties were again said to be prepared to initiate the transfers.
• Whereupon the corrupt Leon Panetta, Director of Central Intelligence (CIA), pathetically following ‘instructions’ issued by a private citizen named George H. W. Bush and issued to his poodle in the White House, the gutless Barack Hussein Obama, issued instructions to banking authorities the ‘placate but do not pay’ (accounting for the immediate lies summarised below), thus ‘preventing’ the feckless and terrified banking authorities from making any transfers.
• Bush Sr.’s poodle, Barack Hussein Obama, is too weak and lacking in backbone to grasp that Bush Sr.’s threats [see below] are BLUFF. He lacks the spine to stand up to this crook and face him down, which is the only way to deal with these possessed ‘Black’ US Nazi operatives, as we have amply demonstrated on this website
• On 7th July, the Chinese authorities then had another talk’ with Bush Sr., as a consequence of which the payout procedures were put back in place on that date, to start up at 3:00pm EDT..
• Having thus lied as usual to the Chinese parties, private citizen Bush Sr. contacted Barack Hussein Obama and INSTRUCTED HIM not to allow the release of the funds.
• In that telephone call to the White House, Bush Sr. also threatened that if Obama authorised release of the funds, Bush Sr. would go to the Supreme Court and have Obama’s Presidency terminated’ [see earlier reports, notably the Biden comment on this score].
• As a consequence, the terrified and gutless Obama obeyed the private citizen George H. W. Bush and the agreed-upon payout of the Settlement funds has not taken place.
• Michael C. Cottrell, BA, M.S., was duly advised on Tuesday 6th July that the preliminary payment due to him would be satisfied on that date and that the Loan Facility would be in place on Thursday 8th July 2010.
• On Friday 9th July ‘the word went out’ that Mr Cottrell was not to be paid, the opposite of what had been categorically stated earlier.
• The payments agreed to and set out in the Basel List have not been affected as a direct consequence of this sabotage.
• Given the above, Gold Badges, US Law Enforcement, the corrupted US military under the former CIA Director Robert Gates, et al., are all in continuing dereliction of their duty in failing to arrest and lock up the Financial Terrorist George H. W. Bush Sr., either because they, like Joseph Biden, are all blackmailed and compromised, or because they fear that Mr Bush Sr.’s thuggists will murder them, and because they lack the intelligence to understand that Bush Sr.’s behaviour amounts to nothing more than the familiar childish, weak Psy-Ops BLUFF and bullying overfamiliar to students of the Mafiosi Godfathers, of which this criminal is the most ruthless and dangerous operative alive today.
• US law enforcement, Gold badges, feckless CIA operatives, cloth-eared, arrogant and corrupt US military cadres have accordingly dragged the reputation of the United States below sewer level in the eyes of all in the know at highest levels worldwide, with their gutless behaviour.
• Everyone who is anyone in positions of relevant importance worldwide is fully aware of this scandalous state of affairs, not least from this website, which has enormous clout ‘where it matters’. They had better exercise their powers to put an end to what is undoubtedly the biggest financial terrorism and corruption crisis in world history.
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
LETTER FROM ATTORNEY-AT-LAW A. CLIFTON HODGES TO GEORGE OSBORNE,
BRITISH CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER: 8TH JULY 2010
HODGES AND ASSOCIATES
A PROFESSIONAL LAW CORPORATION
4 EAST HOLLY STREET
SUITE 202
PASADENA
CA 91103
Telephone: (626) 564-9797
Facsimile: (626) 564-9111
A. Clifton Hodges
James S. Kostas
Donald W. Ricketts*
*Of Counsel
July 8th, 2010
MOST URGENT
Sent Via E-Mail and Facsimile
The Right Honorable George Osborne, MP
Chancellor of the Exchequer
HM Treasury
Horse Guards Road
London SW1A 2HQ
Fax No. 020 7270 4580
Re: U.S. Dollar Refunding Project
Dear Honorable George Osborne:
I write to you once more in furtherance of matters raised in my prior correspondence of June 25, 2010; I understand that you have received instructions regarding my approach, and the various points raised in my earlier messages. Your assistance is most urgently required in addressing these matters, and the apparent disavowal of earlier agreements made and reaffirmed at previous G-8 meetings concerning the U.S. Dollar Refunding Project. I write on behalf of my clients Michael C. Cottrell, B.A., M.S., of Erie, Pennsylvania, USA, and his corporations: Pennsylvania Investments, Inc., registered in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and Cottrell Securities Limited, registered in England and Wales.
The events of the past week are difficult to understand, and impossible to tolerate. I am advised and understand that the Lienholders executed a foreclosure and management takeover Fri-Sat 2-3 July of Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt, Germany, and of Bank of America in Charlotte, NC.
They “cleaned out” both banks of people working for the opponents and cleared toxic debt [including derivatives] off the bank balance sheets. Accordingly, they took DB out of the control of Angela Merkel and opponents in Germany, and they took BOA out of all possible control by the opponents in this country. As a result of these actions, it was expected that the World Global Settlement funds could be distributed this week.
These funds were available for distribution on Tuesday, July 6. Because George Bush Sr. was initiating interference, the Chinese authorities then had a “talk” with Bush Sr. By Wednesday afternoon a full Compliance Officer meeting had been conducted, and the appropriate parties were again prepared to initiate the transfers when Mr. Leon Panetta, pursuant to instructions from President Obama and George Bush Sr. issued instructions to the banking authorities to “placate but do not pay”; this prevented the authorities from making any such transfers. I am advised that the Chinese authorities then had another “talk” with Bush Sr., and all was ready again on today, July 7, and set to commence @ 3:00 PM EDT.
At approximately 3:00 PM EDT, I am told by several sources, George Bush Sr. apparently contacted President Obama and instructed him not to allow release of the funds. Bush Sr. then advised the President that if the funds were released, Bush would “go to the Supreme Court and have Obama’s Presidency terminated”. In accord with these instructions, the payout of the World Global Settlement funds has not proceeded.
THE PAYMENTS PREVIOUSLY AGREED TO AND SET FORTH ON THE BASEL LIST HAVE NOT BEEN MADE AS A DIRECT RESULT OF THESE CONTINUED DELAYS. Direct intervention through your good offices on behalf of the Royal Monarchal Power, is absolutely required to bring this matter to conclusion. To secure release of these Settlement funds, it is imperative that your power as one of the U.S. Treasury Lienholders, be exercised with such force as may be required to effect completion.
I respectfully plead that you utilize the inherent Royal Monarchal Power at the earliest possible moment to ensure completion of this funding. Thank you in advance for your assistance; please contact me directly if I can provide any additional information or help.
Sincerely,
HODGES AND ASSOCIATES
A. CLIFTON HODGES
ACH/gm
Cc: Lindell H. Bonney, Sr.
Colonel Dana Wilcox
Michael C. Cottrell, BA, MS
President Barack Obama
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II
Interpol, USNCB
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
THE FOLLOWING DATA HAS BEEN PUBLISHED AT THE FOOT
OF MOST OF THESE REPORTS FOR THE PAST THREE YEARS++:
• COMPILED BY U.S. SECURITIES EXPERT MICHAEL C. COTTRELL, B.A., M.S..
LIST OF U.S. STATUTES, SECURITIES REGULATIONS AND LEGAL PRINCIPLES OF WHICH THE CRIMINALISTS AND ALL THE MAIN FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS REMAIN IN BREACH:
LEGAL TUTORIAL: The Steps of Common Fraud:
Step 1: Fraud in the Inducement: “… is intended to and which does cause one to execute an instrument, or make an agreement… The misrepresentation involved does not mislead one as the paper he signs but rather misleads as to the true facts of a situation, and the false impression it causes is a basis of a decision to sign or render a judgment”.
Source: Steven H. Gifis, ‘Law Dictionary’, 5th Edition, Hauppauge:
Barron’s Educational Series, Inc., 2003, s.v.: ‘Fraud’.
Step 2: Fraud in Fact by Deceit (Obfuscation and Denial) and Theft:
• “ACTUAL FRAUD. Deceit. Concealing something or making a false representation with an evil intent [scanter] when it causes injury to another…”. Source: Steven H. Gifis, ‘Law Dictionary’, 5th Edition, Happauge: Barron’s Educational Series, Inc., 2003, s.v.: ‘Fraud’.
• “THE TORT OF FRAUDULENT DECEIT… The elements of actionable deceit are: A false representation of a material fact made with knowledge of its falsity, or recklessly, or without reasonable grounds for believing its truth, and with intent to induce reliance thereon, on which plaintiff justifiably relies on his injury…”. Source: Steven H. Gifis, ‘Law Dictionary’, 5th Edition, Happauge: Barron’s Educational Series, Inc., 2003, s.v.: ‘Deceit’.
Step 3: Theft by Deception and Fraudulent Conveyance:
THEFT BY DECEPTION:
• “FRAUDULENT CONCEALMENT… The hiding or suppression of a material fact or circumstance which the party is legally or morally bound to disclose…”.
• “The test of whether failure to disclose material facts constitutes fraud is the existence of a duty, legal or equitable, arising from the relation of the parties: failure to disclose a material fact with intent to mislead or defraud under such circumstances being equivalent to an actual ‘fraudulent concealment’…”.
• To suspend running of limitations, it means the employment of artifice, planned to prevent inquiry or escape investigation and mislead or hinder acquirement of information disclosing a right of action, and acts relied on must be of an affirmative character and fraudulent…”.
Source: Black, Henry Campbell, M.A., ‘Black’s Law Dictionary’, Revised 4th Edition, St Paul: West Publishing Company, 1968, s.v. ‘Fraudulent Concealment’.
FRAUDULENT CONVEYANCE:
• “FRAUDULENT CONVEYANCE… A conveyance or transfer of property, the object of which is to defraud a creditor, or hinder or delay him, or to put such property beyond his reach…”.
• “Conveyance made with intent to avoid some duty or debt due by or incumbent or person (entity) making transfer…”.
Source: Black, Henry Campbell, M.A., ‘Black’s Law Dictionary’, Revised 4th Edition, St Paul: West Publishing Company, 1968, s.v. ‘Fraudulent Conveyance’.
U.S. SECURITIES REGULATIONS OF WHICH INSTITUTIONS
HAVE BEEN SHOWN TO BE IN BREACH [SEE REPORTS]:
• NASD Rule 3120, et al.
• NASD Rule 2330, et al
• NASD Conduct Rules 2110 and 3040
• NASD Conduct Rules 2110 and IM-2110-1
• NASD Conduct Rules 2110 and SEC Rule 15c3-1
• NASD Conduct Rules 2110 and 3110
• SEC Rules 17a-3 and 17a-4
• NASD Conduct Rules 2110 and Procedural Rule 8210
• NASD Conduct Rules 2110 and 2330 and IM-2330
• NASD Conduct Rules 2110 and IM-2110-5
• NASD Systems and Programme Rules 6950 through 6957
• 97-13 Bank Secrecy Act, Recordkeeping Rule for funds transfers and transmittals of funds, et al.
U.S. LAWS ROUTINELY BREACHED BY THE CRIMINAL OPERATIVES AND INSTITUTIONS:
• Annunzio-Wylie Anti-Money Laundering Act
• Anti-Drug Abuse Act
• Applicable international money laundering restrictions
• Bank Secrecy Act
• Crimes, General Provisions, Accessory After the Fact [Title 18, USC]
• Currency and Foreign Transactions Reporting Act
• Economic Espionage Act
• Hobbs Act
• Imparting or Conveying False Information [Title 18, USC]
• Maloney Act
• Misprision of Felony [Title 18, USC] (1)
• Money-Laundering Control Act
• Money-Laundering Suppression Act
• Organized Crime Control Act of 1970
• Perpetration of repeated egregious felonies by State and Federal public employees and their Departments and agencies, which are co-responsible with the said employees for ONGOING illegal and criminal actions, to sustain fraudulent operations and crimes in order to cover up criminalist activities and High Crimes and Misdemeanours by present and former holders of high office under the United States
• Provisions pertaining to private business transactions being protected under both private and criminal penalties [H.R. 3723]
• Provisions prohibiting the bribing of foreign officials [F.I.S.A.]
• Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act [R.I.C.O.]
• Securities Act 1933
• Securities Act 1934
• Terrorism Prevention Act
• Treason legislation, especially in time of war.
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
NOTICES:
BEWARE OF MALICIOUS IMITATIONS: It has come to our notice that certain websites have been in the habit of copying reports from this site, attributing the reports to the Editor of this service, but at the same time INSERTING TEXT NOT WRITTEN BY THE EDITOR.
• This is a very old, malevolent US counterintelligence DIRTY TRICK.
Therefore, you should be advised that the GENUINE ORIGINAL REPORT is, by obvious definition, accessible ONLY FROM THIS WEBSITE. If you come across an article elsewhere that is attributed to the Editor of this service, you should refer to the ORIGINAL ARTICLE HERE and you should bear in mind that the illegally duplicated article may contain text that was NOT written by the Editor of this service, but which was inserted for malicious purposes by counterintelligence.
Likewise, although we haven’t yet had time to elaborate this issue, we have taken drastic steps around the world to close off the malicious piracy of our books. One technique used by several disreputable sites (in the United States, the Netherlands and Switzerland) is to copy our title(s) and
(a) to display an image of the front cover WITHOUT THE ISBN DATA at the top of the cover; and
(b) to DELETE THE COPYRIGHT PAGE.
In so doing, the criminal pirates proclaimed that they knew perfectly well that they were/are engaged in theft and can be prosecuted for stealing copyright.
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
• Please be advised that the Editor of International Currency Review and associated intelligence services cannot enter into email correspondence related to this or to any of the earlier reports.
We are a private intelligence publishing house and have no connections to any outside parties including intelligence agencies. The word ‘intelligence’ on this website and in all our marketing material is used for marketing/sales purposes only and has no other connotations whatsoever: see ‘About Us’ on the red panels under the Notes on the Editor, Christopher Story FRSA, who has been solely and exclusively engaged as an investigative journalist, Editor, Author and private financial and current affairs Publisher since 1963 and is not and never has been an agent for a foreign power, suggestions to the contrary being actionable for libel in the English Court.
© 2010 World Reports Limited • Edward Harle Limited • Global Analysis Limited • Website by Layer1"

[GoodETxSG]

And the walls come tumbling down... brick by brick!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2174785/HSBC-scandal-Britains-biggest-bank-let-drug-gangs-launder-millions--faces-640million-fine.html#ixzz20wBOUDlW

HSBC let drug gangs launder millions: First Barclays, now Britain's biggest bank is shamed - and faces a £640million fine
HSBC moved huge sum from Mexico into the U.S. between 2007 and 2008
Provided services for Saudi Arabia's Al Rajhi Bank linked to financing terrorism
Senate investigation suggests they also moved money tied to Iran
Accuses bank of 'pervasively polluted' culture
Another hammer blow to the credibility of British banking system after Barclays was fined for allegedly rigging LIBOR interest rate

[Sabrina]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/jul/19/euribor-rate-rigging-scandal-widens?newsfeed=true

19 July

Euribor rate-rigging investigation widens to four more banks

Regulators are scrutinising relationships that banks such as HSBC, Deutsche Bank, Société Générale and Crédit Agricole may have had with a former Barclays trader

The rate-rigging scandal that has enveloped Barclays appears to be widening as questions are raised over the relationship between its staff and employees at other banks in the ongoing investigations into attempted interest rate manipulation.

According to the Financial Times, regulators are scrutinising relationships that banks such as HSBC, Germany's Deutsche Bank and the French banks Société Générale and Crédit Agricole may have had with a former Barclays trader, raising questions over the allegations relating to attempts to manipulate the European equivalent of Libor, known as Euribor.

According to the FT, sources suggest that one of the unidentified traders in the regulatory notices issued last month may be Philippe Moryoussef.

Barclays was hit with a £290m fine last month for attempting to manipulate interest rates. Moryoussef is not accused of wrongdoing. The FT said he had not been interviewed by any authority investigating potential manipulation of Libor or other benchmark rates.

Moryoussef worked at Barclays between 2005 and 2007 before joining other banks including Royal Bank of Scotland, according to the FSA register. He left the Japanese bank Nomura last month. The bank said: "Nomura is aware of the investigation into the setting of Euribor and Libor rates. We would point out that Nomura is not a member of either the Euribor panel or the Libor panel, and therefore has no role in the setting of those rates."

According to the FT, the regulators are said to be looking at suspected communications between Moryoussef and Michael Zrihen at Crédit Agricole, Didier Sander at HSBC and Christian Bittar at Deutsche Bank, none of whom are thought to be still employed by these banks. No allegations of wrongdoing have been made against any of these individuals by regulators or their former employers. None of them could be reached for comment.

The Barclays fine covered two broad timeframes: the period between 2005 and 2007 when Barclays was said to have attempted to manipulate rates for traders; and the period of the financial crisis when it reduced its submission to the rate-setting panel for fear of attracting negative publicity. The latest revelations cover the period before the 2008 financial crisis and focus on Euribor. At least 20 banks and financial firms are thought to be helping the authorities in many countries with their inquiries into both Libor and Euribor.

Barclays – whose chief executive Bob Diamond has quit – has argued that it was the first to settle. In an internal memo sent last week, co-signed by the chairman, Marcus Agius, Barclays apologised for the impact of the scandal on staff, but added: "As other banks settle with authorities, and their details become public, and various governments' inquiries shed more light, our situation will eventually be put in perspective."

On Wednesday night Deutsche Bank referred to its latest regulatory disclosure in which it stated that it had "received various subpoenas and requests for information from certain regulators and governmental entities" around the world and that these related to "various periods between 2005 and 2011".

HSBC declined to comment beyondreferred to a statement in its annual report in which it stated that "various regulators and competition and enforcement authorities around the world" are "conducting investigations related to certain past submissions made by panel banks" in connection to Libor.

Société Générale said it was "fully co-operating with regulators over the Euribor investigation which also includes many other banksand so far no allegations of wrongdoing by any authorities have been made against us".

Crédit Agricole said in a statement that it had responded to requests for information from authorities but "has not been accused of any wrongdoing." It added that it only became a contributor to the Libor panel in 2010.

[Sabrina]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/9413294/LSE-in-merger-talks-with-Singapore-exchange.html

LSE in merger talks with Singapore exchange
The London Stock Exchange Group is in talks with the owner of the Singapore exchange about a potential £7.2bn merger.

story at link hmmm..

and

the game continues...


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/9411982/Wall-Street-is-ready-to-pounce-on-the-City-and-we-must-defend-it.html

19 July

Wall Street is ready to pounce on the City, and we must defend it
Despite the scandals, London’s global financial centre remains a priceless asset

Nicolas Sarkozy always hated the City of London. He despised the way that the most gifted traders in Paris would climb aboard the Eurostar on a Monday morning to make their money (and pay taxes) in Britain. To Wall Street chiefs, the success of Britain’s financial centre was just as galling. America is supposed to be the leader of the free world, and yet somehow it was London that emerged as the true global capital, a magnet for the smartest financiers on the planet. The European Commission has been out to destroy the City since its inception, horrified at how the eurozone’s launch only accelerated the exodus from Frankfurt. Yet for almost two decades, London has seemed indomitable.

No longer. The City today stands more vulnerable than at any point in its modern history with the Americans, the Japanese and even the Swiss launching their own investigations into skulduggery over the Libor rate-fixing scandal. Their collective ambition is becoming increasingly clear. It doesn’t matter if the Libor rigging was only being cooked up by a handful of traders in one niche of the City. Here is a chance, perhaps the best they will ever get, to declare the entire place corrupt and claw some business back. If they move quickly enough, the Brits may not even put up a fight.

A quick walk around Canary Wharf explains the depth of our rivals’ resentment. The complex itself is a gleaming monument to London’s global triumph, a mini-Manhattan built from a disused dockyard and filled with the biggest taxpayers on the continent. Here you can see Californian insurers and Chinese lawyers, many of them overseeing business that has nothing to do with Britain. If a Japanese company does a deal with a Korean company, it is not unusual for them to ask for the agreement to be underwritten by English law, because our system is seen as the fairest on the planet. In this way, an Asian mega-merger can create jobs in Britain, thanks to the international reputation of the City.

America has lost out in this global race, due to a basic defect in its national psyche: for all its love of the free market, it remains strikingly protectionist. Its courts are seen overseas as being more likely to favour American companies in any dispute, and at the top of most Wall Street banks you can usually find Americans. In London, on the other hand, there is no such bias. Workers are judged by the content of their character, not the colour of their passport.

The City operates a kind of Wimbledon model. We provide the venue, foreigners come here to play each other and walk off with the trophy, and it is seen as a thoroughly British contest and part of our national life.

The recession has not changed the basics of globalisation: the world is still flat, and capital is still very mobile. There is nothing that the EU authorities can do to stop Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse moving their international investment headquarters to London, except complain. And wait for London to stumble – which it now has.

Perhaps because of its huge share of the world market, London is now the scene of many a global financial crime. The downfalls of Lehman Brothers, AIG and Bear Stearns can all be traced back to deals done in their London offices. The recent $2 billion trading loss at JP Morgan, the alleged $2.3 billion fraud at UBS and an unhealthy chunk of the Icelandic madness are all being linked to EC1. And this largely explains why the Libor scandal is going global: it was an utterly unregulated interest rate system that was used around the world, thanks to London’s global dominance.

Wall Street’s pursuit of the City is being driven by a mixture of justified anger and rank opportunism. While the Brits are trying to pin the Libor scandal on Barclays, the Americans are gunning for the entire London establishment. Timothy Geithner, the US Treasury Secretary, is making it crystal clear that he told Sir Mervyn King about the Libor rigging four years ago – suggesting that the Bank of England itself hushed up the scandal. Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve, adds that he still lacks “full confidence” in Libor. Other American regulators mutter darkly about how, even now, the Brits are obstructing investigations.

Many in Wall Street want the word to go out: deals that happen in London may be more than a little dodgy. The American banks are better capitalised than most of their European counterparts, and are well placed to swoop. This week’s extraordinary 400-page report into HSBC by the US Senate, detailing its lack of money-laundering controls, reads more like an assassination attempt than a political inquiry. And HBSC’s staggering failings gave ample ammunition to the Americans, who talk about the need to find a solution to the “London problem”.

This may mean new regulations pulling American banks back into US-regulated environments. Or there may just be a sustained attempt to blacken London’s name. While that may take some time, the European Commission is poised to swoop instantly. It has just completed a plan to regulate hedge funds, 70 per cent of which are in London. Normally, a British chancellor would say this is a democratic outrage – why should Brussels regulate an industry that chose to settle in London to escape the Eurocrats? But the Libor scandal makes it harder than ever for George Osborne to defend the City.

With the City helpless, a blitz is being launched by a squadron of foreign regulators. Even Canadians are joining in, launching their own Libor investigation and bizarrely demanding that the Royal Bank of Scotland (which owns almost nothing in Canada) hand over its internal emails. In theory, the City should be defended by Vince Cable, the Business Secretary. In practice, he’s denouncing it as a “massive cesspit”, making horribly clear how utterly alone it is.

The bankers could retort that the City includes equity researchers, commodity traders, insurance experts – none of whom had the slightest role in the scandals. They could explain that the financial sector is one of the few things that Britain still does demonstrably better than anyone else. Not a penny of the deficit, or the £1 trillion national debt, can be blamed on banking bail-outs, much as it may suit politicians to pretend otherwise. But today, not even the bankers dare defend the bankers. They have become the new untouchables.

And yet, even now, with workers in the banking sector so unpopular that they pretend to be estate agents or journalists, Britain’s financial sector still produces a greater trade surplus with the rest of the world than all the other parts of the economy combined. It generates 12p in every pound of tax collected. It remains a global phenomenon, with only Wall Street to rival it. The question is not whether the City of London is worth defending. It is a question of how soon it can be defended, by whom, and what penalty to inflict on Mr Cable if he uses the word “cesspit” again.

The City has had spectacular problems, and much of the damage is self-inflicted. But what is rotten about it is outweighed not just by what is good, but by what is truly extraordinary. What the City needs now, most of all, is a government minister with the gumption to say so.

[Sabrina]

http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/ex-sime-ceo-arrested-for-graft-to-be-charged-tomorrow/

16 July Malaysia

Ex-Sime CEO arrested for graft, to be charged tomorrow

KUALA LUMPUR, July 16 — Former Sime Darby chief executive Datuk Seri Ahmad Zubir Murshid was arrested today and will be charged tomorrow for alleged criminal breach of trust (CBT) over a RM80 million land deal in a case that may open a can of worms for the government conglomerate’s operations.

Ahmad Zubir surrendered himself to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) at its headquarters in Putrajaya earlier this afternoon and had his statement recorded.

MACC’s director of investigations, Datuk Mustafa Ali, confirmed the arrest but declined to elaborate, English-language daily The Star reported.

Ahmad Zubir was subsequently released on bail, the paper reported.

He had been expected to be charged at the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court earlier today.

But an MACC official who declined to be named told The Malaysian Insider the prosecution would be delayed until tomorrow as the case had not been registered yet.

Two years ago, Ahmad Zubir was removed from his position as the president and group head of the government-linked plantations-to-property giant and replaced by Datuk Azhar Abdul Hamid, who was then the head of Sime Darby Plantations.

He had been asked to take a leave of absence prior to the expiry of his contract on November 26, 2010 following concerns over cost overruns amounting to RM964 million from the four troubled projects in the energy and utilities division, namely the Bulhanine and Maydan Mahzam project with Qatar Petroleum, the Maersk Oil Qatar project, the Bakun hydroelectric dam project in Sarawak, and the “Marine Project”.

Sime Darby’s energy and utilities division reported an operating loss of RM1.7 billion for 2010 after making additional provisions of RM777.3 million for the fourth quarter.

The last time Sime Darby saw such a large loss at one of its units came after the 1997 Asian financial crisis when a plunge in the stock market and a sharp depreciation of the ringgit led its financial arm, Sime Bank, to post a RM1.6 billion loss — the largest in Malaysian banking history — for the six months to December 1997.

The conglomerate turned in a net profit of RM726 million for 2010 despite reporting a fourth-quarter net loss after tax and minority interest of RM77.4 million.

Sime Darby reported RM1 billion in net profit for the fourth quarter of last year and a net profit of RM2.3 billion for the whole of 2009.

[Corncrake]

Sabrina - I haven't thanked you enough for the great job you do here. Looking at all the pieces of the puzzle and of course being aware of who is writing the articles and their own particular agendas is the only way of reaching any true understanding of what is going on. I have just read a full account of the machinations behind the scenes leading up to the Leveson Inquiry: 'Dial M for Murdoch' and yet again have been made aware that the tentacles of corruption reach out far and wide and into places one would not expect.

[Sabrina]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/13/pfgbest-ceo-arrested-idUSL2E8IDDHT20120713

Russell Wasendorf Sr arrested for lying to regulators

* Admitted to 20 years of fraud in suicide note: FBI

* Federal complaint alleges false statements from 2010-2012

By P.J. Huffstutter and Tom Polansek

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa/CHICAGO, July 13 (Reuters) - Russell Wasendorf Sr, arrested on Friday, confessed to a 20-year fraud at his now-bankrupt Iowa brokerage, saying business troubles and his "big" ego left him no choice: "So I cheated."

In the dramatic conclusion to a week-long saga that has shaken trader confidence in the trillion-dollar U.S. futures markets, authorities released parts of a detailed statement in which one of the industry's best-known veterans explained how he used little more than a rented P.O. Box, Photoshop and inkjet printers to dupe regulators in a more than $100 million scheme.

FBI agents arrested Wasendorf, 64, at the Iowa City hospital where he has been since trying to commit suicide on Monday. He was charged with making false statements to regulators, but prosecutors said they would seek more charges. He faces "decades in prison", Assistant U.S. Attorney Peter Deegan said.

In the signed statement, left along with a suicide note and released as part of the criminal complaint, Wasendorf said he began forging bank documents after the business he built from his basement risked failing without additional capital. The timeline suggests his deceit lasted almost the entire life of his brokerage.

"I was forced into a difficult decision: Should I go out of business or cheat?" he wrote.

"I guess my ego was too big to admit failure. So I cheated," the note said. It was discovered on Monday in his car outside the company's new Iowa headquarters, where Wasendorf had tried to kill himself by funneling in tailpipe exhaust.

The arrest ends much of the mystery that has enveloped the futures industry this week. But it will not ease the pain of betrayal in the small Iowa town that Wasendorf made his corporate home in 2009, nor the anger of a financial industry still smarting from the failure of rival brokerage MF Global.

"I have committed fraud," Wasendorf wrote in the note, the contents of which he later told authorities were true. "I feel constant and intense guilt."

Yet he also wrote in almost boastful detail about the "blunt authority" that allowed him to control the flow of documents into the company; how he used a simple post office box to trick "unquestioning" regulators; and his skill in turning out forged bank statements within hours that "no one suspected."

Wearing a blue polo shirt, jeans and a white hospital bracelet around his left wrist, Wasendorf shuffled into a Cedar Rapids courtroom with slumped shoulders hours after his arrest. He was handcuffed, chained at the waist, and his legs were shackled.

He did not enter a plea at the initial appearance, and told Magistrate Judge Jon Stuart Scoles that he was taking anti-depressants. He will be held at an undisclosed location at least until his next court appearance on Wednesday, Deegan said.

A spokeswoman for PFGBest, which had been one of the industry's 10 largest independently owned futures brokers before collapsing this week, could not be reached for comment. The company is now in Chapter 7 liquidation proceedings.

REGULATORY SHOCK

Wasendorf's downfall has shocked his family and colleagues and has shattered his image in his adopted hometown of Cedar Falls, Iowa, where he moved PFGBest's headquarters in 2009 after building an $18 million complex that included day-care, a four-star cafeteria and state of the art geothermal climate control.

With an unusual empire including a Romanian property company and a glossy magazine, Wasendorf's ego stood out even in the rough and tumble world of the Chicago futures industry. He proudly underwrote big-name guest speakers at industry events and held private VIP receptions for them, and flashed a jeweled pinky ring. His favorite quote, according to his Facebook page, was, "If I wanted patience, I would buy it."

More widely, his fall also rattles investors' confidence in the pillars of the futures markets: brokers' safeguarding of client money, and, equally important, regulators' ability to police the industry.

The prolonged nature of the fraud is sharpening criticism of regulators like the National Futures Association, the industry group that had first-line responsibility for overseeing non-exchange brokers like PFG. MF Global, by contrast, is believed to have tapped into client funds in a desperate bid to keep itself afloat during its final days.

"It's stomach churning," said Lauren Nelson, director of communications for Attain Capital, an introducing broker specializing in managed futures in Chicago that had accounts at PFGBest. "It's unbelievable that this was able to be going on for so long without the regulators noticing."

'WITHOUT QUESTION'

The federal complaint alleges that, from 2010 through July of 2012, Wasendorf made false statements to the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission regarding the value of customer segregated funds held by Wasendorf's Iowa-based company.

But Wasendorf in the statement said the forgeries started "nearly twenty years ago," suggesting he was fooling regulators from the very beginning. Peregrine was first registered as a futures brokerage in 1992, according to its website.

The deceit evolved with the world, and Wasendorf "established rules and procedures as each new situation arose."

When auditors began contacting banks directly to verify brokers' balances, he opened a post office box in the name of Firstar Bank -- later U.S. Bank -- and intercepted the confidential forms, he said. He returned doctored statements that had been inflated by more than $200 million, more than half of PFGBest's total customer funds.

As he quickly learned how to falsify online bank statements amid the rise of Internet-based banking, Wasendorf wrote that "regulators accepted them without question."

Until now, apparently. The NFA started a new audit of PFGBest about two weeks ago, demanding for the first time that he allow its auditors an electronic, direct look at his bank accounts, NFA's non-executive chairman Chris Hehmeyer said.

"They are the ones that uncovered this whole thing," Hehmeyer said in an interview. "If they hadn't caught him, it could have gotten a lot bigger."

Wasendorf gave NFA the authority to do so on Sunday, Hehmeyer said.

The audit may have set off a series of unexpected events in the weeks before he tried to take his own life. Wasendorf flew to Las Vegas to marry his fiancee on June 30, more than a month before the wedding he had planned in Cedar Falls. He signed over power of attorney to his son, Russell Wasendorf Jr., on July 3.

Russell Jr., also the company's president, was in the dark about his father's alleged crimes, said his lawyer, Nicholas Iavarone, who represented PFGBest for 23 years. Wasendorf Jr. has been assisting authorities in the investigation, he added.

"Working on something as traumatic as this and as personally devastating, it's just been a very hard week," Iavarone said in an interview.

Separately in Washington, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on Friday approved a new regulation called the "Corzine rule," designed to beef up the protection of customer funds after the collapse of MF Global, which is believed to have misused up to $1.6 billion of clients just before it collapsed.

SOLE CONTROL, INK-JET PRINTERS

The letter does not explain why Peregrine Financial Group needed capital. The brokerage industry is low-margin and can be cutthroat, particularly to newcomers like Wasendorf, who was an Iowa outsider scrapping to get a foothold in the clubby Chicago community.

Wasendorf said he had sole control over the U.S. Bank accounts and could make counterfeit statements within a few hours using a combination of Photoshop, Excel spreadsheets, scanner and both laser and ink-jet printers, according to the complaint.

He hid his fraud from others at PFGBest "with careful concealment and blunt authority," ordering that the bank statements should be delivered directly to him unopened and that bank employees should only speak to him, the complaint said.

"If anyone questioned my authority, I would simply point out that I was the sole shareholder."

Wasendorf's note said "no one else in the company" ever saw the real bank statements before he doctored them.

CFTC and the National Futures Association have accused the firm and Wasendorf of misappropriating more than $200 million in customer funds.

[Sabrina]

http://www.socialjustice.ie/content/income-poorest-households-fell-more-18-one-year-while-income-richest-households-rose-4
Ireland

Income of poorest households fell by more than 18% in one year while the income of richest households rose by 4%
The disposable income of Ireland’s poorest households fell by 18.6% in a single year while the income of the richest rose by 4.1%. (Disposable income is the income one has after taxes paid and social welfare received.)

Today the top 10 per cent of the population receives almost 14 times more disposable income than the poorest 10 per cent receive (28.5% compared to 2.06%). It was 8 times more in 1980.

Government policy is continuing to increase the income of the richest ten per cent of households and widening the gap between these and the rest of society.

The income of Ireland’s poorest households fell by more than 18% in a single year while the income of the richest rose by more than 4%. There is something profoundly wrong with Government decisions that produce this lop-sided distribution of income favouring the richest when Ireland’s poor and middle-income people struggle to make ends meet in these extremely difficult times.

These are some of the key finding contained in Social Justice Ireland’s Policy Briefing published on July 16, 2012 which analyses the related issues of Poverty and Income Distribution and shows how Ireland’s income distribution has changed over the past 30 years.

Rich/Poor gap widening

Today the top 10 per cent of the population receives almost 14 times more disposable income than the poorest 10 per cent receive (28.5% compared to 2.06%). In this context disposable income is the income one has after taxes have been paid and social welfare has been received but before any bills have been paid.

The situation has become much worse over the past thirty years. In 1980 the richest ten per cent of the population received 8 times more than the poorest 10 per cent, now it receives 14 times more.
full story at link

[Kimberley]

***********

Sabrina a big thank you to you for your work on this thread.
Much love :hug:

[Sabrina]

http://www.sanders.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/GAO%20Fed%20Investigation.pdf

United States Government Accountability Office
Report to Congressional Addressees

FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM
Opportunities Exist to Strengthen Policies and Processes for Managing Emergency Assistance

doc. at link

[Sabrina]

http://www.npr.org/2012/07/18/156960934/the-nation-can-libor-force-u-s-banking-reform

18 July USA

The Nation: Can LIBOR Force U.S. Banking Reform?

John Nichols is a Washington correspondent at The Nation.

As lies go, none is greater than the one that suggests banks are capable of "self-regulation."

Given authority over their own affairs, through fantasies such as "self-reporting," CEOs, CFOs and COOs who travel in limousines, wear very expensive suits and give to all the right charities will do what comes naturally to them: lie.

Indeed, they will engage in practices so deceitful that, the governor of the Bank of England, Sir Mervyn King, says they "meet my definition of fraud."

King's level of bluntness with regard to the scandalous behavior of international bankers has yet to enter into the mainstream discourse of the United States, where most politicians (with notable exceptions such as former New York Attorney General and Governor Eliot Spitzer and Congressman Dennis Kucinich) remain determined to do the bidding of their Wall Street paymasters — and where most media can't be bothered to cover stories about the costs these cozy relationships impose of society.

But the conversation about crooked banks and lying CEOs is getting more interesting in Britain — so much more interesting that it is all but certain to have an impact on the United States. Why sort of impact? Hopefully, it will be a recognition that the so-called bank reforms of 2010 were, as former Senator Russ Feingold, Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur and others suggested, dramatically insufficient.

The biggest story of recent weeks in London is that of a banking scandal so extreme and so sweeping as to confirm that, when afforded a free hand, the most powerful bankers in the world will create self-serving structures that distort and ultimately undermine free markets. Indeed, argues The Economist magazine, lies by international banksters have put "banking in crisis."

Teddy Roosevelt was right when he argued that strict regulation was needed to prevent the bad players of the private sector from creating monopolies so over-arching that they could destroy not just competition but — through their exercise of political and media power — democracy itself.

Roosevelt's observations take on a new urgency with each news report from Britain, a country that has been shocked into something akin to consciousness by the revelation that some of the biggest banks in London (and the world) had — when given leeway to manage information critical to the functioning of financial markets — cheated. They filed false information to, in the words of London's Independent newspaper "help mask losses and help improve their own financial positions."

The banks did this by "fixing" the LIBOR — the average interest rate at which banks say they lend to one another. The LIBOR forms the basis for lending rates charged in countries around the world, It effectively defines the cost of money. When the LIBOR is "fixed" via false submissions by crooked banks and the crooked bankers who run them, the global economy is suddenly operating not on facts and figures but on fantasies.

Obviously, this is not just a British problem.

The scandal has spread to the United States, with the revelation that key US players such as Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner knew about the potential for massive wrongdoing by big banks. When he headed the New York Federal Reserve in 2008, Geithner alerted British authorities to the prospect that banks might be "deliberately misreporting" LIBOR submissions.

Unfortunately, Geithner's warnings did not lead to action that might have averted the deliberate misreporting.

Geithner now faces questions about what he knew and when he knew it, and about whether he followed up sufficiently on his 2008 warning. Inquiries about due diligence will become incredibly significant, as investors lost tens of billions of dollars as a result of the manipulations by the men who manage the false constructs that we refer to as "too big to fail" banks. (Despite the claims made about the banking reforms implemented in 2010 by Congressional Democrats and the White House, the "too big to fail" threat remains; which is why Feingold and other serious reformers opposed the legislation.)

Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke on Tuesday admitted to Congress that the LIBOR system is "structurally flawed." Inconveniently for Bernanke, he is giving his semi-annual report to Congress this week. He told the Senate Banking Committee Tuesday morning that the whole scandal has undermined confidence in the financial services industry.

Y'think?

If Congress does its job — arguably a long shot — Bernanke will face pointed inquiries about the emptiness of the promise that international and domestic regulators are keeping tabs on banks and bankers. More importantly, he should face pressure to come up with better approaches that "self-reporting" and "self-regulation," as they obviously do not work with the new cult of banisters.

Whatever Congress comes up with, however, consumers should be aware that a house of cards could be crumbling. The truth is beginning to come out. In Britain, Barclays Bank has already been fined roughly $400 million and it's chief executive, Bob Diamond, has been forced to step down. The head of the Bank of England, who was in communication with Geithner back in 2008, delivered testimony Tuesday to a Parliamentary select committee. His use of the word "fraud" to describe the actions of the banksters made news. But the official statements were far less compelling than the headlines in the British press — "LIBOR Scandal — The Net Widens" — which pointed to more trouble (latest price-tag for the hit: $27 billion) for more big banks.

Other headlines speak of a rush by British consumers to "ethical" financial institutions — cooperative banks, innovative new projects such as Britain's fascinating Charity Bank and British variations on American credit unions — that at their best reject standard corporate models and by most accounts operate under stricter and better rules.

This is a smart move. But the even smarter move, proposed by a growing number of British political figures, is the return to real regulation of the big banks. To be sure, some of that regulation should be international in scope, as the most powerful banks now operate in multiple countries. But meaningful regulation must begin at the domestic level. In Britain, this will require a radical remake of the LIBOR system. In the United States, it can and should begin with the restoration of the Glass-Steagall Act and other regulations that were scrapped at the behest of the banksters and that now must be restored at the behest of the American people.

[Sabrina]

http://news.yahoo.com/egypt-former-vice-president-dies-us-091056811.html

19 July Egypt/US

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt's former spy chief Omar Suleiman, deposed president Hosni Mubarak's top lieutenant and keeper of secrets, died Thursday, the country's official news agency reported. He was 76.

Suleiman, who said little but had a finger in virtually every vital security issue confronting Egypt, was dubbed by the media as the "the black box." Like Mubarak, he was a fierce enemy of Islamists in Egypt and throughout the region, and a friend to the United States and Israel.

The official Middle East News Agency said that Suleiman had suffered from lung and heart problems for months and that his health condition had sharply deteriorated over the past three weeks. He was treated at a hospital in Cleveland and died early Thursday. His three daughters will accompany the body to be buried in Egypt, according to MENA.

Suleiman was appointed vice president on Jan. 29, 2011, at the peak of last year's revolution, a last-gasp attempt by Mubarak to save his political life as hundreds of thousands of Egyptians took to the streets demanding his ouster. But this and other desperate measures, including talks between Suleiman and the formerly outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, were unable to stave off Mubarak's overthrow.

It was Suleiman who grimly appeared on telelvision on Feb. 11, 2011, to announce that Egypt's leader of nearly three decades was stepping down and handing power to a military council.

This marked the end of the 18-day uprising but opened up a new chapter of tumultuous transition under the rule of the generals.
After the revolution, Suleiman disappeared from public view only to return earlier this year as a presidential candidate, sparking fears of a Mubarak regime comeback. However, the election commission in a surprise move disqualified him along with two Islamist front-runners.

His sudden emergence and disqualification at a time two heavyweight Islamists were also running and disqualified raised suspicions that his candidacy was orchestrated by the military generals to get rid of Islamists.

In April, Suleiman said he decided to run to prevent the Muslim Brotherhood from coming to power. "If the Brotherhood's candidate wins the presidential election, Egypt will be turned into a religious state. All state institutions will be controlled by the Brotherhood," he said in April.

Mohammed Morsi, a member of the Brotherhood, won the presidency last month.
Suleiman, a tall man who was frequently photographed wearing dark sunglass, rarely spoke to the media. He served as intelligence chief for nearly two decades.

For most of that time he played a behind-the-scenes role as the top official in charge of some of the most important issues facing the Egyptian state, including relations with the U.S., Israel and talks with the Palestinians.

He was widely believed to be the military leadership's preferred successor to Mubarak. This created silent tension between Suleiman and the president's younger son, Gamal, who was seen as being groomed by his father as a rival successor.
The uncertainty over the succession, and the fear that Mubarak was trying to set up a family dynasty through his son, helped spark the uprising.

U.S. diplomatic cables posted by WikiLeaks as well as declassified CIA files have identified Suleiman as the point man in U.S.-Egyptian cooperation on counterterrorism. He is believed to have played a direct role in the U.S. rendition program, in which suspected terrorists were sent to Egypt and other countries for interrogation, sometimes involving torture.

Suleiman was born in Qena in southern Egypt and graduated from the country's military academy as an infantry officer in 1955. He rose through the ranks and was appointed deputy head of military intelligence in 1987. He became military intelligence chief in 1991 during the Gulf War, when Egyptians fought alongside other Arab forces in the U.S.-led coalition that drove Saddam Hussein's military out of Kuwait.

Suleiman also indirectly saved Mubarak's life when he advised the former president to take an armored Mercedes with him on a state visit to Ethiopia in 1995. Mubarak survived an Islamist ambush of his convoy.

But in post-2011 Egypt, Suleiman was seen as tainted by his connections to a president who was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for failing to stop the killing of protesters during the uprising. Many other key regime figures are now imprisoned pending trials over a catalogue of corruption charges, or have fled the country and sought exile in Arab countries, Europe or the United States.

[GoodETxSG]

Well,
Guess the Elite need to get that war started that they started priming once they caught wind this corruption was beginning to make it to the public. It seems like a race to get the dirty laundry out and actually get the media to cover this stuff before they can get the war started. What I find hard to believe is that there are still SO MANY people here in the U.S. that have no idea what is going on.

[Sabrina]

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/07/20/uk-banking-libor-settlment-idUKBRE86J00M20120720

20 July

Exclusive: Banks in Libor probe consider group settlement sources

(Reuters) - A group of banks being investigated in an interest-rate rigging scandal are looking to pursue a group settlement with regulators rather than face a Barclays-style backlash by going it alone, people familiar with the banks' thinking said.

Such discussions are preliminary, and it is unclear if regulators will enter these talks, aimed at resolving allegations that banks attempted to manipulate the London interbank offered rate, or Libor, a benchmark that underpins hundreds of trillions of dollars in contracts.


Still, there are powerful incentives for the banks to enter joint negotiations.

Barclays Plc was the first to settle with U.S. and British regulators, paying a $453 million penalty and admitting to its role in a deal announced June 27. Its chief executive, Bob Diamond, abruptly quit the next week, bowing to public pressure and erosion of the bank's reputation.

The sources told Reuters that none of the banks involved now want to be second in line for fear that they will get similarly hostile treatment from politicians and the public. Bank discussions about a group settlement initially took place before the Barclays agreement, and picked back up in the aftermath.

It is unclear which banks are involved in the potential settlement talks. More than a dozen banks are being investigated in the scandal, including Citigroup, HSBC, Deutsche Bank and JPMorgan Chase. They all declined to comment.

HEADLINE-GRABBING FIGURE

A group agreement would appeal to financial watchdogs because they would be able to announce a headline-grabbing figure, showing that they were dealing firmly with the banking industry's misdemeanours, a banker told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

Earlier this year, five top U.S. banks negotiated a $25 billion settlement with the U.S. Justice Department and other federal and state agencies to resolve allegations of mortgage services abuses.

The key regulators involved in the Libor case include the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission and Britain's Financial Services Authority. The CFTC was not available for comment and the FSA declined to comment.

The main obstacle facing such a group settlement is a hesitancy on the part of the investment banks to work together in the fevered atmosphere surrounding the Libor investigations. Negotiations and haggling could drag on for some time and a resolution was far from certain, the banker said.

The fact that each bank possibly had to settle with a different group of regulators, and that the charges were different in each case also made the chances of success of such a settlement small, a source at one of the banks being probed said.

However, if they were able to reach a group settlement it would enable them to share the pain of negative publicity.

PUBLIC PILLORYING

While Barclays received a 30 percent "discount" on the fines for cooperating fully with authorities, it sustained far more serious damage with the subsequent loss of its top management and a public pillorying at the hands of politicians.

The spectre of severe penalties from regulators and the possibility of multi-billion dollar class action suits has hung over more than a dozen banks being investigated worldwide since the extent of attempts to rig Libor became clear in CFTC and FSA documents released with the Barclays settlement.

Analysts have estimated that the scandal could cost the industry between $20 billion to $40 billion, further damaging a sector that is struggling to work its way through the aftermath of the 2007-2009 financial crisis, economic downturns in Europe and the United States, and increased regulatory demands.

Libor rates are set daily in London for a range of currencies and maturities. Banks submit rates for unsecured loans to one another and the rates after high and low rates are thrown out, are averaged.

Among the Barclays disclosures that sparked outrage were emails that showed employees asking for the submitted rates to be changed.

"Done ... for you big boy," read a message sent by a Barclays banker to one of the lender's traders, who had asked him to fix Libor at an artificially low level.

"Dude, I owe you big time! Come over one day after work and I'm opening a bottle of Bollinger," a trader from another firm emailed a banker at Barclays, showing his thanks for the rate set artificially low.

The unfolding scandal also has raised questions about what the regulators knew and what actions they took to rein in the activity. Documents released by the Fed show it was repeatedly warned about Libor manipulation.

In 2008, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who was then head of the New York Federal Reserve Bank, sent a private email to Bank of England Governor Mervyn King advising him of concerns about the rate's integrity and suggesting six ways to improve it. King passed the suggestions along and minor changes were made, according to documents released last week.

Earlier this week, King put the Libor issue on the agenda of the Economic Consultative Committee of global central bankers that will meet in Basel, Switzerland, on September 9.

Libor rates underpin an estimated $550 trillion in financial products, including consumer loans, mortgages, municipal bonds and corporate paper. They are also considered a gauge of a bank's health. Investigators are looking at whether banks low-balled the rates to hide their borrowing costs in the 2007-09 financial crisis, and to profit on trades before the crisis hit.

The scandal has also raised questions if Libor should be calculated differently. In Asia, the Hong Kong Association of Banks said it was reviewing the mechanism for determining its Hibor benchmark.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore said it was examining the setting of the Singapore interbank offered rate (Sibor), widely used in the pricing of mortgages and other loans in the city-state.

The Japanese banking industry lobby has asked the 18 banks contributing to the Tokyo interbank offered rate (Tibor) to check whether correct procedures were being followed, although the group's head said he did not believe there was a problem.

ALTERNATIVE RATES

Banks on the Libor panel submit rates based on their estimates of how much it costs them to borrow from each other. The rate is thus subjective, as opposed to basing the benchmarks more on actual lending rates, so less manipulation is possible. The Australian Bank Bill Swaps Reference Rates, for example, are based on where paper is actually traded on the market.

The issue is similar for Euribor -- launched with the single currency in 1999 -- prompting the ECB to call for a re-think, including possibly shifting the basis of the calculation to actual lending rates.

(Additional reporting by Douwe Miedema, David Henry and Dan Wilchins; Writing by Alexander Smith; Editing by Edward Tobin, Alwyn Scott, Tim Dobbyn and Jacqueline Wong)

and



SINGAPORE, July 20 (Reuters) - The euro eased against the dollar and hovered near a record low versus the Australian dollar on Friday, undermined by worries about Spain's fiscal woes and recent falls in euro zone money-market rates.

[Sabrina]

http://kauilapele.wordpress.com/

For the record, Keenan's press release of 13 July I think.

Neil Keenan has given Drake permission to spread this press release. Please share

From: Neil Keenan
To: ‘Drake Bailey’
Sent: Friday, July 13, 2012 9:57 AM
Subject: Answers

Dear Drake,

Nice to know we are both alive brother. Last thing I remember is my reading I am dead. Hahahah.

As you know I do not like interviews and always toss someone else into the middle of them but let me explain this for you Drake. You keep asking me when will I refile and what date and to this there is no answer!!!

When I compile all the information I need in which I can kick the financial system in the ass and straighten it out then I will file. My main concern is Jurisdiction which is what the Judge also made mention of and clearly stated that he would throw the case out if we did not prove we have it. In order to do this I am going to expose the illegal banking system. Let them then tell me when the Federal Reserve Bank of NY is shown to be part and parcel to the theft. I will have the information to prove this.

Why did I withdraw the case? Because we did not have the Jurisdictional issue in place and I had no intention of showing my hand before I had to. Now I have the time to get what is needed to substantiate all the claims made.

Why didn’t I serve anyone during the past 6 months? Because we did not have all their addresses. What good does it do when Danielle Dal Bosco is being hid by the Vatican to serve the others. Dal Bosco is the key here and we now can reach out and grab him whenever we wish but first things first that being Jurisdiction.

Once we get things right we can close this system down on them as has already happened in BIS and then they will have nothing to fight with. The idea is to take the money out of their pockets. Without this they have no ability to hire the armies they need to deal with the real American People. The Kazar’s and Nazis’s will be left alone to themselves finding nary a dollar to buy what they need to protect themselves and then when weakened the American People can do as they wish with such garbage. It is just a matter of time.

They have hastened their movements and by doing so have hurt themselves throughout the world. Everyone is ready for them and ready to come at them especially our group. I cannot wait to get what is needed to just simply destroy them and give back to the people what has always been their’s.

We will be refilling and we will have new defendants most likely including the Federal Reserve Bank of NY and the US Treasury among them. We have plenty to include both and invoke jurisdiction.

Until then take care my friend and whenever you need some factual information if I have it then just ask. You are the people’s hero and you do your best all the while to give them what is real. Stay strong and stay safe.

Neil Keenan

[Sabrina]

Are these signs of the beginnings of change in the banking system??


http://www.mirror.co.uk/money/city-news/co-operative-bank-buys-632-lloyds-1150437


UK 19 July


Proud to make banking boring again': Co-op buys 632 branches from Lloyds and aims to restore faith in the industry

Almost five million people are expected to transfer in a deal described as “the most significant development in high street banking for a generation”.


Thrilled Co-op bosses said today that its deal to buy 632 branches from Lloyds was an exciting chance to make banking boring again.

Almost five million people are expected to transfer to the Co-op in a £750million agreement that chief executive Peter Marks described as “the most significant development in high street banking for a generation”.

It propels his firm into the big league and staff say their safe and steady approach will restore people’s faith in the industry.

Making the announcement, Mr Marks said: “We are an old-fashioned bank, we are boring. We are not into the risky, gambling side of banking.

“People have lost trust in the financial services sector.

"Now we can provide a big bank, a challenger bank, that people can really trust.”

All 164 Cheltenham & Gloucester branches will be included in the sale.

The rest will be Lloyds TSB branches – 185 in Scotland and 283 in England and Wales.

If regulators approve the takeover, Co-op would treble its branches to almost 1,000 – or 10% of the market.

Its new branches will be renamed TSB next summer before being rebranded as Co-op Bank.

The sale was forced on Lloyds after it was bailed out by taxpayers.

The group will retain 1,300 Lloyds TSB branches, which will have to be renamed, and its Halifax branches.

Co-op’s buyout will involve the transfer of £24billion of mortgage debts and £24billion in savings and current accounts.

Bosses insist customers will remain on their existing terms.

The company, which has an ethical investing policy, says it now plans to attract more customers who are fed-up with the big names.

Chancellor George Osborne said: “This is another step towards creating a new banking system for Britain that gives real choice to customers and supports the economy.”

Shadow Treasury minister Chris Leslie welcomed the deal but added: “We need to go much further and have two new challenger banks.

"And instead of waiting until 2015 to consider a review of competition in the banking sector, the Government should do so next year.”

Federation of Small Businesses chairman John Walker said: “With four in 10 small firms refused credit by the main high street banks, this challenger bank will open up competition and help small firms access the cash they need.”

The deal could be approved by the Financial Services Authority this year.

If completed the Co-op would have a 7% share of the current-account market.

It will also get the TSB and Cheltenham & Gloucester brands.

Lloyds chief executive Antonio Horta-Osorio said: “We believe the Co-operative will be a good owner for our business, customers and colleagues.”



How a handful of new banks are stirring up a revolution
This year could well see a “banking spring” in Britain, after anger at the mis-selling disgrace was followed by disgust as the rate-rigging scandal.

Despite rip-off charges and poor service, however, most customers have not deserted the big banks – 75% of us have the same one all our lives.

This is because disillusioned people think big lenders are all the same – and we don’t trust the newer ones.

But the Co-op’s deal to buy 632 branches, which follows Virgin Money’s takeover of Northern Rock, should help change that.

And a new small bank called Metro is going great guns by opening seven days a week.

Customers have been demanding the same things for years – fair charges, decent service and convenience.

Yet in the race for profits, big banks took their eyes off the ball and got burned.

They can afford to lose the odd few thousand customers along the way, but if these new entrants really shake things up, as they hope to do, it will lead to the retail bank revolution that millions of people deserve.

¤=[Post Update]=¤

http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?47575-Ron-Paul-to-Bernake--Federal-Reserve--7-17-12

Thanks Alie - Ron Paul to Bernake/the Fed.

[Sabrina]

Missed this earlier in the week.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/nicolas-sarkozy/9401446/Christine-Lagarde-and-Nicolas-Sarkozy-embroiled-in-new-corruption-inquiry.html

France
Christine Lagarde and Nicolas Sarkozy embroiled in new corruption inquiry

Christine Lagarde and Nicolas Sarkozy were embroiled in a new corruption inquiry on Sunday over the awarding of Legion d'Honneur for political favours.

The pair already face allegations that Miss Lagarde, the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), authorised a £270 million payout to a prominent supporter of the former French president when she was his finance minister.

Now, they face a separate inquiry in a row over the amount of compensation that Mr Sarkozy’s government should have paid following the collapse of Itea, an insurance company, in 2009.

Xavier Musca, a financial expert, is said to have recommended to Miss Lagarde that Maurice Nussenbaum, another expert, receive the Legion d’Honneur, France’s top civilian award, so he would rule in the government’s favour in the trade dispute.
Mr Nussenbaum later produced a report assessing the loss of Christian Laurent, who ran Itea, at zero, rather than the €400 million (£315 million) he claimed.

Anti-corruption police in Paris have launched a preliminary inquiry after Mr Laurent filed a complaint against Mr Musca, who went on to become Mr Sarkozy’s chief of staff. Mr Laurent also indicated that he will take legal action against Miss Lagarde, although the complaint will have to be sanctioned by a dedicated legal body dealing with allegations against former ministers.

Mr Musca, who is now a senior executive at the French bank Credit Agricole, denies any wrongdoing and has pledged to counter sue with a “false accusation” claim against Mr Laurent.

Miss Lagarde took over as head of the IMF a year ago from Dominique Strauss-Kahn.

The prospect of yet another IMF chief appearing in court was first raised last year when the Court of Justice of the Republic, a tribunal qualified to judge the conduct of French ministers, said Miss Lagarde may have been guilty of abuse.

Miss Lagarde is said to have allowed the equivalent of £270 million to be awarded to Bernard Tapie, a convicted football match fixer and tax dodger who supported her then governing UMP party.

Mr Tapie, the former head of Adidas in France, claims he was cheated out of millions by Credit Lyonnais bank when the sports kit empire was sold in 1993. In 2007, Miss Lagarde ended the long-running dispute by ordering a panel of judges to arbitrate and, in turn, they awarded Mr Tapie the damages.

Mr Sarkozy and Miss Lagarde deny any wrongdoing.

[Alie]

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/scandal-imf-senior-economist-resigns-says-ashamed-have-had-any-association-fund-all

Scandal At The IMF: Senior Economist Resigns, Says "Ashamed To Have Had Any Association With Fund At All"





The rats everywhere are now jumping furiously off the titanic, but few had taken the time to write a letter explaining in detail just how cracked and broken the hull really was. This has now changed, with the departure of Peter Doyle, formerly a division chief in the IMF’s European Department responsible for non-crisis countries and currently an adviser to the Fund. Not content with quietly slinking off the scandal ridden organization which has become the butt of all jokes in the international community, where humor about Lagarde's Louis Vuitton panhandling bag is as pervasive as punchlines about just how incompetent the organization is at actually doing its duty, Doyle has penned the following scathing letter which tears down every myth about the IMF: from its impartiality, to the selection process of its head, to its effectiveness. The letter also contains the following gem: "After twenty years of service, I am ashamed to have had any association with the Fund at all." Pretty much says it all. This is a scandal in the making, and one which may shake to the core the credibility of the IMF in the context of international organization.

Full letter (pdf) (http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user5/imageroot/2012/07-2/doyle%20Letter.pdf)

European Department
Washington DC
June 18, 2012



To Mr. Shaalan, Dean of the IMF Executive Board

Today, I addressed the Executive Board for the last time—because I am leaving the Fund.

Accordingly, I wanted first to formally express my deep appreciation to the Swedish, Israeli, and Danish authorities with whom I have worked recently, as well as all others with whom I have worked earlier, for their extraordinary generosity towards me personally.

But I also wanted to take this opportunity to explain my departure.

After twenty years of service, I am ashamed to have had any association with the Fund at all.

This is not solely because of the incompetence that was partly chronicled by the OIA report into the global crisis and the TSR report on surveillance ahead of the Euro Area crisis. Moreso, it is because the substantive difficulties in these crises, as with others, were identified well in advance but were suppressed here. Given long gestation periods and protracted international decision-making processes to head off both these global challenges, timely sustained warnings were of the essence. So the failure of the Fund to issue them is a failing of the first order, even if such warnings may not have been heeded. The consequences include suffering (and risk of worse to come) for many including Greece, that the second global reserve currency is on the brink, and that the Fund for the past two years has been playing catch-up and reactive roles in the last-ditch efforts to save it.

Further, the proximate factors which produced these failings of IMF surveillance—analytical risk aversion, bilateral priority, and European bias—are, if anything, becoming more deeply entrenched, notwithstanding initiatives which purport to address them. This fact is most clear in regard to appointments for Managing Director which, over the past decade, have all-too-evidently been disastrous. Even the current incumbent is tainted, as neither her gender, integrity, or élan can make up for the fundamental illegitimacy of the selection process. In a hierarchical place like this, the implications of those choices filter directly to others in senior management, and via the appointments, fixed term contracts, and succession planning of senior staff, they go on to infuse the organization as a whole, overwhelming everything else. A handicapped Fund, subject to those proximate roots of surveillance failure, is what the Executive Board prefers. Would that I had understood twenty years ago that this would be the choice.

There are good salty people here. But this one is moving on. You might want to take care not to lose the others.

cc. Ms. Nemat Shafik
Mr. Stanley Fischer
Mr. Stephan Ingves
Mr. Benny Andersen
Mr. Alex Gibbs
Mr. Eric Meyer
Mr. Amit Friedman
Mr. Martin Holmberg
Mr. Reza Moghadam
Mr. Mark Plant
Mr. Brad McDonald

[GoodETxSG]

Divinecosmose.com has a new article. It basically recaps most of what we already know though. I didn't see anything really new.

[gripreaper]

Keynesian Economics explained:

http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user3303/imageroot/2012/07-2/keynes.jpeg

[Kimberley]

Hahahhahhhah
Keynesian Economics explained:

http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user3303/imageroot/2012/07-2/keynes.jpeg

Hahahahaah Love this!!!!

And thank you again, again Sabrina....!!!!!!!!!!! And all !!!

Much love to us all!!! !!! :grouphug:

[Sabrina]

More on Alie's 1325 story - this is a big one me thinks:)

http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/07/21/imf-resignation-idINL2E8IKHOB20120721


IMF economist accuses Fund of suppressing information


Sat Jul 21, 2012 6:40am IST
* IMF economist Peter Doyle resigns in protest

* Doyle was division chief in IMF European Department

* Letter to board says IMF failed to head off crises

* Accuses IMF leadership of being 'tainted'

By Lesley Wroughton

WASHINGTON, July 20 (Reuters) - A veteran economist at the International Monetary Fund has resigned in protest at what he calls the IMF's failure to head off the global financial meltdown and euro zone crisis, and accused the global lender of suppressing information.

In a resignation letter dated June 18 to the IMF's board and senior staff, Peter Doyle said the IMF's failures to head off both the 2009 global financial crisis and the euro zone crisis was a "failing in the first order" and "are, if anything, becoming more deeply entrenched."

His letter, a copy of which was seen by Reuters, has brought to light simmering tensions within the IMF over the Fund's credibility, which many worry is threatened by its role in the euro zone crisis.

IMF insiders, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters there are concerns within the Fund that it has over-stretched by lending to Europe without exercising the same level of independent judgment it would normally apply in bailouts to emerging economies.

Doyle, a division chief for Sweden, Denmark and Israel in the IMF's European Department when he resigned, also accused the Fund's leadership of being "tainted" by a selection process which always ensures that a European is at the helm.

He said the IMF had been "playing catch-up and reactive roles in the last ditch efforts to save" the euro zone from the "brink." The IMF has participated in rescue loans to Greece, Ireland and Portugal.

Doyle, who has worked for the IMF for 20 years, said the appointments of the Fund's heads over the past decade "have all-too-evidently been disastrous."

"Even the current incumbent is tainted, as neither her gender, integrity, or elan can make up for the fundamental illegitimacy of the selection process," Doyle said of Christine Lagarde's appointment last year as first female head of the IMF.

To be fair, the IMF has acknowledged many of its failures cited by Doyle in reports in 2009 and again in 2011 that honed in on mistakes in spotting the roots of the global financial crisis and not issuing loud warnings about the impending meltdown.

"Peter's remarks are well documented in the public record, including reports issued by the Independent Evaluation Office, via the Triennial Review of Surveillance, and in many statements by the managing director, including on the findings in these various reports," IMF spokesman William Murray said.

"We have no evidence his views were suppressed, nor any views were suppressed," he added.

The sudden departures of the IMF's last two managing directors have shaken the IMF. These include the resignation of former Spanish finance minister Rodrigo Rato in 2007 halfway through his term.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former French finance minister, quit last year after he was arrested in May 2011 for alleged criminal sexual assault and attempted rape of a hotel maid, which he denied and have since been dropped.

Strauss-Kahn's push for an IMF role in the euro zone, including approval of big bailouts for Greece and Ireland, and more flexible IMF conditions, caused tensions with some members of the IMF board. Despite their concerns, many acknowledged that the IMF's involvement was necessary to ensure stability of the global financial system.

Lagarde's appointment just over a year ago followed a hard-fought battle between Europe and emerging economies fed up with the tradition of the head of the IMF always being a European, while the top job at the World Bank going to an American.

"There is certainly a concern that the MD is more a politician than an economist and that she can be swayed by those close to her," one insider said. "But she is certainly seen as a powerful messenger for the Fund's position."

[Sabrina]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/9416384/Libor-scandal-Bank-of-England-refused-to-take-responsbility-for-regulating-Libor.html

20 July evening UK

Libor scandal: Bank of England refused to take responsbility for regulating Libor

The Bank of England has been accused of refusing to lead the reform of the discredited Libor system after failing to act on warnings more than four years ago over interest rates rigging by the banks.
Emails and notes of meetings between the Bank, other regulators and banking industry representatives, which were disclosed today, show there were clear indications that banks’ rate setters could have been deliberately falsifying Libor submissions at the height of the financial crisis.
E

The emails reveal senior figures at the Bank, including deputy Governor Paul Tucker, were given a number of separate alerts in 2008 - by their own officials, the British Bankers Association (BBA) and US regulators - about the potential for manipulation.
Mr Tucker was told in May that year that banks had been warned they had to submit “honest” Libor rates. The caution resulted in an immediate material change to Libor submissions. In another email, Mr Tucker was warned banks could be submitting false rates for “commercial incentives”.

But the documents also disclose how the Bank, despite the raft of evidence of potential wrongdoing, resisted pressure from the BBA to take an official role in the reform of how Libor rates were calculated and submitted. The Bank even refused to have its name associated with any changes.

Last night the BBA confirmed it had asked the Bank to step in. “The BBA’s desire [was] that the Bank of England should play a formal role in the process going forward,” it said. “The Bank declined.”

The BBA’s repeated attempts to get the Bank and regulators to take an official role in the market were snubbed because the setting of the inter-bank lending rates was seen as a “private” index and not something that fell under the Bank’s remit.
The new evidence comes three weeks after Barclays paid £290m in fines after admitting it had manipulated submissions of inter-bank lending rates. Bank of England Governor Sir Mervyn King has since claimed he was unaware of the manipulation of Libor until the fines emerged.

However, Andrew Tyrie, the MP leading an inquiry into the banks’ behaviour, said the emails justified deeper investigation into the failings of the Bank, the regulators and the BBA. “It’s clear from what’s come out that the FSA final notice report [into Barclays’ Libor fixing] is not the final word on all that’s happened,” he said. “It’s now imperative that the review conducted by the relatively newly appointed Martin Wheatley successfully gets to the bottom of it.”

The email correspondence released today centred on a 2008 review of Libor by the BBA. Sir Mervyn rejected their initial suggestions on shaking-up the governance of Libor as “wholly inadequate”, leading to a second rewriting of rules by the BBA, with which he said he was “broadly content”.

But, at the same time, his deputy Mr Tucker was accused of trying to water-down the proposals which he said should involve “evolution not revolution”. “Your proposal that we reduce what is said… on governance, I am afraid, is not possible,” head of the BBA Angela Knight wrote to Mr Tucker. “In fact, to get a way forward is going to require strong governance for Libor and the pressure is on to do more not less.”

John Mann, MP, a member of the Treasury Select Committee which has been investigating Libor, said: “This all looks somewhat chaotic. The Bank of England and the BBA have now been dragged right into the middle of all this.”

The revelations came as reports suggested a number of banks had been holding informal talks about reaching a joint settlement with regulators over their part in manipulating Libor. The banks are understood to be trying to avoid the backlash suffered by Barclays.
Lord Turner, chairman of the Financial Services Authority, has hinted at how he would approach the job if he became the next governor of the Bank of England.

Laying out what he believed to be the failings of traditional monetary policy, he said inflation targeting was insufficient to ensure stability.

Lord Turner, considered a frontrunner to succeed Sir Mervyn King when he steps down next year, also warned that quantitative easing may suffer from diminishing returns.

[Sabrina]

Reckon we could include alleged assassination attempts in this thread as well...

http://www.economicvoice.com/hillary-clinton-supposed-convoy-assassination-attempt/50031273#axzz217KVpjOA

20 July

Hillary Clinton supposed convoy assassination attempt

US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton has apparently survived an assassination attempt on her life in Israel.

News site al-Alarm has reported a possible shooting at a convoy of cars carrying Hillary Clinton whose husband did not have sexual relations with that woman by armed persons in a white Citroen whilst she travelled to Jerusalem in a recent visit to Israel.
The unconfirmed shooting may or may not have been a direct attack on Clinton herself or a random act of cowardly terrorism upon the motorcade as opposed to the uncowardly act of using drones to blow civilians to bits in Pakistan the use of which is endorsed by Hillary Clinton herself.

The mainstream press have not as yet reported this supposed attempt on the wife to the former President of the United States.

As America and Israel prepare for war with Iran and possibly Syria (which will probably drag in Russia and China on the Iranian/Syrian side), the security surrounding public figures and the public is at its highest level yet as has been demonstrated by the complete professionalism surrounding the security at the Olympic games where illegal immigrants are allegedly working as private security guards for the games.

more here:

http://jhaines6.wordpress.com/2012/07/19/breakingconfirmed-sec-clinton-assassination-attempt-in-israel-update-july-18-2012/

[Sabrina]

The latest White Hats report on it all:

http://tdarkcabal.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/july-20-2012-white-hats-report-46.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed:+TheWhiteHatsReport+(The+White+Hats+Report)

[Sabrina]

-Pvr-eN7Eu8

Foster Gamble on hidden CAFR funds in the US.

[Sabrina]

Bank of America Raided by Deputies on behalf of home owner - tables are turned...

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=dfa_1341719006

[Sabrina]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-20/ex-bofa-executive-indicted-for-fraud-in-municipal-bond-probe-1-.html

20 July USA

Ex-BofA Executive Indicted For Fraud In Bond Probe

A former Bank of America Corp. executive was indicted for allegedly participating in what prosecutors said was a “far-reaching conspiracy” to defraud municipal bond investments through bid rigging.

Phillip D. Murphy, former head of Bank of America’s municipal derivatives desk, was charged with conspiracy to defraud the U.S., wire fraud and conspiracy to make false entries in bank records, according to the indictment filed yesterday in federal court in Charlotte, North Carolina.


Murphy “allegedly participated in a complex fraud scheme and conspiracies to manipulate what was supposed to be a competitive process,” Scott D. Hammond, a deputy assistant attorney general in the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division, said in an e-mailed statement. “The division recently convicted at trial several individuals in this investigation, which is ongoing.”

So far, 13 individuals from banks including Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) and UBS AG (UBSN) have pleaded guilty in the Justice Department’s investigation. Bank of America, JPMorgan, UBS, Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC) and General Electric Co. have paid more than $700 million in restitution and penalties.

Four Years
Bank of America, which self-reported the illegal activity, has been cooperating for more than four years with Justice Department prosecutors who say that bankers paid kickbacks to CDR Financial Products to rig bids on investment contracts sold to local governments. Municipalities bought the contracts with money raised through bond sales, which allowed them to earn a return until the funds were needed for schools, roads, and other public works.

From 1998 until 2006, Murphy allegedly conspired with CDR Financial Products to increase the number of and profitability of investment agreements and municipal finance contracts that went to the bank, according to the indictment. Murphy won auctions for the investment contracts after other banks submitted intentionally losing bids, the government said.

The wire fraud charge has a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison while the conspiracy charges have a maximum penalty of five years in prison. The court today issued a summons to Murphy ordering him to make his initial appearance in the case on Aug. 20.
Susan Necheles, Murphy’s lawyer, said her client would plead not guilty.

more at link.

[GoodETxSG]

www.facebook.com/BankAndPoliticianFinancialCorruption


Every day we receive more and more disclosure of Financial Corruption by our Banking Institutions and Politicians from the G8 Nations. The U.S., U.K. and E.U. have been gaming the financial system in their favor to create Trillions of dollars on computer screens and stealing tons of Gold from other nations since at least 1911. The Federal Reserve Bank and other evil clones (IMF, BIS etc…) have plundered the world for quite long enough. The recently revealed evidence needs to be covered in depth by the Main Stream Media (Who is owned by the criminal Cabals).
We plan to start a huge letter writing, Fax sending and protesting campaign to the MSM and local representatives to get them to get them to bring these “Self proclaimed Elite’s” to justice. When the scope of the manipulation, wars and murder of so many innocents is revealed arrest and imprisonment will be the least of the “Elite’s” concerns. They have make billions of people slaves to debt. We toil, suffer and die in debt to them and unknowingly worship and grovel at their feet. They suppress technology that will conflict with their business model. Many technologies that could increase the quality of life and save lives of the people YOU love who have died of disease.
Join now, with us to bring the heat to the Media and our “Representatives” to set us free from the financial tyranny that we have been subjects to for generations. Become a member of this movement, there is room for everyone. Once we realize that the Left Wing and Right Wing are what gives flight to the same BEAST. The ideology of Liberal and Conservative thinking is important to our individual morality and beliefs. But the Elite use these differences to cause us to forget what we have in common. They use our differences to keep us at odds with each other and diverted from their corruption. Why deceive us “ignorant and useless eaters”? Because we outnumber them 99 to 1 and they are afraid of OUR power.
So, now put aside your political or religious differences and band together to expose this corruption and usher our world into a new era. We do not need a “New World Order” ran by self proclaimed rulers. They have no “divine right” to rule. They only have the power we give them. Let’s take that power back and create an “Era of Prosperity for ALL”! It is possible! Say NO to any more WAR that is used to divert our attention from corruption when it starts to leak. We can join together and form a world of peace, I refuse to believe we cannot live together with our differences without butchering one another. What do we have in common? We love our families, our friends and we love peace. So, click the LIKE button and spread this web site to everyone you know. Join other movements that you normally would not associate with. The enemy of our enemy is our friend.

[Sabrina]

More on the Doyle IMF story:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18921670

21 July


IMF's Peter Doyle scorns its 'tainted' leadership



A top economist at the International Monetary Fund has poured scorn on its "tainted" leadership and said he is "ashamed" to have worked there.

Peter Doyle said in a letter to the IMF executive board that he wanted to explain his resignation after 20 years.

He writes of "incompetence", "failings" and "disastrous" appointments for the IMF's managing director, stretching back 10 years.

No one from the Washington-based IMF was immediately available for comment.

Mr Doyle, former adviser to the IMF's European Department, which is running the bailout programs for Greece, Portugal and Ireland, said the Fund's delay in warning about the urgency of the global financial crisis was a failure of the "first order".

In the letter, dated 18 June and obtained by the US broadcaster CNN, Mr Doyle said the failings of IMF surveillance of the financial crisis "are, if anything, becoming more deeply entrenched".

He writes: "This fact is most clear in regard to appointments for managing director which, over the past decade, have all-too-evidently been disastrous.

"Even the current incumbent [Christine Lagarde] is tainted, as neither her gender, integrity, or elan can make up for the fundamental illegitimacy of the selection process."

Mr Doyle is thought to be echoing here widespread criticism that the head of the IMF is always a European, while the World Bank chief is always a US appointee.

Mr Doyle concludes his letter: "There are good salty people here. But this one is moving on. You might want to take care not to lose the others."

The IMF could not be reached immediately by the BBC. However, CNN reported that a Fund spokesman told it that there was nothing to substantiate Mr Doyle's claims and that the IMF had held its own investigations into surveillance of the financial crisis.

[Sabrina]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-18940988

21 July The Vatican


Vatican: Pope's butler moved to house arrest


The Pope's butler has been released from custody and moved to house arrest.

The Vatican said that Paolo Gabriele will remain under house arrest pending a decision on whether he should stand trial for leaking confidential papers to the media.

He was charged in May after a series of leaks exposed alleged corruption and internal conflicts at the Holy See.

Mr Gabriele's lawyer Carlo Fusco said his client had operated on his own in an "act of love" toward the Pope.

The so-called "Vatileaks" scandal saw an Italian investigative journalist publish hundreds of secret documents detailing fraud scandals, nepotism and cronyism within the Holy See.

'Acted alone'
Italian media reported in May that a stash of confidential documents had been found in the apartment Mr Gabriele shares with his wife and three children inside the Vatican.

"There are definitely no networks, no internal or external plots in which Paolo was involved. His motivations were all internal," AFP news agency reported Mr Fusco as saying.

"He wanted the Church to be more alive. He had an idea to help a situation."

The Vatican's judge, Piero Antonio Bonnet, has been instructed to examine the evidence of the case and to decide whether there is sufficient material to proceed to trial.

Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said a magistrate would decide whether to proceed by early August.

Italian media reported that if convicted, Mr Gabriele could face a sentence of up to 30 years for illegal possession of documents of a head of state, probably to be served in an Italian prison due to an agreement between Italy and the Vatican.

[PathWalker]

I wish to add my humble gratitude and appreciation to Sabrina, of the great journalistic service she is delivering.

[Sabrina]

Well this 'stepping down' is really a pretty big resignation IMO... :)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/media/9417815/Rupert-Murdoch-steps-down-from-NI-boards.html

21 July evening

Rupert Murdoch steps down from NI boards

Rupert Murdoch's grip on UK newspapers is loosening "finger by finger", as he resigns string of directorships.

Rupert Murdoch has resigned as a director of a string of companies behind The Sun, The Times and The Sunday Times, fuelling expectations that he is preparing to sell the newspaper group.

Companies House filings show that Mr Murdoch stepped down from the boards of the NI Group, Times Newspaper Holdings and News Corp Investments in the UK last week. He also quit a number of News Corp’s US boards, the details of which have yet to be disclosed by the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

News Corporation played down the significance of the resignations as “nothing more than a corporate housecleaning exercise prior to the company split”.

The media giant took a similar line when James Murdoch resigned a string of directorships at News International last November, pouring cold water on suggestions that he was walking away from the UK newspaper arm. He quit as chairman three months later.
News Corporation has already said it will split into two separately listed companies, distancing its embattled newspaper and book publishing interests from its rapidly growing film and television operations, which account for nearly 90pc of News Corp’s $4.2bn (£2.7bn) annual revenues.

Mr Murdoch has repeatedly insisted that he remains committed to the UK newspaper business. He vowed at the time of the announcement to remain a “very active chairman” of the publishing business. But his surprise resignation of directorships on both sides of the Atlantic has raised expectations that he is gearing up to sever all ties with the company.

Splitting News Corp would also put some much-needed distance between its film and television assets and the newspaper business, whose reputation is threatening the whole News Corp empire.

Claire Enders at Enders Analysis said Mr Murdoch’s resignations were part of the “slow fade of Rupert and James from the UK” that began last year and will be “complete and permanent”. “The grip of the Murdochs, finger by finger, has been loosened and it’s not in order to return triumphantly. It’s a permanent shift.

“James and Rupert have decided that they are not welcome in the UK, and they’re right. there is an enforced emotional withdrawal from these assets because they are no longer useful [in terms of influence]," she said.

Sources close to News Corp say that its executives have discussed the possibility that, after the split, the Murdochs could sell down their stake in the publishing division altogether and use the equity to help fund a leveraged buyout of the film and entertainment division.
It is unclear whether the business still plans to pursue this course of action, but doing so would allow Mr Murdoch to shake off shareholder pressures and revive a long-held plan eventually to appoint his son James Murdoch as his successor.
However, some analysts claim that News Corp investors want the Murdochs to buy the publishing assets outright.

[Sabrina]

Wheels are coming off this bus anyway....


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/9418134/Lord-Green-is-pushed-on-HSBC-money-laundering.html
21 July UK

Lord Green is pushed on HSBC money laundering

A shadow treasury minister has written to Lord Green, trade minister, demanding answers about HSBC’s money laundering problems in America and Mexico.

Pressure is growing on the trade minister, Lord Green, to give a public account of what knowledge he had and what action he took on money laundering failings within HSBC when he was chief executive and chairman.

Chris Leslie, the shadow Treasury minister, has written to Lord Green demanding answers about HSBC’s money laundering problems in America and Mexico which could leave the bank facing a $1bn (£640m) fine.

“As you will know, the US senate homeland security sub-committee on investigations last week reported on a series of significant alleged failings at HSBC Bank during your tenure as chief executive and chairman,” the letter says.

“As a senior Government minister with an ongoing role in banking policy, I would be grateful if you could place on the record – at the earliest opportunity – an assurance that you took every appropriate step if and when you became aware of the issues raised by this report.

“I am sure you will share my concern at the comment by Senator Carl Levin, who on Tuesday said: 'HSBC’s chief compliance officer and other senior executives in London knew what was going on but allowed the deceptive conduct to continue’.”

Although Mr Leslie said he was “confident” Lord Green could “answer all the questions”, his move maintains pressure on the minister. So far Downing Street has backed Lord Green, who has failed to give a statement to the House of Lords, which is still sitting, on the issue.

Investors have also demanded that HSBC repair the damage from the money-laundering scandal in the US because operating in America is central to its strategy, a major shareholder has warned.

The bank has become the latest British lender to come under fire after a Congressional report last week showed its failure to safeguard against money laundering exposed the US financial system to drug cartels and terrorists.

HSBC chief executive Stuart Gulliver is expected to try to reassure shareholders that the bank is remedying the problems when HSBC reports its first-half results on July 30.

In a memo to the bank’s employees last week, Mr Gulliver, who has led the bank since the start of 2011, insisted that “while we cannot undo past mistakes, we will be judged on how we respond to this issue and demonstrate that we have learnt from it”.
“When you have failings of control of this scale, it raises questions about corporate governance and risk control,” one large institutional fund manager told The Sunday Telegraph. “This is a big issue for the bank.”

The highly critical report from the senate committee accused HSBC of ignoring risks that some of its customers, including a Saudi Arabian bank, may have had links to terrorism. The 335-page report also found that HSBC’s Mexican bank moved $7bn in cash to its US arm between 2007 and 2008, a volume so large authorities became concerned it must have been drug money.

HSBC is now under intense pressure in the US to show that it will enforce and build on the changes it has made to its compliance procedures.

[Sabrina]

I agree with Wanderer of the Skies' sentiments here. Doesn't really matter whether you go along with these kind of messages (or foam at the mouth :)).... but there are so many subtle - and not so subtle - changes happening at the moment - exposures of fraud, high profile resignations, staff speaking out, main stream media offering pretty full coverage for once, shifts of perception about the financial world, politicians being forced to take some action, looking at new ways of banking etc. etc. Yes, I can see that things are happening, and the gradual speed is allowing the general public go alter their perceptions and change their own opinions - rather than the dramatic Hollywood wham bam crash the system overnight with flashing lights etc...




'As we have always told you, the changes you see in your world do not come as a Hollywood movie, but as a gradual set of circumstances that culminate in the desired change the plan seeks to accomplish. You expected to see massive changes in the structures of your governments, banking and business communities, but this upset would have been far too much for your people to handle. These changes, like all necessary changes, are gradual in nature and sometimes imperceptible at first. Yet, they are here and underway. Have you not perceived the subtle but very powerful shift in the perception of your people towards the banking cartels? Have you not witnessed the slowing down of Gaia’s natural disasters? Have you not felt the shift in thinking of world leaders towards those issues and events which are people oriented and not solely beneficial to corporate interests? These subtle changes are what the behind-the-scenes moves, deals, and actions have been about.'
full post here:
http://kauilapele.wordpress.com/

[Sabrina]

http://americankabuki.blogspot.co.uk/

SOUTH AFRICA
New Economic RIghts Alliance:
We Are Suing the Banks!

Dear Friend,

The Sheriff of the Court has just served the four major banks, and the Reserve Bank, with a summons from the New Economic Rights Alliance: Case number 27478/12.

Put simply, the NewERA is asking the High Court to declare our money lending system fraudulent and unconstitutional. We are not suing for money. Alternatively, we are asking the Court to suspend all legal action currently taken against every South African by the banks, until a full investigation has been undertaken into our banking system.

It may be bold. It may be daring. But it is 100% correct. The banks are doing some terrible things behind our backs and two years of research by dozens of people around the country, working in their spare time and for no money, has culminated in this action. It is a miracle that we made it this far. We are very proud.

What can you do about it?
Take an interest in our money system. Understand WHY we are taking action against the banks. Download and watch The Dark Secrets of Money here
http://micro2.majesticinteractive.co.za/bf.php?fid=1185&id=aa5b3e65ff3608ac

(or watch it on YouTube here)


0aDspMihTlw

. We cannot stress this enough – for the sake of your family’s future you need to know how the money system works. The legal document is attached, but it is complicated, so commentary will be available soon to help you understand it.

Follow and comment on the case at www.thebigcase.co.za.
Become a paying member here or donate a small amount to our cause here. We are in urgent need of funds to survive.
The banking system is a greedy monster that is coming to eat us. Only we, the people, can stop it.

THE NEW ECONOMIC RIGHTS ALLIANCE

[Alie]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/22/us-banking-libor-criminal-idUSBRE86L0CC20120722?feedType=RSS&feedName=businessNews&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter&dlvrit=56943

Exclusive: Prosecutors, regulators close to making Libor arrests

Sun Jul 22, 2012 6:20pm EDT

(Reuters) - Prosecutors and European regulators are close to arresting individual traders and charging them with colluding to manipulate global benchmark interest rates, according to people familiar with a sweeping investigation into the rigging scandal.

Federal prosecutors in Washington, D.C., have recently contacted lawyers representing some of the suspects to notify them that criminal charges and arrests could be imminent, said two of those sources, who asked not to be identified because the investigation is ongoing.

Defense lawyers, some of whom represent suspects, said prosecutors have indicated they plan to begin making arrests and filing criminal charges in the next few weeks. In long-running financial investigations it is not uncommon for prosecutors to contact defense lawyers before filing charges to offer suspects a chance to cooperate or take a plea, these lawyers said.

The prospect of charges and arrests means prosecutors are getting a fuller picture of how traders at major banks allegedly sought to influence the London Interbank Offered Rate, or Libor, and other global rates that underpin hundreds of trillions of dollars in assets. The criminal charges would come alongside efforts by regulators to five major banks, and could show that the alleged activity was not rampant at the lenders.

"The individual criminal charges have no impact on the regulatory moves against the banks," said a European source familiar with the matter. "But banks are hoping that at least regulators will see that the scandal was mainly due to individual misbehavior of a gang of traders."

In Europe, financial regulators are focusing on a ring of traders from several European banks who allegedly sought to rig benchmark interest rates such as Libor, said the European source familiar with the investigation in Europe.

The source, who did not want to be identified because the investigation is ongoing, said regulators are checking emails among a group of traders and believe they are close to piecing together a picture of how the suspects allegedly conspired to make money by manipulating rates. The rates are set daily based on an average of estimates supplied by a panel of banks.

"More than a handful of traders at different banks are involved," said the source familiar with the investigation by European regulators.

There are also probes in Europe concerning Euribor, the Euro Interbank Offered Rate.

It is not clear on which individuals and banks federal prosecutors are most focused. A top U.S. Department of Justice lawyer overseeing the investigation did not respond to a request for comment.

Reuters previously reported that more than a dozen current and former employees of several large banks are under investigation, including Barclays Plc, UBS and Citigroup, and have hired defense lawyers over the past year as a federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., continues to gather evidence.

Activity in the Libor investigation, which has been going on for three years, has quickened since Barclays agreed last month to pay $453 million in fines and penalties to settle allegations with regulators and prosecutors that some of its employees tried to manipulate key interest rates from 2005 through 2009.

Barclays, which signed a non-prosecution agreement with U.S. prosecutors, is the first major bank to reach a settlement in the investigation, which also is looking at the activities of employees at HSBC, Deutsche Bank and other major lenders.

HSBC declined to comment. Officials at Citigroup and UBS were not available for comment.

The Barclays settlement sparked outrage and a series of public hearings in Britain, after which Barclays Chief Executive Bob Diamond announced his resignation from the UK bank.

The revelations have raised questions about the integrity of Libor, which is used as a benchmark in setting prices for loans, mortgages and derivative contracts.

Adding to concerns are documents released by the New York Federal Reserve Bank this month that show regulators in the United States and England had some knowledge that bankers were submitting misleading Libor bids during the 2008 financial crisis to make their financial institutions appear stronger than they really were.

Among other details, the Fed documents included the transcript of an April 2008 telephone call between a Barclays trader in New York and Fed official Fabiola Ravazzolo, in which the unidentified trader said: "So, we know that we're not posting um, an honest Libor."

The source familiar with the investigation in Europe said two traders suspended from Deutsche Bank were among those being investigated. A Deutsche Bank spokesman declined to comment.

The Financial Times said on Wednesday that regulators were looking at suspected communication among four traders who had worked at Barclays, Credit Agricole, HSBC and Deutsche Bank.

Credit Agricole said it had not been accused of any wrongdoing related to the attempted manipulation of Libor by Barclays, but had responded to requests for information from various authorities related to the matter.

Beyond regulatory penalties and criminal charges, banks face a growing number of civil lawsuits from cities, companies and financial institutions claiming they were harmed by rate manipulation. Morgan Stanley recently estimated that the 11 global banks linked to the Libor scandal may face $14 billion in regulatory and legal settlement costs through 2014.

In the United States, the regulatory investigation is being led by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which has made the Libor probe one of its top priorities.

(Reporting by Matthew Goldstein and Jennifer Ablan in New York and Philipp Halstrick in Frankfurt, with additional reporting by Emily Flitter in New York and Aruna Viswanatha in Washington, D.C.; Editing by Alwyn Scott, Maureen Bavdek and Dale Hudson)

[Sabrina]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/jul/22/hsbc-conference-lord-green?newsfeed=true
22 July UK evening

HSBC chief pulls out of speaking at conference with Lord Green
Stuart Gulliver was due to appear at event with embattled former HSBC chairman, now trade minister

Stuart Gulliver, chief executive of HSBC, has withdrawn as a speaker at an Olympic investment conference where he was due to share a podium with the bank's embattled former chairman Lord Green.

He was due to appear on Thursday with Green, the trade minister who is under fire over his tenure at HSBC when it laundered money for Mexican drug barons and broke sanctions. The Business is Great Britain event has been billed by the government as the UK's "biggest ever" investment conference and it takes place on the eve of the Olympic Games' opening ceremony.


(wonder what they'll really talk about....)

Labour is piling pressure on Green to explain what he knew and when about the findings of last week's damning US Senate report, which criticised HSBC for allowing money laundering to take place from 2004 to 2010. Green and Gulliver had been due to make the opening remarks side by side at the conference, which the bank is also sponsoring.

It will be one of a series of business summits taking place during the Games, at which Green is scheduled to take an active role. While Gulliver will no longer be speaking, he is expected to attend and mingle among the high-profile delegates who include Christine Lagarde, head of the International Monetary Fund, and Sir Mervyn King, Bank of England governor. Cabinet ministers are also speaking at the event, which is intended to showcase the UK as a place to do business.

A government spokesman defended the decision to maintain HSBC as a sponsor: "We're going to be putting on a world-class event and have to do it with value for money in mind." It had previously been reported that Barclays was sponsoring the event but is no longer doing so since the Libor manipulation scandal.

Gulliver had only been brought in at the last minute following the withdrawal of Bob Diamond, who resigned as chief executive of Barclays this month. HSBC is now a sole sponsor.

[Sabrina]

Interesting use of the word 'elite' in the headline - rather than the usual 'super rich' etc....


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18944097

22 July evening

Tax havens: Super-rich 'hiding' at least $21tn

A global super-rich elite had at least $21 trillion (£13tn) hidden in secret tax havens by the end of 2010, according to a major study.

The figure is equivalent to the size of the US and Japanese economies combined.

The Price of Offshore Revisited was written by James Henry, a former chief economist at the consultancy McKinsey, for the Tax Justice Network.

Tax expert and UK government adviser John Whiting said he was sceptical that the amount hidden was so large.

Mr Whiting, director of the Office of Tax Simplification, said: "There clearly are some significant amounts hidden away, but if it really is that size what is being done with it all?"

Mr Henry said his $21tn is actually a conservative figure and the true scale could be $32tn. A trillion is 1,000 billion.

Mr Henry used data from the Bank of International Settlements, International Monetary Fund, World Bank, and national governments.

His study deals only with financial wealth deposited in bank and investment accounts, and not other assets such as property and yachts.

The report comes amid growing public and political concern about tax avoidance and evasion. Some authorities, including in Germany, have even paid for information on alleged tax evaders stolen from banks.

The group that commissioned the report, Tax Justice Network, campaigns against tax havens.

Mr Henry said that the super-rich move money around the globe through an "industrious bevy of professional enablers in private banking, legal, accounting and investment industries.

"The lost tax revenues implied by our estimates is huge. It is large enough to make a significant difference to the finances of many countries.

"From another angle, this study is really good news. The world has just located a huge pile of financial wealth that might be called upon to contribute to the solution of our most pressing global problems," he said.

'Huge black hole'

James Henry says his $21tn figure is a conservative estimate
The report highlights the impact on the balance sheets of 139 developing countries of money held in tax havens that is put beyond the reach of local tax authorities.

Mr Henry estimates that since the 1970s, the richest citizens of these 139 countries had amassed $7.3tn to $9.3tn of "unrecorded offshore wealth" by 2010.

Private wealth held offshore represents "a huge black hole in the world economy," Mr Henry said.

Mr Whiting, though, urged caution. "I cannot disprove the figures at all, but they do seem staggering. If the suggestion is that such amounts are actively hidden and never accessed, that seems odd - not least in terms of what the tax authorities are doing. In fact, the US, UK and German authorities are doing a lot."

He also pointed out that if tax havens were stuffed with such sizeable amounts, "you would expect the havens to be more conspicuously wealthy than they are".

Other findings in Mr Henry's report include:

At the end of 2010, the 50 leading private banks alone collectively managed more than $12.1tn in cross-border invested assets for private clients
The three private banks handling the most assets offshore are UBS, Credit Suisse and Goldman Sachs
Less than 100,000 people worldwide own about $9.8tn of the wealth held offshore.
Mr Henry told the BBC that it was difficult to detail hidden assets in some individual countries, including the UK, because of restrictions on getting access to data.

A spokesman for the Treasury said great strides were being made in cracking down on people hiding assets.

He said that in 2011-12 HM Revenue & Customs' High Net Worth Unit secured £200m in additional tax through its compliance work with the very wealthy.

He said that agreements reached with Liechtenstein and Switzerland will bring in £3bn and between £4bn and £7bn respectively.

[Robert J. Niewiadomski]

Internet has picked up the $21Trilion offshore story. Majority of repost are versions of cbs story
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-500395_162-57477527/report-worlds-rich-hide-at-least-$21t-offshore/
Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/jul/21/global-elite-tax-offshore-economy or bbc. Have seen it in Polish news as well...
Original report from Tax Justice Network is here:
http://www.taxjustice.net/cms/front_content.php?idcat=148

[A Simple Human]

House panel seeks more documents from NY Fed on Libor probe (http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/23/us-congress-libor-idUSBRE86M0YO20120723) (Reuters)

House panel seeks more documents from NY Fed on Libor probe
By Aruna Viswanatha and Sarah N. Lynch | July 23, 2012

A U.S. House panel on Monday asked the New York Federal Reserve for a second round of documents as part of an investigation into possible manipulation by top banks of a benchmark interest rate known as Libor.

The House Financial Services Committee asked the Federal Reserve Bank of New York for all communications going back to August 2007 with the banks that help set Libor.

The committee is investigating how the New York Fed, which oversees the banks, responded when it first learned about the possible manipulation.

The New York Fed received the committee's letter and will continue to try to publicly release any documents it turns over to Congress to the extent possible, an official said.

The New York Fed has been pushed to release internal documents amid a furor touched off last month after Barclays PLC agreed to pay $453 million in fines for attempting to manipulate Libor.

Criminal and civil investigations into the issue by U.S. and UK authorities are ongoing, and arrests of individuals could come soon, sources told Reuters.

Earlier this month, the New York Fed released a slew of documents to the House committee that showed Barclays had alerted U.S. regulators as far back as 2007 to concerns that banks were rigging benchmark interest rates.

Policymakers on both sides of the Atlantic did not appear to take decisive action, underscoring the chaos of the financial crisis.

In its Monday letter to New York Fed President William Dudley, the House panel sought to clarify what action the New York Fed took after "admissions of market manipulation" by the Libor contributing banks.

*The committee asked the New York Fed to turn over the documents by September 1.

The House panel is also seeking the New York Fed's communications with U.S. and British regulators, including the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Financial Services Authority.

(Editing by Maureen Bavdek and Lisa Von Ahn)
End

*September 1st, WTF?! Why not send a SWAT team in, raid the place, and just take the documents they need, like they do with any honest citizen. Oh I see, the House Financial Services Committee wants to allow these a$$holes enough time to erase, shred, and incinerate all evidence that would point to their collusion and guilt!

[Alie]

Oh my ..... Look at this from the Washington Times

http://www.scribd.com/fullscreen/100817598?access_key=key-1bug7u4k4a0x13j4gmhg

[Sabrina]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/9422475/Ex-Anglo-Irish-head-Sean-Fitzpatrick-held-in-fraud-probe.html

24 July

Ex-Anglo Irish head Sean Fitzpatrick held in fraud probe

Sean Fitzpatrick, the former head of Anglo Irish Bank and the face of Ireland's banking crisis, has been arrested as part of a long-running fraud investigation at the rescued lender.

Irish arrested Mr FitzPatrick, who served as chief executive of the bank for almost two decades before becoming chairman in 2005, on Tuesday, Reuters reported, citing a source close to the investigation.

Mr FitzPatrick has been arrested twice before in connection with the investigation into the bank, where financial problems revealed by the financal crisis and a property crash led to it being nationalised.

He resigned from the bank in 2008 after the "inappropriate" failure to disclose €87m (£82m) in personal loans from the bank. Mr FitzPatrick concealed the loans from shareholders for eight years by temporarily transferring them to another bank before each year-end to avoid revealing them in the accounts.

Although the transfer "did not in any way breach banking or legal regulations". Mr FitzPatrick said at the time: "It is clear to me, on reflection, that it was inappropriate and unacceptable from a transparency point of view."
Loans to directors form part of the overall investigation.

On Monday, two former top executives at Anglo Irish Bank were the first to be charged in the long-running fraud investigation.
Former Finance Director Willie McAteer, 61, who resigned from the bank ahead of its nationalisation in January 2009, was charged on 16 counts, chiefly over his role in loans allegedly given to a group of 10 wealthy clients to buy shares in the bank.
Former managing director for Ireland Pat Whelan, 50, faced the same charges.

He and McAteer face a maximum sentence of five years each in prison and/or a fine of just over €3,000 ($3,700) if they are found guilty.

Ireland's Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement (ODCE) and the police have been investigating the actions of the bank for over three years, including the loans given to the group, referred to by local media as the "golden circle", as well as whether deposits were used to mask large withdrawals.

Anglo, recently renamed the Irish Banking Resolution Corporation (IBRC), is slowly being wound down after years of reckless lending left the state with a €30bn bill, almost half of the amount needed to bail out the entire sector.

Voters have been angered that nobody has been jailed for the mismanagement of banks that helped fuel the runaway "Celtic Tiger" economy.

and

http://news.sky.com/story/964241/anglo-irish-boss-appears-in-dublin-court

Anglo Irish Boss Appears In Dublin Court

The veteran boss of the Anglo Irish bank, which collapsed amid Ireland's economic meltdown, appears in court.

The former chairman of Anglo Irish Bank is to appear in court after he was arrested by fraud squad officers investigating financial irregularities.

Sean Fitzpatrick is expected to appear before the Criminal Courts in Dublin. It is the third time he has been arrested in connection with the investigation.

It is understood the 64-year-old was arrested at Dublin Airport this morning by police attached to the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement.

Fitzpatrick is the third person to be arrested so far this week in connection with an ongoing investigation into financial irregularities at the collapsed bank.

Former senior executives Willie McAteer and Pat Whelan were charged yesterday with a string of fraud offences over a failed insider trading scam.

They both face up to five years in jail for each of the 16 charges of advising and lending millions to a golden circle of investors to falsely inflate Anglo's share prices.

Bankrupt billionaire Sean Quinn's wife and children were among those involved in the ill-fated plot to save the sinking bank in July 2008.

Anglo was nationalised months later, in January 2009, and has since cost the Irish taxpayer about 30bn euro (£23.4bn) – almost half the value of the country's bank bailout.

Former finance director McAteer, 61, from south Dublin, was arrested yesterday morning on the outskirts of the capital.

His alleged co-conspirator and former managing director of lending at the toxic bank, Whelan, 50, was detained at his home in north Dublin.

[Sabrina]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/23/us-markets-forex-idUSBRE86E0JJ20120723


Reuters) - The embattled euro languished at multi-year lows versus the yen and greenback on Tuesday, having been dealt another setback after Moody's changed to negative its outlook for Europe's biggest economy, Germany.

Moody's also turned negative on the Netherlands and Luxembourg warning that Europe's top-rated nations may have to increase support for indebted states such as Spain and Italy.
more at link

[Sabrina]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/jul/23/andy-coulson-rebekah-brooks

24 July UK


Andy Coulson and Rebekah Brooks to learn if they face hacking charges
CPS due to announce its first charging decisions since Scotland Yard reopened its investigation last year

Andy Coulson, the former communications director to the prime minister, is among 11 former News of the World journalists who will be told on Tuesday if they are to face charges in connection with the phone-hacking scandal.

The Crown Prosecution Service is due to announce its first charging decisions since Scotland Yard reopened its investigation last year and launched Operation Weeting.

The CPS has received files from the Metropolitan police's Weeting team covering 13 individuals, including 11 journalists from the now defunct Sunday tabloid and the private investigator Glenn Mulcaire.

Those under CPS examination have not officially been identified by name, although journalists who have been arrested and remain on police bail include Coulson and Rebekah Brooks, both former editors of the paper. Neville Thurlbeck, its former chief reporter, confirmed he was among those whose files had been passed to the CPS.

Prosecutors have been working on the basis of a "broad interpretation" of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (Ripa), which covers phone hacking, the director of public prosecutions, Keir Starmer, told the Guardian earlier this month. This would mean it was not absolutely necessary for the purposes of bringing a criminal prosecution for a voicemail message to have been hacked into, by, or on behalf of the NoW before it had been heard by its intended recipient.

There had previously been disagreement between the CPS and the Met over whether a criminal offence had been committed if a voicemail message had already been heard by the person for whom it was left.

The Met said on Monday it believes there are 4,775 potential victims of phone hacking, of which 2,615 have been notified. Deputy assistant commissioner Sue Akers told the Leveson inquiry that the Met had notified more than 702 people who are "likely" to have been victims.

Akers also said Operation Elveden, the Met's investigation into alleged illegal payments by journalists to police, has gone beyond News International to include payments from Trinity Mirror and Express Newspapers.

On Monday it emerged that Patricia Bernal, the mother of Clare Bernal who was murdered by a former boyfriend while working at Harvey Nichols, is suing News International after being told by the Met that her phone was targeted hours after her daughter died in 2005.

[Sabrina]

http://elpais.com/elpais/2012/07/22/inenglish/1342974103_479750.html

24 July Spain

http://elpais.com/elpais/2012/07/23/inenglish/1343047538_610892.html


FINANCIAL CRISIS
Markets suffer Black Monday as regions clamor for financial help
Spanish risk premium hits highest level since single currency introduced
Regulator’s ban on short selling allows stocks to recoup some losses
Murcia follows Valencia in seeking bailout



Skeptical investors renewed their assault on Spain’s financial markets on Monday as the risk premium hit yet new euro-era highs and the stock market lost further ground, after Murcia on Sunday said it would join Valencia in asking for a bailout from the central government.

The sharp falls prompted the National Securities Commission (CNMV) to ban short selling on financial instruments around noon. That helped the blue-chip Ibex 35 to recover some of its earlier losses.

The 100-billion-euro European rescue package for Spain’s banks agreed on Friday did little to assuage market fears, as did the 65 billion euros in spending cuts over the next two and a half years announced by the government of Mariano Rajoy, raising the specter of the need for a full-scale bailout.
more at link

and

hmmmm




http://elpais.com/elpais/2012/07/23/inenglish/1343051787_064067.html

US wants Spanish military bases deal extended to 2021


The United States wants an eight-year extension of its defense cooperation agreement with Spain, which regulates the presence of US troops in the military bases of Rota (Cádiz) and Morón de la Frontera (Seville).

The proposal is part of ongoing negotiations over the installation of the naval component of NATO’s missile defense system in Rota, an issue that will dominate Monday’s meeting between the defense ministers of Spain and the US at the Pentagon.

The current deal was signed in 1988, then partially amended in 2002 and extended for a further eight years under the conservative government of José María Aznar. That period ended in February 2011, and since then one-year extensions go automatically in effect if neither party expresses opposition.

The deployment in Rota of four Arleigh Burke Class Aegis destroyers – the naval component of NATO’s anti-missile shield -- requires a new amendment protocol, and Washington wants to take this opportunity to add an eight-year extension, just like in 2002.

The Spanish government has yet to reply, but if the answer is affirmative, the bulk of the treaty would remain in force for over three decades.

The previous Socialist government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero already approved the ship deployment last October, meaning that Spain gave up its main leverage before even sitting down at the negotiating table. The new situation, which increases US troops in the area by 1,200 service members, will not require a change to the personnel ceiling in the agreement, since the total figure will still be far from the authorized maximum of 4,750 troops.

As for what Spain gets out of it — Zapatero talked about up to a thousand new jobs — this will be negotiated separately at technical meetings and the deals that come out of there will not be part of the overall treaty, and therefore their legal status remains unclear.

¤=[Post Update]=¤

http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite1_26032_24/07/2012_453498

24 July Greece

Greece searches for 2.5-bln more in cuts as Moody's adds to concern



Representatives of Greece’s troika of lenders were due in Athens on Tuesday to begin the last phase of their inspection before producing a report on Greece’s fiscal program that could decide whether the country will receive any more loans.

The government was searching for 2.5 billion euros more in savings to meet the target of 11.5 billion set by the troika fro 2013 and 2014.

The effort to finalize the 11.5-billion-euro package is broadly based on a report by the Center of Planning and Economic Research (KEPE) which recommends a range of measures, including setting a ceiling on pensions, worth an estimated total of 5.1 billion euros

The combined efforts of the various ministries added another 3 billion euros to the running total with an additional 1 billion euros reportedly scraped together in a meeting chaired by Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras on Monday.

Prime Minister Antonis Samaras is due to meet the leaders of the two other parties in his coalition government, PASOK’s Evangelos Venizelos and Democratic Left’s Fotis Kouvelis, on Thursday afternoon to discuss the cuts.

Samaras is due to meet the troika officials on Friday, a day after they hold talks with Stournaras.

The meetings come amid growing concern about a possible Greek euro exit. Ratings agency Moody's cited late on Monday an increased chance that Greece could leave the eurozone, which «would set off a chain of financial sector shocks ... that policymakers could only contain at a very high cost."

It also warned that Germany and other countries rated 'AAA' might have to increase support for troubled states such as Spain and Italy that are struggling to finance their deficits.

The burden of that support would fall most heavily on the euro zone's top-rated states, it said.

Moody's said the outlook for Germany's AAA credit rating is negative, the first step towards a possible downgrade.

The Netherlands and Luxembourg - both AAA rated economies - were also put on negative watch. France and Austria lost their AAA ratings earlier this year.

[Sabrina]

http://www.thelocal.de/national/20120724-43929.html

24 July Germany

Moody's cuts Germany's outlook to 'negative'


Moody's took the first step toward stripping Germany of its coveted AAA credit rating on Monday, cutting the outlook for Europe's largest and most pivotal economy from “stable” to “negative.”

Vice-chancellor: 'horror' of Greek exit has gone - Business & Money (23 Jul 12)
Opposition: Banks blackmail and dictate - National (21 Jul 12)
Renegotiation no-go for Greece, says Germany - National (21 Jul 12)
Delivering a stark warning that no country is immune from the eurozone's rolling crisis, the ratings agency said all three faced risks from Greece leaving the eurozone and from the need to stump up cash for potential bailouts for Spain and Italy.

A similar move was announced for fellow AAA ranked economies, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.

In Germany, the finance ministry immediately shot back by saying the country remained the "eurozone's anchor of stability."

The ministry said it had "taken note of Moody's opinion" while stating the "estimate" put the focus "on short-term risks, while stability prospects in the long term are not mentioned."

"The eurozone has initiated a series of measures which should lead to the durable stabilising of the zone," the ministry said.

"Germany itself is in a solid economic and financial situation," it insisted in a statement.

Moody's rationale for the downgrade appeared to hinge on a likely deepening of the crisis, which seemed to reach a fresh denouement Monday as Spanish borrowing costs soared and Greek reforms were on the rocks.

"The level of uncertainty about the outlook for the euro area, and the potential impact of plausible scenarios on member states, are no longer consistent with stable outlooks," Moody's said.

Even if Greece survives, the agency warned that richer nations would likely shoulder greater burdens in future.

"The continued deterioration in Spain and Italy's macroeconomic and funding environment has increased the risk that they will require some kind of external support."

That would send the eurozone crisis to a different level, it said.

"Spain's economy and government bond market is around double the combined size of those of Greece, Portugal and Ireland," Moody's said referring to the three already bailed-out eurozone nations.

While Berlin has, until now, been largely unscathed by the crisis – borrowing at below zero percent interest – it has been at the very centre of Europe's political storm.

The government of Chancellor Angela Merkel has repeatedly been criticized for its austerity-first approach and for not getting ahead of the crisis.

Moody's reiterated those concerns, pointing to a "reactive and gradualist policy response" by European leaders as cause of concern.

Germany, which is reluctant to have its taxpayers on the hook for profligate spending in southern Europe said it would "do all it can with its partners to overcome the European debt crisis as quickly as possible."

On Tuesday German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble will hold talks with the Spanish Economy Minister in Berlin.

Financial markets have turned against Madrid in recent weeks after an initially positive reaction to a massive €65 billion austerity package turned sour. Each new initiative has failed to hold the line.

AFP/jcw

[Sabrina]

http://kauilapele.wordpress.com/

Via Kauliapele:

This email from Neil Keenan to Drake explains some of the things going on with the case (lawsuit) and the liens, which he says is a separate issue. Here’s a couple of highlights I “liked”.

Highlights

The case and the liens are two different issues.
…the phony Euros printed by the European Central Bank are in our possession in Indonesia. These notes are outright fraud and we have all the answers back to us from the system.
These notes are outright fraud…they have no value but they made them as payment for the interest on the Gold from the Global Accounts. Once submitted as frauds the European Central Bank could be out of business.
Soon we will be auditing and validating what is real and what is not.
[To the Kazars/Nazis] When we shut you down then it is up to others to straighten out the wrongs.
…we have closed up the BIS on you… frozen trading… making it very difficult for you to do anything. The Central Banks are already in fault not default and in a few days they go into default.
It is best you take a good long look at your situation because soon it will be too late.


NEWS from Neil Keenan – July 23, 2012

From: Neil Keenan
To: Drake
Sent: Monday, July 23, 2012 5:27 AM
Subject: RE: as per our conversation

Good Morning my friend,

As always I want to keep things clear so no one gets confused most especially me. The case and the liens are two different issues. For the case I must return to Asia to receive the rest of the documentation, I have most recently been promised, that ties in much more than jurisdictional issues. It ties in actions.


Phony Euro (via Ben Fulford)

As you know the phony Euros printed by the European Central Bank are in our possession in Indonesia. These notes are outright fraud and we have all the answers back to us from the system. They have no value but they made them as payment for the interest on the Gold from the Global Accounts. Once submitted as frauds the European Central Bank could be out of business. If not then I will go back and bring back millions of Euros and let the ECB accept them and validate them or get out of business. Then you have the end of this atrocity called the European Commission headed by some Eastern European Mummies from Hungary (Soros Boys).

Exposing the Euro is this simple.

Soon we will be auditing and validating what is real and what is not. The Indonesians have waited far to long for the long overdue promises to kick in. Asia has waited far too long. The Middle East has waited far too long. The world has waited far too long. Why? Because the Kazars/Nazis controlled US Corporation has stolen from the Collateral Accounts from Day One. Since when has a Kazar or Nazi ever kept even the simplest promise. In this case they saw the opportunity to financially control the world. Well, we are coming to close you down. Your days in the sun (you are all so white I think you hate sun) are over with. Exposure is already prevalent and in our hands but to literally take the money right out of your pockets will take just a little longer. When we shut you down then it is up to others to straighten out the wrongs.

To date we have closed up the BIS on you and frozen trading for 90 days and making it very difficult for you to do anything. The Central Banks are already in fault not default and in a few days they go into default. It is only going to get tougher and when it does you will become more desperate but guess what? There will be no corners to hide in so you will be forced to stay in the middle of the ring until this is over with. It is best you take a good long look at your situation because soon it will be too late.

Sorry Drake got carried away,
Neil Keenan

[Sabrina]

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/europe/2012/07/2012722145418435676.html

more on this story:

Super rich hiding up to $32 trillion offshore
Up to $280bn is lost in tax revenues as wealthy individuals park financial assets in offshore tax havens.
L


Rich individuals and their families have as much as $32 trillion of hidden financial assets in offshore tax havens, representing up to $280bn in lost income tax revenues, according to research published on Sunday.

The study estimating the extent of global private financial wealth held in offshore accounts - excluding non-financial assets such as real estate, gold, yachts and racehorses - puts the sum at between $21 and $32 trillion.

"What's shocking is that some of the world's biggest banks are up to their eyeballs in helping their clients evade taxes and shift their wealth offshore."

- John Christensen, the Tax Justice Network

This amounts to roughly the US and Japanese GDP combined. Roughly 10 million people worldwide have offshore accounts, with 100,000 people owning half of those secreted assets.

The research was carried out for pressure group Tax Justice Network, which campaigns against tax havens, by James Henry, former chief economist at consultants McKinsey & Co.

John Christensen of the Tax Justice Network told Al Jazeera that he was shocked by "the sheer scale of the figures".

"What's shocking is that some of the world's biggest banks are up to their eyeballs in helping their clients evade taxes and shift their wealth offshore," said Christensen.


We're talking about very big, well-known brands - HSBC, Citigroup, Bank of America, UBS, Credit Suisse - some of the world's biggest banks are involved... and they do it knowing fully well that their clients, more often than not, are evading and avoiding taxes."

Much of this activity, Christensen added, was illegal.

He used data from the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, United Nations and central banks. The report also highlights the impact on the balance sheets of 139 developing countries of money held in tax havens by private elites, putting wealth beyond the reach of local tax authorities.

The research estimates that since the 1970s, the richest citizens of these 139 countries had amassed $7.3 to $9.3 trillion of "unrecorded offshore wealth" by 2010.

Private wealth held offshore represents "a huge black hole in the world economy," Henry said in a statement.

[Robert J. Niewiadomski]

Another "CEO" steps down. And relocates to higher estate...

Ghana's President Atta Mills died at age 68
July 24, 2012 1:15 PM
(AP) ACCRA, Ghana - John Atta Mills, who was elected president in the closest vote in Ghana's history and then led the West African country amid newfound oil wealth, died Tuesday just months before the end of his first term. He was 68.

Ghanaian state-run television stations GTV and TV3 broke into regular programming to announce the president's death. Chief of Staff John Henry Martey Newman told the nation that Atta Mills had died Tuesday afternoon at the 37th Military Hospital in Accra but gave no details about the cause of his death.

Information Minister Fritz Baffour later confirmed that Atta Mills had died but also declined to comment further.

According to state-run media, Ghana's parliament was to hold an emergency meeting immediately.
(...)

Full story: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57478866/ghanas-president-atta-mills-died-at-age-68/?tag=cbsnewsSectionContent.2

[Alie]

I have to say that this is somewhat over my head, but for those who want to understand the LIBOR scandal in better detail:

Excerpt from: http://news.goldseek.com/GoldenJackass/1341518400.php

Exposure of Banker Corruption



"Few observers make the connection, but the current LIBOR scandal is a middle inning of two important events. The first is the demise of the Western banker leadership crew. The executives from the most powerful banks will be last to be deposed, all sharing an ethnic strain. The second is the open fracture of the Western financial system. Over the past few years, to be sure a great many people have grown tired of Jackass descriptions of corruption within the banking sector and financial system in general. Well, hear this: TOLD YA SO! The London Interbank Offered Rate scandal will erupt into an uncontrollable firestorm, hitting one chamber and then the next, with rapid contagion.

The Bank of England and the US Federal Reserve are both implicated, but they will skate until the end game. They control the prosecutors and the news networks. Few yet connect the LIBOR rigged prices to the important parts of the financial kingdom run by the harried banker elite. The supposedly informed experts point to the rigged low rates for adjustable rate mortgages, for credit cards, and for student loans. Only the ARM rate is important among these, since it kept and housing bubble going. If truth be told, the LIBOR anomalies have persisted since late 2008. The intrepid first class forensic bond analyst Rob Kirby linked the sordid trails and mismatched discrepancies of the LIBOR to the JPMorgan monster, the US Federal Reserve syndicate ring leader, and the USDept Treasury (haven for Goldman Sachs lieutenants). See his 2008 article on Financial Sense (CLICK HERE). Regulators have done nothing for four years. It was not fully appreciated at the time, like it might be today. The LIBOR should match the settled EuroDollar contract, but it has not for years. The evidence for price rig has been glaring for years. The big banks have skimmed the difference for profit for years. Imagine selling milk or concrete with a variation in price at the wholesale level, enabling vast profits from skimming. It has been permitted for the big banks, a grand blemish on an already scarred sector."

[ThePythonicCow]

I have to say that this is somewhat over my head, but for those who want to understand the LIBOR scandal in better detail:

The U.S. Treasury debt market should have blown up 4 years ago, in 2008. We moved trillions of dollars of bank debt (in the failing mortgage market and elsewhere) into U.S. national debt, at the same time the U.S. has become even less able to pay its debt. So interest rates on U.S. Treasury debt should have gone up, not down (which would have caused a few big banks to go bankrupt, which would have collapsed the world monetary system earlier.)

Instead, to keep the con game going another inning, they (the big banks, the U.S. Federal Reserve and the U.S. Treasury Department) have been gaming the system even further, artificially suppressing the interest rates on U.S. Treasury debt to historic lows to nearly zero percent on short term debt, and below two percent on ten year Treasury debt.

The enormous corruption in the mortgage market, in the precious metal markets, in the major banks, in the monetary system, and elsewhere, has been extended even further, to enormous corruption at the highest levels, in the setting of U.S. and European national debt these last four years.

What Jim Willie calls Interest Rate Swaps (IRSwaps) are the most common type of derivatives in an unregulated quadrillion dollar market. He is noting that the connection of these derivatives (IRSwaps) to the core interest rates (LIBOR and US Treasury rates) is a much bigger concern than the more widely publicized connection of LIBOR to home adjustable mortgage rates.

The above is what I take Jim Willie, CB, to have been saying in this article, Exposure of Banker Corruption (http://news.goldseek.com/GoldenJackass/1341518400.php).

===

The below is my further take on this and my financial forecast:

This roughly 1000 trillion (quadrillion) dollar derivative market (side bets on interest rates and foreign currency exchange rates, mostly) is built on the U.S. Treasury market. When a derivative needs to be paid off, most often someone has to sell some Treasury notes, bills or bonds to raise the U.S. Dollars needed to make the payment.

When the derivative market blows up (is deliberately demolished, I suspect) that will cause the U.S. Treasury market to collapse from its current overly extended state. This will result in some serious financial fireworks. We'll see on a global scale what individual countries (such as Argentina) have seen now and then in the last half century on a local level. The current world monetary system, based on the US Dollar, will collapse. Normal banking will take an extended "holiday", and when it is reopened, the rules of the game will have changed.

Any wealth you thought you had which required either foreign travel or the cooperation of any government or any financial institution (bank, stock broker, ...) to access risks being severely reduced or destroyed in real value, especially if it is denominated in US Dollars or in any other currency which is based on US Dollar as its reserve currency, or if it relies on any institution which holds substantial wealth in US Treasuries (http://finance.yahoo.com/news/biggest-holders-of-us-gov-t-debt.html) (China, Japan, Saudi Arabia, UK, pension funds, mutual funds, state and local governments in the US, and banks, credit unions and savings and loan banks, large and small, for example).

The collapse of the derivative market, setting off this collapse of the U.S. Treasury market, will likely be set off by the collapse of the Euro. This is because many derivatives have been written betting on the Euro and on the interest rates of the nations of Europe.

Major solar, false flag, war and disclosure events may interact with this timeline.

A suitable number of banking and regulatory executives will be thrown to the wolves, like the Romans threw Christians to the lions, in the cleanup following this financial collapse. This present thread, Massive Bank and High Profile Resignations Across the World (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?41059-Massive-Bank-and-High-Profile-Resignations-Across-the-World&p=526813#post526813), is the warm-up act to that modern day human sacrifice.

(Of course, if the solar event is serious enough, we won't be worried much whether the local bank is still open for business.)

[Sabrina]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jul/24/coulson-rebekah-brooks-phone-hacking

25 July UK


Andy Coulson and Rebekah Brooks charged over phone hacking
PM's former aide and ex-News International chief will be prosecuted in connection with hacking of Milly Dowler's phone


The prime minister's former director of communications and Rupert Murdoch's closest confidante in London have been charged with conspiring to hack the phones of more than 600 people, including the murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler and 7/7 victim John Tulloch, over a period of up to six years.

Andy Coulson and Rebekah Brooks, who both edited the News of the World, were among eight people charged with 19 counts of conspiracy over the phone hacking scandal, with prosecutors alleging that the tabloid also targeted Labour cabinet ministers and celebrities – including at least one person associated with the Hollywood power couple Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.

The eight, all employed by Murdoch's now defunct News of the World, are the first people to be charged since the Metropolitan police reopened the phone hacking probe 18 months ago – following a series of articles by the Guardian in 2009 and 2010 and by other media organisations which suggested that the practice of intercepting voicemails went wider than had been thought.

Other victims of the alleged hacking include the former deputy prime minister John Prescott, two former home secretaries, David Blunkett and Charles Clarke, and the former culture secretary Tessa Jowell. Sven-Goran Eriksson, Wayne Rooney, Delia Smith, Sienna Miller and Calum Best were also targeted, as well as Prof Tulloch, who was left bloody and burnt after the worst ever terrorist attacks on the UK mainland in July 2005, the CPS said.

Announcing the decision at 11am via a televised press statement, and coinciding with the last day of hearings at the Leveson inquiry, Alison Levitt QC, principal legal adviser to the director of public prosecutions, said she had determined that "a prosecution is required in the public interest in relation to each of these eight suspects" after satisfying herself that "there is sufficient evidence for there to be a realistic prospect of conviction".

Coulson was charged on five counts of conspiring unlawfully to intercept communications, with specific charges relating to the hacking of phones to listen to voicemails relating to the Milly Dowler, Blunkett, Clarke and Best. He was also charged – alongside six of the remaining seven – with conspiring to hack phones between 2000 and 2006, targeting communications of over 600 people.

The maximum penalty for each charge is two years imprisonment, or a fine, or both – and it is at the judge's discretion whether any sentences would be served concurrently.

Coulson left the editorship of the News of the World in January 2007 after a journalist and private investigator were convicted of phone hacking. A few months later he was appointed as director of communications for the Conservative party, and followed David Cameron into Downing Street after the 2010 election. The prime minister repeatedly said that Coulson deserved a "second chance", as one of the prime minister's most senior advisers, before Coulson was forced to quit his No 10 role on the grounds that the controversy over phone hacking was distracting him from his job.

Coulson gave a short statement outside his south London home, saying he would "fight these allegations", and added that he never had done anything to harm the Milly Dowler investigation.

He said: "I am extremely disappointed by the CPS decision today. I will fight these allegations when they eventually get to court. Anyone who knows me, or who worked with me, would know that I wouldn't, and more importantly that I didn't, do anything to damage the Milly Dowler investigation. At the News of the World we worked on behalf of the victims of crime, particularly violent crime, and the idea that I would sit in my office dreaming up schemes to undermine investigations is simply untrue."

Brooks, who became chief executive of News International before resigning from the company last year, faces three counts of conspiring to intercept communications. In addition to the general conspiracy charge, she will face charges relating to the targeting of Andy Gilchrist, the former general secretary of the Fire Brigades Union, and Dowler. Allegations about the hacking of the murdered schoolgirl's phone led Murdoch to decide to shut down the News of the World in 2011.

There was no public appearance for Brooks, but through her lawyers Kingsley Napley she issued a statement denying the charges. She said that "I did not authorise, nor was I aware of, phone hacking under my editorship" and added that "the charge concerning Milly Dowler is particularly upsetting, not only as it is untrue but also because I have spent my journalistic career campaigning for victims of crime. I will vigorously defend these allegations".

The others facing phone hacking related charges are Stuart Kuttner, former managing editor of the News of the World, Ian Edmondson, former assistant editor (news), Greg Miskiw, a former news editor, Neville Thurlbeck, former chief reporter, James Weatherup, former assistant news editor, and a private investigator, Glenn Mulcaire. Kuttner faces three charges, while Miskiw faces 10 charges. Edmondson faces 12 charges, Thurlbeck eight, and Weatherup eight. Mulcaire is charged over the voicemails of four people: Milly Dowler, Gilchrist, Smith and Clarke.

Rhodri Davies QC, counsel for News International, responded for the company in the last item of business at the Leveson inquiry. He said "voicemail hacking at the News of the World was profoundly wrong and is deeply regretted by News International" and the company had learned lessons "too severe to be forgotten".

[Sabrina]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/watchdog-calls-on-banks-to-clean-up-their-act-from-the-top-7973362.html

25 July UK


Watchdog calls on banks to clean up their act from the top
FSA chief warns free banking may have to end to stop mis-selling


A change in culture from the very top of the banking industry is needed to rebuild a cynical British public's trust in the sector, the chairman of the City's financial watchdog said yesterday.

In a wide-ranging speech, Financial Services Authority chairman Lord Turner called on bank bosses to act as "custodians of institutions of great public interest, as well as custodians of shareholder value".

He warned the end of free current accounts might be needed to drive more competition into the sector and move away from a model where banks sought profit instead from higher-margin products, leading to the mis-selling of payment protection insurance.

Referring to a recent Economist headline labelling industry bosses "Banksters" in the wake of the Libor scandal, Lord Turner said executives needed to put aside the temptation to boost profits through technically legal means "which go against firm values".

He appeared to single out the complex efforts of Goldman Sachs to disguise the scale of Greece's deficit ahead of the nation's entry into the single currency, saying: "In an investment bank, if a fancy new product design will enable a corporate or a country to conceal from the market the scale of its indebtedness … does the top management and the board say 'Congratulations, take a bonus' or does it say, 'That's not what we do'?

He warned: "There is no value in beating about the bush. Unless management and boards themselves shift the tone from the top in such specific ways, and in addition make effective controls against dishonest behaviour the highest priority throughout the organisation, then we are not going to change the external perception of bankers."

Lord Turner refused to comment on whether authorities should have spotted Libor fixing in 2007 and 2008 when banks were submitting lower rates of money-market borrowing costs to calm nerves over their ease of funding.

But he denied the FSA could have spotted earlier manipulation of the rate to boost profits on derivative contracts "except via supervision so intensive as to be prohibitively expensive".

Barclays has been fined £290m over libor-fixing, which has claimed three boardroom scalps including chief executive Bob Diamond.

Lord Turner said the current set-up in high street banking, where the accounts of customers in credit are subsidised by the overdraft charges of others, "was not a sound basis for a long-term trust-based relationship between the industry and its customers".

But he added the industry would only be ever able to move away from the model of free current accounts if regulators, politicians and consumer groups support the case "rather than accuse them of profiteering".

Fresh start: Salz to put house in order

Barclays has drafted in Anthony Salz, a leading corporate lawyer, to conduct a root-and-branch review of the bank in the wake of the Libor scandal that has forced both its chairman and chief executive to quit.

Barclays said the review "will assess the bank's current values, principles and standards of operation", test how well current decision-making processes incorporated the bank's values, and assess whether appropriate processes were in place.

The bank has committed to implementing Mr Salz's recommendations in full.

Mr Salz, who will have a deputy and a team of accountants to assist, said he hoped the review "would significantly assist Barclays in rebuilding trust and reaffirming its position as one of our leading institutions".

[Sabrina]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/9424793/Europe-is-sleepwalking-towards-imminent-disaster-warn-top-economists.html

25 July

Europe is sleepwalking towards imminent disaster, warn top economists
The euro has completely broken down as a workable system and faces collapse with “incalculable economic losses and human suffering” unless there is a drastic change of course, according to a group of leading economists.

Europe is “sleepwalking towards disaster”, according to the 17 experts, who warned that over the past few weeks “the situation in the debtor countries has deteriorated dramatically”.

“The sense of a neverending crisis, with one domino falling after another, must be reversed. The last domino, Spain, is days away from a liquidity crisis,” said the economists. They include two members of Germany’s Council of Economic Experts and leading euro specialists at the London of School of Economics, all euro supporters.

“This dramatic situation is the result of a eurozone system which, as currently constructed, is thoroughly broken. The cause is a systemic failure. It is the responsibility of all European nations that were parties to its flawed design, construction and implementation to contribute to a solution. Absent this collective response, the euro will disintegrate,” they added in a co-signed report for the Institute for New Economic Thinking.

The warning came as contagion from Spain pushed Italy’s borrowing costs to danger levels, with two-year yields rocketing 40 basis points to more than 5pc. The Milan bourse tumbled 3pc, led by bank shares. Italian equities have been in freefall since it became clear two weeks ago that the EU’s June summit deal had failed to break the nexus between crippled banks and sovereign states.
The crisis is starting to ricochet back into Germany, where the PMI manufacturing index for July fell to its lowest since mid-2009. Doubts are emerging about the creditworthiness of the German state itself.

more at link

[Sabrina]

Greece's army chief unexpectedly resigns, cites reasons of 'ethics and dignity'

Wednesday, July 25, 2012
By The Associated Press
Greece

ATHENS, Greece - Greece's army chief of staff has unexpectedly resigned hours before a top government meeting on military policy, citing reasons of "ethics and dignity."

An Army statement says Lieutenant General Constantinos Ziazias stepped down at 2 a.m. local time Wednesday. It says his resignation was for "reasons that touch on ethics and dignity, both his own and of the army."

The statement did not elaborate, and government officials had no immediate comment. The resignation came just before Wednesday's planned meeting of Greece's council on foreign policy and defence, under Prime Minister Antonis Samaras

Ziazias was appointed nine months ago, just before the previous Socialist government stepped down. Changes of government in Greece are routinely followed by new top military appointments. The current conservative-led coalition took over last month.

and
Greece

Head of joint chiefs of staff resigns

http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite1_1_25/07/2012_453675

25 JUly

The head of the joint chiefs of staff, Lieutenant General Constantinos Ziazias, submitted his resignation to the Defense Ministry late on Tuesday, Skai reported.

According to sources, Ziazias resigned in protest at the demands by the ministry's political leadership for changes to top level officers in the armed forces as part of a reshuffle aimed at making crucial savings.

Meanwhile the Government Council of Foreign Affairs and National Defense (KYSEA) is scheduled to convene on Wednesday to approve the procurement of 700 reinforced military vehicles from the US, Skai understands.

[Sabrina]

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/07/25/world/asia/beijing-flood-mayor-resigns/index.html

Mayor and Vice Mayor of Beijing Resign


25 July China


However, soon after state media reported the resignation of Beijing mayor Guo Jinlong and vice mayor Ji Lin, comments about their departure on China's Sina Weibo were being blocked and deleted.

State media gave no reason for the resignation of vice mayor Ji Lin. However, it said mayor Guo Jinlong had stepped down following his election as secretary of the Beijing Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) on July 3.


Wang Anshun, the vice Party chief of Beijing, has been appointed as vice mayor and acting mayor, Xinhua said.


The departure of two of Beijing's most senior officials comes just four days after the heaviest rain in 60 years submerged large parts of the Chinese capital.

story at link

[Sabrina]

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/07/24/new-york-fed-faces-questions-over-policing-wall-street/?ref=global

25 July US

New York Fed Faces Questions Over Policing Wall Street

As the Federal Reserve Bank of New York faced criticism for missing a multibillion-dollar trading loss at JPMorgan Chase, the regulator convened a town hall meeting in May to bolster employee morale.

Two months later, the New York Fed staff huddled again, after lawmakers questioned why the regulator had failed to rein in banks that manipulated key interest rates.

“We were told to keep our heads down and stay focused,” said one person present at the July meeting who requested anonymity because the gathering was not public.

The New York Fed, whose weaknesses were first exposed when the financial crisis hit, is undergoing a new trial by fire as it grapples with how to police Wall Street. While the regulator has revamped its approach to overseeing the nation’s biggest banks since the crisis, recent black eyes suggest that fundamental problems persist.

Lawmakers will most likely focus on the record of the New York Fed when Timothy F. Geithner, the regulator’s former president, testifies on Wednesday before the House Financial Services Committee. Mr. Geithner, now the Treasury secretary, will appear before a Senate panel on Thursday.

The regional Fed bank, by virtue of its location in Lower Manhattan, is on the front line of financial regulation. With examiners stationed inside the banks, the regulator has a wide window into the inner workings of these institutions.

But the New York Fed does not have enforcement power like many American regulators. Instead, it reports potential wrongdoing to other agencies or the central bank, the Federal Reserve, and leaves its counterparts to dole out punishments if necessary.

The New York Fed’s mission, officials say, is to broadly protect the health and safety of the financial system — not to micromanage individual banks.

“They focus on safety and soundness of the banks, which ultimately means they are not particularly focused on market manipulation,” said Sheila C. Bair, the former chairwoman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, another regulator.

In recent years, the New York Fed has beefed up oversight. Under the president, William C. Dudley, the regulator has increased the expertise of its examiners and hired new senior officials.

Even so, the JPMorgan debacle and the interest-rate investigation have raised questions about the New York Fed. They highlight how the regulator is hampered by its lack of enforcement authority and dogged by concerns that it is overly cozy with the banks.

Mr. Geithner is expected to face questions from lawmakers on Wednesday about the rate-rigging inquiry that has ensnared more than a dozen big banks. In June, Barclays agreed to pay $450 million to authorities for manipulating the London interbank offered rate, or Libor.

Since the settlement, Mr. Geithner has heralded his efforts to reform the rate-setting process in 2008. But the New York Fed, which knew Barclays had been reporting false rates at the time, did not stop the actions.

And when Mr. Geithner briefed other American regulators about Libor in May 2008, he did not disclose the specific wrongdoing, according to people briefed on the meeting. In later briefings, New York Fed officials did warn their counterparts about “allegations of misreporting.”

“The regulator has an obligation to make a criminal referral if it suspects a crime may have occurred,” said Bart Dzivi, who served as special counsel to the Federal Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission. “How this doesn’t rise to that level, simply boggles the mind.”

The New York Fed has been engulfed by controversy since the financial crisis. Mr. Geithner was one of many regulators who had underestimated certain risks spreading through the financial system, saying in a May 2007 speech that “financial innovation has improved the capacity to measure and manage risk” while acknowledging that threats remained. In late 2008, the system nearly collapsed after Lehman Brothers failed.

This year, the New York Fed was again caught off guard when JPMorgan disclosed the trading losses, which have already exceeded $5 billion. The regulator has assigned about 40 examiners to the bank, but none of the officials kept close tabs on the chief investment office, the powerful unit that placed the ill-fated trade.

In the case of Libor, the New York Fed took a somewhat passive approach. Despite mounting evidence of problems, the agency focused on policy solutions rather than the wrongdoing.

People close to the Fed note that, at the time, the regulator was primarily concerned with saving Wall Street from collapse. And the regulator pushed harder than its British counterparts, records show. Mr. Geithner urged British authorities to “eliminate incentive to misreport” Libor, which affects the cost of trillions of dollars in mortgages and other loans.

Some New York Fed examiners are now focused on how the Libor investigation could damage the bottom line at banks like Citigroup and JPMorgan. The examiners, people briefed on the matter say, are assessing whether banks need to build reserves against the growing threat of lawsuits.

The concerns echo the New York Fed’s broader moves to enhance supervision. After the crisis, the Fed formed a special team to spot emerging risks. Mr. Dudley also appointed a new head of bank supervision, Sarah J. Dahlgren, who first joined the Fed more than two decades ago after working as a budget official at Rikers Island jail.

In recent years, the New York Fed has doubled the number of on-site examiners and dispatched some of its most senior officials to big banks. The lead supervisors at each bank are some of the most “battle tested” and sophisticated regulators who are comfortable challenging Wall Street executives, one regulator said.

The New York Fed also notes that it has delved deeper into internal bank data, focusing on business units that generate the most revenue and risk. To better prepare the industry for sudden losses, the regulator has pushed banks to build extra capital.

But there are limits to its power. Despite its leading role in policing the banks, the New York Fed cannot levy fines. When examiners do detect questionable behavior, they often push the company to adopt changes. If the wrongdoing persists, officials can pass along the case to the Federal Reserve board in Washington.

It is up to the central bank to take action. The Fed, which can impose fines and cease-and-desist orders, filed 171 enforcement actions last year. The cases are down 44 percent from the year before, but the actions have increased sharply from the precrisis era.

Some critics also contend there is a revolving door between Wall Street and the New York Fed. Mr. Dudley was formerly the chief domestic economist at Goldman Sachs, and his wife collects deferred compensation from her days at JPMorgan. After Bear Stearns collapsed in 2008, the New York Fed hired the firm’s chief risk officer.

The New York Fed does limit the influence of employees who depart for a career on Wall Street. Some former senior officials cannot discuss regulatory matters with the Fed for up to a year. As an extra measure, examiners rotate between banks every three to five years to prevent a clubby culture from forming.

But some experts say the problem is not solved.

“It’s a cultural problem at all the banking regulators,” said Ms. Bair, who is now a senior adviser to the Pew Charitable Trusts. “There’s not a healthy separation, and you can see that in their hiring practices.”

[Alie]

Please Spread This to your FRIENDS:

7-24-12 Rep (D-Ohio) Dennis Kucinich Dares To Speak The Truth About The Federal Reserve

4ab2nt_CLC0

[Billy]

Irelands bankers being arrested and charged

XlY-n88tD2k

[Sabrina]

James Holmes (Colorado shooting) father and banking connection:

http://www.fourwinds10.net/siterun_data/government/war/terrorism_war/news.php?q=1343231885

This is via Sorcha Faal but can obviously be checked out:

Most important to note about James Holmes, however, this report says, is that his father, Robert Holmes, was said to have been scheduled to testify within the next few weeks before a US Senate panel on the largest bank fraud scandal in world history that is currently unfolding and threatens to destabilize and destroy the Western banking system.

Robert Holmes, whose “blueblood” family links go back to the Mayflower, is known throughout the global banking community as being the creator of one of the most sophisticated computer algorithms ever developed and is credited with developing predictive models for financial services; credit and fraud risk models, first and third party application fraud models and internet/online banking fraud models.

Educated at the University of California, Berkeley and Stanford University, Robert Holmes is currently the senior lead scientist with the American credit score company FICO, which was formally known as Fair, Isaac and Company, and which every American citizen is beholden to should they need to borrow money.

The massive banking crime being investigated by the US Senate is called the LIBOR Scandal where UK banks fixed the London Interbank Borrowing Rate with the complicity of the Bank of England, the US Federal Reserve (which knew about this crime for 4 years and didn’t report it) and many other major Western banks.

Not known to the majority of those affected by this LIBOR rate scandal (which is everyone in the world) is that its historically low setting of interests rates since the beginning of the Global Financial Crisis of 2007-2012 has done more to destroy the life savings, stock investments and retirements of Americas middle class than any other single event in their entire history.
Even worse, according to this report, Holmes recently completed his work on what is called one of the most sophisticated computer algorithms ever developed that not only uncovered the true intent of this massive fraud, but is, also, able to trace the Trillions of Dollars “lost” to the exact bank accounts of the elite classes who have stolen it.

Ministry intelligence officials note in this report that it is “no coincidence” that this Colorado massacre occurred within minutes of London’s Guardian News Service releasing their shocking report this past Saturday (21 July) titled “Wealth Doesn't trickle Down – It Just Floods Offshore, Research Reveals” as Robert Holmes algorithms were said used to discover this massive fraud scheme.


and



Submitted by celeste on Wed, 07/25/2012 - 08:20
in
Daily Paul Liberty Forum
He is the lead scientist at FICO the American credit score company. He has been developing predictive models for financial services; credit & fraud risk models,first and third party application fraud models and internet/online banking fraud models. It is rumored he was about to testify before the Senate on the current banking scandals.

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/robert-holmes/4/47b/24a

[humanalien]

Well now, the james holmes setup is finally starting to make
sense now. If daddy holmes keeps his mouth shut then james
will get off with a slap on the wrist....

[Maunagarjana]

Very interesting stuff, Sabrina. Wasn't expecting the LIBOR tie-in!

[Alie]

http://www.thestar.com/business/article/1231930--ceo-of-nomura-japan-s-biggest-investment-bank-quits-amid-insider-trading-scandal

CEO of Nomura, Japan’s biggest investment bank, QUITS amid insider trading scandal

Malcolm Foster
The Associated Press

TOKYO — Nomura CEO Kenichi Watanabe has resigned in the wake of an insider trading scandal that has tarnished the reputation of Japan Inc. and its biggest investment bank.

Watanabe announced his resignation at a news conference Thursday in Tokyo, ending his four year leadership of Nomura Holdings Ltd. Takumi Shibata, another top executive at the bank, also resigned.

Watanabe, 59, will from Aug. 1 be replaced by Koji Nagai, the president of Nomura Securities Co., which is part of the Nomura banking empire and at the centre of the insider scandal.

Japan’s financial regulators are investigating Nomura Securities for leaking information to clients ahead of planned securities offerings by energy company Inpex, Mizuho Financial Group and Tokyo Electric Power Co. in 2010.

Nomura has admitted that some its employees were involved in leaking inside information.

“Our reputation has been badly damaged,” said Nagai. “To try to restore trust is easily said, but to actually accomplish that is a huge undertaking. Rather than just change our approach, we need to fundamentally rebuild the company. All corporate employees need to be involved in this,” he said.

A panel of external lawyers commissioned by the company said in a June 29 report that its equity sales staff would seek information from colleagues about upcoming offerings that Nomura was underwriting and then pass along those tips to customers.

The panel made a series of recommendations to prevent such incidents in the future, including banning conversations with clients about rumours regarding financing transactions and using personal cellphones for business.

Nomura is reportedly losing underwriting business in wake of the scandal.

The company is still being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission and could face penalties.

Nomura’s share price has more than halved since word of the investigation first surfaced in March, falling from 417 yen to 259 yen. It was up 5.7 per cent Thursday on reports of Watanabe’s resignation.

[Sabrina]

http://rt.com/usa/news/house-ron-audit-bill-061/

House passes Ron Paul's 'Audit the Fed’ bill

A bill introduced by Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) to audit America’s central bank, the Federal Reserve, passed the US House of Representatives overwhelmingly Wednesday afternoon by a 327-98 vote.

Paul’s ongoing efforts to call for increased transparency in the Federal Reserve have become a hallmark of his tenure in Congress and of his current campaign for the presidency.

Rep. Paul is still vying for the GOP nomination and intends to speak at the Republican National Convention in Florida next month. And although Paul has as recently as this week refused to endorse presumptive party nominee Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor has supported the congressman’s proposal to audit the Fed.

"Ron Paul's 'Audit The Fed' bill is a reminder of his tireless efforts to promote sound money and a more transparent Federal Reserve," Romney writes on his official Twitter page.

During the Wednesday afternoon vote in Washington, D.C., Paul received backing from all House Republicans but one, as well as support from 89 congressional Democrats.

Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), was among those on the opposing party of Paul’s that still saw reason to support the bill. "The Fed creates trillions of dollars out of nothing and gives it to banks,” Rep. Kucinich said before Wednesday’s vote. “Congress is in the dark. The Fed sets the stage for the subprime meltdown. Congress is in the dark. The Fed takes a dive on LIBOR. Congress is in the dark. The Fed doesn’t tell regulators what is going on. Congress is in the dark.”

"It is time for us to bring the Fed into the sunshine of accountability," the democratic congressman continued.
House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) was one of those opposed to the bill, saying that passing it “increases the likelihood that the Fed will make decisions based on political rather than economic considerations, and that is not a recipe for sound monetary policy.”

Ben Bernanke, chairman of the US Federal Reserve has said that, although the Fed is “quite transparent and accountable on monetary policy,” there was room for improvement. Speaking to the House Financial Service Committee last week, Bernanke said the agency still “needs to be transparent and it needs to be accountable,” even though he believes that his quarterly projections and press conferences already allow the central bank to be relatively open with Americans.

Although Wednesday’s vote was a success for the congressman’s efforts to bring added transparency to the Fed, his fight for an audit doesn’t end here. Next the bill will be brought to the Senate for a vote, where it is not expected to pass. If it does clear both sides of Congress, however, it will then be sent to the desk of President Barack Obama for him to sign into law.

[Sabrina]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/9427505/Barclays-rocked-by-fourth-resignation.html

Barclays rocked by fourth resignation

Barclays has been hit by its fourth major resignation in less than a month after controversial remuneration chief Alison Carnwath quit the company.

Ms Carnwath said she was “no longer able to devote sufficient time” to her role at the bank, hit by the Libor rigging scandal which saw the troubled lender fined a record £290m for manipulating the inter-bank lending rate.

The scandal has already resulted in the departures of Bob Diamond, the bank’s chief executive, and Jerry del Missier, its chief operating officer. Chairman Marcus Aigus will leave once his successor is found.
Ms Carnwath was head of Barclays’ remuneration committee, which handed a £2.7m bonus to Mr Diamond earlier this year as part of a £17m pay package.

The award was widely criticised, with 32pc of investors refusing to back the bank’s remuneration report at its annual meeting in April.

Ms Carnwath worked in investment banking and corporate finance for 20 years but is now a non-executive director in the boardrooms of a series of major companies.

These include property group Land Securities, where she is chairman, and Man Group where a third of shareholders also failed to back her re-election as a director in May, amid significant concerns over the hedge fund’s direction and performance.

Sources close to the bank say Ms Carnwath’s resignation was unexpected. She is believed to have disagreed with the decision to hand Mr Diamond a £2.7m bonus but failed to persuade fellow board members, including Mr Agius, to back her view.

The board eventually agreed to impose stricter targets on Mr Diamond and finance director Chris Lucas’s bonuses.

[Sabrina]

http://www.bangkokbusinessbrief.com/2012/07/26/sme-bank-president-resigns/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=sme-bank-president-resigns

Thailand 26 July

SME Bank president resigns

Soros Sakornvisava, president of the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Bank of Thailand (SME Bank) who has been under the Finance Ministry’s investigation into his past actions, yesterday tendered a surprise resignation to Deputy Finance Minister Viroon Tejapaibul.




“It’s a surprise,” the minister said, adding that Soros cited a health problem.

Meanwhile, SME Bank Chairman Naris Chaiyasoot said the resignation is not yet approved, due to the absence of a physical fitness document from his doctor. Without a good reason, the bank may demand for compensation from Soros, he added.

Soros wanted the resignation to take effect on October 4. Under his employment contract, to avoid paying compensation, he must submit the resignation 3 months in advance.

The bank’s executive chairman, Pichai Chunhavajira, said Soros is under investigation for mismanagement which cost Bt1.2 billion in financial loss in the first half of this year.

Following the BOT’s recommendation, the board looked into the bank’s finance and found that after…

Full story from The Nation at http://goo.gl/4IB1M

[GoodETxSG]

10,000 to be taken in Mass Arrests for crimes against humanity.
Hmm, I have hard lots of rumors of this happening for almost a year now. We shall see...
IF this were to happen how would YOU react?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eKhTUU35X4&feature=player_embedded

[Sabrina]

10,000 to be taken in Mass Arrests for crimes against humanity.
Hmm, I have hard lots of rumors of this happening for almost a year now. We shall see...
IF this were to happen how would YOU react?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eKhTUU35X4&feature=player_embedded

Persuasive isn't it. Think this dates back to March. Wonder if it will happen in such a big way, or arrests will be on-going as they are at the moment (Irish bankers etc.). Will it all happen when we least expect it - in a way that we least expect?

Or perhaps all those military security will be escorting them off all in handcuffs tonight at the Olympics' opening ceremony... By the way had a drone flying over me (South East of London) at about 3.30 am BST this morning. Ridiculous...

I'd certainly have a few champagne corks popping (Bollinger probably all used up by the libor fixers :) ).

But look at the amount of 'stuff' happening now. I reckon the Olympics will herald in some more good energy to push this all along - and the fear mongering is there to try and dampen these energies down. But one little candle lights up a darkened room as they say.

And, as it says at the end of the video, new technologies and hidden free energy are the game changers. Bring that on.

¤=[Post Update]=¤

More bank glitches in the UK.

http://news.sky.com/story/965432/glitches-hit-nationwide-and-natwest-customers

27 July UK

Glitches Hit Nationwide And NatWest Customers
Nationwide is the latest financial institution to confirm issues with payments, as NatWest suffers a fresh problem.


Nationwide has confirmed that more than 704,000 customers have had duplicate debit purchases taken from their accounts, while NatWest customers faced technical issues for the second time in a month.

NatWest customers reported that they were unable to use online banking services or make debit card payments.

However, NatWest owner RBS said that the issue had been resolved by Thursday evening while Nationwide confirmed it had corrected its payment troubles overnight.

"Online banking is now fully operational and debit card transactions are processing as normal. We continue to monitor the systems closely and will keep our customers fully informed. We apologise for any inconvenience caused," RBS said in a statement.

A Nationwide spokeswoman told Sky News that human error was to blame for its problems.

Nationwide said on Twitter: "An issue with debit card transactions is affecting some customers. Sorry, accounts will be corrected."

Its later statement said: "We have identified an issue where some current account card transactions made on July 24 were duplicated on 25 July.

"This is a one-off isolated incident and is down to human error. The duplicated transactions will be corrected overnight.

"We would like to apologise for the inconvenience this has caused and we can assure customers that should they incur any related charges these will be refunded in full."

The blunder is embarrassing for the building society in that it had marked itself out as offering something different from the big banks.

Nationwide said earlier this month that it had seen a 45% increase in people transferring their main account to the society, including branch, online and telephone applications in the wake of the problems at RBS.

Then, some Ulster Bank customers were left without their accounts being updated properly for a month amid the IT chaos which also hit RBS and NatWest customers.

One person claiming to be a Nationwide customer told Sky News on Twitter: "I knew my bank statement was wrong. I wonder if they will put the money back in as quick as they take It out?"

Nationwide customers also vented their anger on the society's own Twitter account.

One wrote: "#nationwide have had a problem with visa transactions. Everything I bought yesterday has gone through twice!!!"

Another said: "Anything that went out on the 24th also went out on 25th! Glad it was dog food & not mortgage!"

In June, a weeklong glitch delayed the posting of credits and debits to millions of NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland and Ulster Bank customers.

RBS said at the time a failed software upgrade caused the issues.

Hundreds of branches were forced to open early and close late in a bid to placate customers, who complained of bills and salaries going unpaid and delays in closing home purchases because money was not being credited to accounts.

[Sabrina]

More on the possible libor connection with James Holmes' father. Some are saying this is all Sorch Faal misinfo, which is the usual mantra to discount any info. which might be viable in it all. Not had time to look at it closely. Distraction or grains of truth? Got to go hedge cutting now (not the fund sort the green variety...).


http://www.abeldanger.net/2012/07/marine-links-obama-libor-funded-private.html

Marine Links Obama Libor-Funded Private Prisons to Sister’s Joker Contract Hit
United States Marine Field McConnell has linked Barack Obama’s Libor-funded private-prison company G4S, to contract hits in Aurora CO, fraudulently attributed by his sister Kristine Marcy to James ‘The Joker’ Holmes.

McConnell claims that Libor-algorithm operator Thomson Reuters, paid Kristine Marcy and G4S/Wackenhut to set up U.S./U.K. private-prison contract hit teams whose members could be furloughed, armed for paramilitary hits and returned to jail with a well paid (?) alibi.............................

"Perfecting Paradise" James Holmes' father, Robert Holmes, has a mathematical background and extensive links to DARPA. The question is: Given that Robert Holmes was connected to the cutting edge of neuroscience through DARPA and the big money funding it, did he upset the wrong people to have his son driven into this slaughter? From this information: According to his LinkedIn profile, James Holmes's father, Dr. Robert Holmes, who received a PhD in Statistics in 1981 from the University of California at Berkeley, worked for San Diego-based HNC Software, Inc. from 2000 to 2002. HNC, known as a "neural network" [connection to DARPA] company, and DARPA, beginning in 1998, have worked on developing "cortronic neural networks," which would allow machines to interpret aural and visual stimuli to think like humans. [was the Colorado shooting an experiment by DARPA while at the same time fulfilling the multi-tasking algorithm driven Colorado event to shut down the LIBOR scandal from being exposed in the senate by Robert Holmes?] The cortronic concept [connected to the defense industry] was developed by HNC Software's chief scientist and co-founder, Robert Hecht-Nielsen. HNC merged with the Minneapolis-based Fair Isaac Corporation (FICO), a computer analysis and decision-making company. Robert Holmes continues to work at FICO. [senior scientist]
http://reddirtreport.com/Story.aspx/23080 If no one thinks Fair Isaac Corporation (FICO) isn't just about one of the most connected corporations on the face of the earth, have a look at this diagram. And pay particular attention to the connection to the banks fingered in the LIBOR fraud. If you want to shut down a senate hearing on LIBOR and do it quickly and violently, find yourself a target victim in the labrynth of this network and apply your resources in a multi-purpose tasked operation to kill not only two birds, but all birds with one stone. The convergence is lethal: A pre-configured experiment while at the same time controlling all outcomes; nothing is left to chance. I will bet anything that before this attack was carried out they ran advanced algorithms to make it possible to carefully select James Holmes for the 'mission' in Colorado. In looking at the Holmes family, when Robert Holmes (father of James Holmes) was younger he went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in mathematics at Stanford, a master’s in biostatistics at UCLA, and a doctorate in statistics at the University of California at Berkeley in 1981. His doctoral thesis was titled “Contributions to the Theory of Parametric Estimation in Randomly Censored Data” (in 2012 terms think about incredibly advanced algorithms and gaming/exercise scenarios). He subsequently authored studies for the Navy and the Marine Corps on how to forecast personnel changes using something called “tree classifications,” the trees in question being statistical. Eventually, from some of the reports I read today, and all day long too, say: he signed on as a low-six-figure-a-year senior scientist with FICO (Fair Isaac Corporation), which produces management systems, fraud protection (the analytics that detected LIBOR fraud in the mortgage industry), and credit scores. All this are based on his complex algorithms.”


full story and more links at the link.

[Sabrina]

Those probers keep probing...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443343704577552221781046032.html

27 July

Scrutiny of CFO Adds to Strain Atop Barclays

U.K. Probes Finance Chief Over Crisis-Era Fundraising With Mideast Investors

LONDON—Barclays BARC.LN +8.72% PLC's chief financial officer is under investigation by British authorities related to the bank's 2008 fundraising activities with Middle Eastern investors, dealing a fresh blow to a bank that already this month has lost its chairman, chief executive and chief operating officer.

Barclays said the Financial Services Authority has launched a formal investigation involving four current and former employees, including finance chief Chris Lucas, regarding the giant British bank's disclosure of fees and business arrangements with Qatari investors, among others. The probe is focused at least in part on how Barclays wooed Qatar's sovereign-wealth fund to pump billions of pounds into the bank as the financial crisis intensified, said people briefed on the investigation.

The probe is the latest black eye for a bank whose reputation has been tarnished in recent months by a flurry of financial scandals, most recently its acknowledged attempts to manipulate the London interbank offered rate, or Libor. News of the FSA investigation largely overshadowed Barclays's relatively strong financial results, which it also announced Friday.

The investigation has the potential to sow further doubts about Barclays's stability, as Mr. Lucas is one of the few top executives still standing at the bank. Barclays didn't name the others under investigation or say how many currently work at the bank.

The FSA is the latest agency to scrutinize how big banks attracted bailout funds from rich foreign investors in past years. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has been investigating whether banks and others violated bribery laws in their dealings with sovereign-wealth funds. The FSA isn't conducting its case with U.S. authorities, but the SEC is aware of the probe and will ask to be kept updated on its progress, according to people briefed on the case.

Barclays is facing an expanding set of problems. It has started searching for a new chairman and CEO, but the process could take months, according to people briefed on the process. "It is tempting to find a quick solution," said Marcus Agius, Barclays's soon-to-depart chairman. "It is important that the right selection is made."

Barclays also disclosed Friday that it is facing an array of lawsuits stemming from its attempted manipulation of Libor.

n addition, the bank's governance has come under fire. Jerry del Missier, the chief operating officer who resigned earlier this month, left the bank with more than $10 million in deferred compensation, according to a person familiar with the payout, fueling political ire at the bank. And one of the bank's independent directors resigned this past week, partly out of frustration with how the bank and its board were being run.

The investigation of Mr. Lucas, who has been Barclays's finance chief since April 2007, reflects the mounting concern among British authorities about the bank's culture. In April, FSA Chairman Adair Turner took the rare step of writing a letter to Barclays, expressing serious concerns about the bank's tendency to push the envelope on governance and regulatory matters. Earlier this month, Mr. Turner successfully pushed for CEO Robert Diamond to resign.

The fraught relationship with the FSA could prove problematic for Barclays, since the regulator needs to approve the bank's new chairman and CEO.

The FSA opened its formal investigation into the bank's 2008 disclosures this spring, according to people briefed on the investigation.

The exact scope of the investigation, or the people aside from Mr. Lucas who are under scrutiny, is unclear. A person briefed on the investigation said that neither Mr. Diamond nor Mr. del Missier is involved.

In June 2008, Barclays announced it was raising about £4.5 billion from investors including the Qatar Investment Authority. The deal was an attempt to ease fears about Barclays's health as the financial crisis intensified. It was orchestrated by Roger Jenkins, then a top Barclays investment banker. Mr. Jenkins, who now works in Los Angeles at Brazil's BTG Pactual, declined to comment through a company official.

As part of that 2008 agreement, Barclays disclosed at the time that it had struck an agreement with the Qatar Investment Authority and a related entity to provide Barclays with "advisory services" in the Middle East.

One question is whether the arrangements were sweeteners intended to coax the investors to provide the funds. At least initially, Barclays didn't disclose the fees it was paying for those advisory services.

Months later, Barclays disclosed in another regulatory filing that it was paying about £238 million in commissions and other fees to Qatar Investment Authority and other entities. It isn't clear whether those fees are under the FSA investigation.

The Qatar Investment Authority had no comment.

[Sabrina]

More on the latest Barclays' troubles.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/barclays-hit-by-new-storm-as-chiefs-probed-over-7bn-arab-bailout-7982699.html

28 July

Barclays hit by new storm as chiefs probed over £7bn Arab bailout
Four key figures investigated over commissions in vast Middle East deal to save bank in 2008


Barclays was engulfed in a new scandal last night after it emerged that finance director Chris Lucas is among four "current and former employees" under investigation by the Financial Services Authority over the multi-billion pound bailouts that the bank received from the Middle East in 2008.

The probe focuses on millions of pounds in commissions the bank paid to help secure the £7.1bn raised from Qatar, Abu Dhabi and its own shareholders in November 2008, and the £4.5bn from investors including Qatar and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation in June 2008.

The FSA is looking at the extent to which the payments were properly disclosed by the bank.

News of the investigation was revealed for the first time on page 87 of the bank's interim results statement yesterday. The identities of the three other executives have not been disclosed, but The Independent understands that Bob Diamond, the former chief executive who paid a key role in raising the Middle Eastern cash, is not among them.

The Independent approached the Financial Services Authority last week with questions about the Middle Eastern deal, but sources at the regulator denied knowledge of an investigation.

However the FSA's hand was forced this week by Barclays, which sources close to the bank said "wanted to make sure everything was on the table given the current climate".
more at link

[Sabrina]

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-07-27/cnn-president-jim-walton-stepping-down-from-cable-news-channel
Bloomberg News

CNN President Jim Walton Resigns

By Edmund Lee on July 27, 2012

CNN President Jim Walton, who presided over the once-dominant cable-news business as it lost viewers to Fox News, will resign after almost a decade in the job, saying the network needs “new thinking.”

Phil Kent, chief executive officer of CNN parent Turner Broadcasting, will lead the search for a replacement, according to a statement from the company, which is owned by Time Warner Inc. (TWX) (TWX) Walton, who has spent his entire 30-year career at CNN, plans to step down at the end of the year.

“CNN needs new thinking,” Walton said in a memo to staff. “That starts with a new leader who brings a different perspective, different experiences and a new plan, one who will build on our great foundation and will commit to seeing it through.”

CNN is suffering through a ratings slump, with prime-time viewership dropping 8 percent to 627,000 on average this season through mid-May, compared with a year earlier, according to Nielsen. CNN now ranks far behind News Corp. (NWSA) (NWSA)’s Fox News, which drew an average prime-time viewership of 1.85 million in the same period.

Walton, 54, started at CNN in December 1981, one year after it was founded by billionaire Ted Turner. Walton helped build the nascent network into a dominant news organization, and CNN soon became a staple in many households. It was the only news company that broadcast live video feeds of the first Gulf War from inside Iraq.

Supreme Court
In recent years, the network struggled to find a formula that connected with viewers. It also made a major gaffe last month, reporting incorrectly that the U.S. Supreme Court found a central piece of President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act to be unconstitutional.

Walton, a native of Bowie, Maryland, graduated from the University of Maryland and started his first job at CNN as a video producer.

“It’s the only place I’ve ever worked,” Walton said in a December interview. “I feel really lucky to have started my career with CNN.”

Shares of New York-based Time Warner, which acquired Turner Broadcasting in 1996, rose 1.5 percent to $38.92 at 1:15 p.m. in New York. The stock had climbed 6.1 percent this year through yesterday.

[Sabrina]

http://www.cropcircleconnector.com/2012/windmillhill/comments.html

A lot of positive spiritual 'chatter' about something happening 3 - 4 Aug (those 'soon' dates again...). Here's a UK July crop circle pointing to something at this time as well. I visited some of them this month, and you could see the unbroken wheat in the circles and green film on the plants, pointing to lack of human involvement in the making of them.

And I'm still here south of London after the Olympics' opening ceremony... seem to have survived... :). But the Queen looked strangely not like the Queen to me, and would Royal protocol normally agree to a skit of HM jumping out of a plane with 007? Not in 'normal' times perhaps.

[Alie]

Former Citbank CEO Sandy Weill Says to Break Up BIG BANKS (in other words, Glass Steagall)


mZ_fvnN9P2Q

[Sabrina]

http://www.cnbc.com/id/48349503

27 July

Are Fiat Currencies Headed for a Collapse?


As the investment world eagerly awaits more stimulus, a debate on a previously unthinkable topic has started to emerge – can fiat currencies survive round after round of debasement?



Some heavy hitters say the answer is no.

A fiat currency derives its worth from the issuing government - it is not fixed in value to any objective standard. That means central banks can print as much money as they want. If an economy is struggling, injecting more notes into the system juices activity but lowers the value of the currency in question.

With major central banks all desperate to stimulate their economies, some say currencies have entered a dangerous new phase often described as a race to the bottom.

Mark Mobius, Executive Chairman of Templeton Emerging Markets Group, says investors will soon start to demand fiat currencies be backed by gold or other hard assets.

“It's already happening, you're beginning to see that trend with central banks stocking up on gold. The estimate is that at least half of the buying is central bank buying. They are looking to the day when they can say okay, our currency is backed by gold and therefore we're a strong country,” Mobius told CNBC Asia.

Mobius has $50 billion under management.

Yu-Dee Chang, Chief Advisor at ACE Investment Strategists, says repeated stimulus is shortsighted. “If you keep printing money, sooner or later, we're going to get in trouble. QE is good for the economy and for the market but the long-term effect is very much questionable,” said Chang.

But not everyone thinks fiat currencies are approaching their demise. Sean Callow, Senior Currency Strategist at Westpac Bank, says if there was going to be a melt-down, it would have happened by now.

“The bond market vigilantes have had every chance to punish the U.S. for its huge fiscal deficits. The markets are confident in these currencies - the U.S. dollar [.DXY 82.81 0.09 (+0.11%)], the pound [GBP=X 1.5705 -0.0035 (-0.22%)], and the yen [JPY=X 78.16 -0.27 (-0.34%)] in particular. That's where the balance sheet expansion has occurred and yet those currencies have held up pretty well over the past couple of years,” said Callow.

The fiat bears admit it is impossible to predict when cracks will start to appear in the current system. Some say it could happen within five years. Mobius thinks things may start to unravel much sooner.

"It's hard to say. It could happen tomorrow. It could be very very quick. A lot depends on the moves by the reformists - not only in Europe, but in the U.S. and Japan. This is all about confidence. If the confidence is gone, no piece of paper is worth anything," said Mobius.

As the fiat currency debate gains momentum and relevance, one London-based manager of a billion dollar fund says the answer about what lies ahead is in the past.

“Every single fiat currency in history has collapsed, this time will be no different.”

[Sabrina]

July 30, 2012

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/9438616/Syrian-Charge-DAffaires-in-London-resigns.html

Syrian Charge D'Affaires in London resigns
Khaled al-Ayoubi, the most senior Syrian diplomat serving in London has resigned, because he was "no longer willing to represent" Bashar al-Assad's regime


Khaled al-Ayoubi’s resignation made him one of the most prominent Syrian diplomats to turn their back on the Syrian president during the 16-month rebellion that has claimed more than 15,000 lives. He has not yet defected – officially switched his allegiance to the Syrian opposition – although is understood to be considering his next move.

A statement from the Foreign Office said Mr Ayoubi had informed it of his decision on Monday morning.

It read: “Mr al-Ayoubi has told us that he is no longer willing to represent a regime that has committed such violent and oppressive acts against its own people, and is therefore unable to continue in his position.

“Mr al-Ayoubi was the most senior Syrian diplomat serving in London. His departure is another blow to the Assad regime. It illustrates the revulsion and despair the regime’s actions are provoking amongst Syrians from all walks of life, inside the country and abroad.

“We urge others around Bashar Al-Assad to follow Mr al-Ayoubi’s example; to disassociate themselves from the crimes being committed against the Syrian people and to support a peaceful and free future for Syria.”

He is understood to be in a safe location in Britain with his immediate family.

Mr al-Ayoubi joined the Syrian diplomatic service in 2001. His first posting was in Greece as Consul from 2003 – 2008.

Troops in Syria meanwhile continued their assault on the city of Aleppo, with shells and machine guns.

The early morning bombardment was focused on the southwestern district of Salaheddin, a stronghold of the Free Syrian Army, made up of deserters and armed civilians, said the Syrian Revolution General Commission.

The army said later that it had overrun Salaheddin, although the rebels denied the claim.

The United Nations estimates that around 200,000 civilians have fled the fighting in Aleppo and that many more are trapped.

Head of UN humanitarian operations, Valerie Amos, requested that relief organisations be granted “secure access” to the northern city.

[Sabrina]

Mainstream media reports of UFO sightings at the Olympics' opening ceremony.... noises of banker arrests and actions against banks - think we're in for an interesting time :).

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financial-crime/9439478/Bankers-found-to-have-rigged-Libor-rate-could-face-jail.html

30 Juiy

Bankers found to have rigged Libor rate could face jail

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has warned it will bring criminal charges against bankers involved in Libor rigging.

Bankers found to have rigged Libor could face jail after the SFO said it will look to bring criminal charges against those who attempted to manipulate the world’s key borrowing rate.

David Green QC, director of the SFO, said existing legislation could be used to bring criminal actions against banks implicated in the Libor rigging scandal.
Mr Green did not specify the precise charges that could be brought but it is possible bankers found guilty of manipulation could receive prison sentences of up to 10 years.

The decision to pursue prosecutions comes just over three weeks after the SFO formally announced an investigation into Libor and in particular whether it was possible to launch criminal proceedings against individual banks and bankers found to have rigged borrowing rates.

In a statement the SFO said it was “satisfied that existing criminal offences are capable of covering conduct in relation to the alleged manipulation of Libor and related interest rates”.

The SFO has not said which banks are being investigated, but has confirmed that it is looking into “a number of financial institutions”.
However, it is highly likely that major British lenders, including Barclays, Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland, which are already the subject of several international investigations, are among the institutions being looked at by the SFO.

On top of the official probes, banks are also facing separate lawsuits related to Libor rigging.

New York lender, Berkshire Bank, has filed court papers against several larger banks, including Barclays, JP Morgan and Citigroup, claiming they had engaged in the “unlawful suppression” of borrowing rates.

Berkshire Bank, which has assets of $854m (£542m) and 10 branches, is seeking to turn its case into a class-action so that other smaller lenders can join in.
Martin Wheatley, head of financial conduct at the Financial Services Authority, yesterday launched a review into the Libor setting process that could lead to it being regulated by the authorities.

Mr Wheatley is expected to complete his report by the end of the summer and his recommendations will be used to make amendments to the new Financial Services Bill, which is currently being scrutinised by the House of Lords.

“It is clear that urgent reform of the Libor compilation process is required,” said Mr Wheatley.

At present, Libor rates are published under the auspices of the British Bankers’ Association, the lobby group for the UK banking industry. However, this process has come under fire in the wake of the revelations over the way banks were able to enter false submissions following Barclays’ admission that it had entered artificially low rates.

[Sabrina]

30 July

General Motors’ marketing chief resigns




General Motors’ marketing chief has resigned in an unexpected shake-up at the largest US carmaker by sales.

The company said on Sunday that Joel Ewanick had decided to step down immediately as global chief marketing officer. He will be replaced by Alan Batey, vice-president of US sales and service, until a permanent successor is found.

[

“The resignation is disappointing but he failed to meet the expectations that a company has of an employee,” Greg Martin, a GM spokesman, said in an interview. He declined to give further details.

GM’s marketing decisions have wide ripples in the media world. The automotive sector as a whole spends more on marketing than any other business, and GM itself is the third-largest advertising spender in the US, with outlays of $1.78bn in 2011, according to Kantar Media, an ad tracking firm.

f

[Sabrina]

Guardian 30 July

Iran sentences four to death over bank fraud with political fallout

Unnamed quartet to hang after £1.7bn embezzlement scandal raised questions over Iranian privatisation drive


An Iranian court has sentenced four people to death for a billion-pound bank fraud that tainted the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, according to state media.

Iranians, hit by sanctions and soaring inflation, were shocked by the scale of the £1.7bn embezzlement, which was exposed last year, and by allegations it was carried out by people close to the political elite, or with their assent.

Thirty-nine people were tried for the fraud, the biggest in the Islamic Republic's history. Four of those had been sentenced to hang, the IRNA state news agency reported.

"According to the sentence that was issued, four of the defendants in this case were sentenced to death," prosecutor general Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei told IRNA.

Two people had been sentenced to life prison terms, and others received jail sentences of up to 25 years, Mohseni-Ejei said. In addition to jail time, some were sentenced to flogging, ordered to pay fines and banned from government jobs.

Mohseni-Ejei did not name the defendants, whom Iranian media have identified only by their initials. State television broadcast parts of the trial but blurred out the faces of the accused.

The man described by Iranian media as the mastermind of the scheme, the businessman Amir Mansoor Khosravi, is said to have forged letters of credit from Iran's Bank Saderat to fund dozens of companies and buy a steel factory from the state.

Mahmoud Reza Khavari, the former head of Iran's biggest bank, the state-owned Bank Melli, resigned over the affair and fled to Canada, where records show he owns a £1.9m home.

The case has been politically awkward for Iran's leadership, which aims to show it is tough on corruption. It also raises questions about whether the government's privatisation drive has largely benefited friends of the political elite.

Ahmadinejad has rejected claims that the investment company at the heart of the scandal has links to his closest aide, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie, a powerful figure who has become the prime target for the president's adversaries within the hardline ruling elite.

Ahmadinejad's economy minister, Shamseddin Hosseini, survived an impeachment vote last year in which members of parliament accused him of lax banking supervision.

Acknowledging the political damage, Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, criticised financial corruption in televised comments last year but warned that the media should not "drag out the issue".

"Some want to use this event to score points against the country's officials," Khamenei said. "The people should know the issue will be followed up on."

Mohseni-Ejei has held up the case as a demonstration that Iran can deal appropriately with high-level fraud. "The government, parliament, and all available devices were used to pursue the issue so that corruption can be fought in an open manner," he was quoted as saying earlier this month.

But one of the defendants complained that, while the judiciary had pursued some low-level players in the fraud vigorously, senior officials involved in the scandal had gone unpunished.

"Many other banking officials are outside of prison right now. Why are you able to put us on trial and have nothing to do with them?" the unnamed steel company official said, according to Iran's Fars news agency.

The anti-corruption group Transparency International ranked Iran 120 out of 183 countries on its 2011 corruption perceptions index.

[Sabrina]

http://consciouslyconnecting.blog.com/2012/07/25/bankers-and-brokers-and-inside-traders-arrested-oh-my/

Bankers and Brokers and Inside Traders Arrested, Oh My!

6/23/12: Social welfare ‘scam’: Two bank officials arrested Muzaffarnagar, India Jul 23 (PTI) Two officials of a public sector bank were arrested for their alleged involvement in a multi-crore Rupee scam in the Uttar Pradesh social welfare department, police said today. The bank’s branch manager Pramod Sharma and cashier Rajender Sharma were arrested yesterday in this connection, SP (City) Raj Kamal Yadav said. He also said that a hunt was on to nab Anil Verma, the main accused in the scam that took place during 2008-09. A former district welfare officer, Rinku Singh Rahi, had alleged a multi-crore scam in the social welfare department by staging a dharna in Lucknow seeking reply to an RTI query in connection with the “scam”. The Samajwadi Party government had ordered a probe into Rahi’s charges after coming to power in March this year.
6/25/12: Ex-SMBC Banker Arrested Amid Insider Trading Probe - Tokyo, A former SMBC Nikko Securities Inc. executive was arrested yesterday, becoming the first banker from a major Japanese brokerage to be detained for suspected insider trading since 2008. The Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission and Yokohama city prosecutors are investigating former SMBC Nikko executive Hiroyoshi Yoshioka, 50, and three other people, the financial watchdog said in a statement.
6/25/12: Indonesia: Sumatran city of Medan ‘turning into terror financing centre’ – Jakarta, 25 June (AKI/Jakarta Post) – Indonesian officials said Medan, in North Sumatra, is turning into a centre for terrorism financing, following the arrest of five suspects with assets worth nearly Rp 8 billion (US$848,000), allegedly used to fund paramilitary training and terrorism operations. A suspect led police and armed anti-terrorism personnel to seize four houses, one shop, three cars and seven motorcycles in three locations that were purchased using funds the arrested suspects got from hacking a multi-level marketing website.The members bought the account numbers of bank clients in and outside the country. Some terrorist suspects posed as multi-level marketing members and sought more customers. “The hackers transferred the credit points to their accounts, and then sold them to brokers, who transferred the money equivalent to their bank accounts.”
6/26/12: The Shmuckler Group Owner Sentenced to 90 Months for Mortgage Rescue Fraud Scheme - (Source: FBI) - ALEXANDRIA, VA—Howard R. Shmuckler, 68, of Virginia Beach, Virginia, was sentenced today to 90 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for running a fraudulent mortgage rescue business that received substantial fees but actually modified clients’ mortgages in only a few cases. “Mr. Shmuckler is a cunning criminal who took advantage of distressed homeowners in desperate need of help,” said U.S. Attorney MacBride.
6/26/12: MD Man Indicted in Over $9M Investment Scheme - (Source: FBI) - BALTIMORE—A federal grand jury returned an indictment today charging Larry Michael Parrish, age 48, of Walkersville, Maryland, with offenses arising from an investment scheme. According to the 25-count indictment, Parrish was the president of IV Capital Ltd., which he represented to be an investment and trading company. Parrish devised a scheme to obtain approximately $9.2 million from nearly 70 individuals who agreed to invest in IV Capital.
6/26/12: Research firm executive arrested on insider trading charges: FBI New York, (Reuters) – Law enforcement authorities said on Tuesday they arrested and charged an executive at an investment research firm as part of the government’s wide-ranging probe of insider trading at the now-defunct Galleon Group hedge fund. Tai Nguyen of research firm Insight Research LLC surrendered to the FBI Tuesday morning, an FBI spokesman said, and was expected to appear in federal court in Manhattan later in the day. Nguyen was facing charges related to insider trading, the FBI said, but the exact charges have not yet been made public. The FBI and federal prosecutors in Manhattan have mounted a campaign to root out insider trading on Wall Street, focusing in part on employees at so-called expert network firms who they say helped funnel corporate secrets from consultants at companies to hedge funds.
6/27/12: Former Loan Officer Clayton Coe From Failed FirstCity Bank Admits Guilty to Bank Fraud Scheme- WASHINGTON, DC – The Office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP) announced that Clayton A. Coe, 45, of McDonough, Georgia, the former Senior Commercial Loan Officer for FirstCity Bank of Stockbridge, Georgia, which failed and was seized by the FDIC, pleaded guilty yesterday to bank fraud. The plea is in connection with an $800,000 loan that Coe tricked FirstCity Bank’s Board of Directors into approving and from which he personally profited. He also pleaded guilty to filing a false federal income tax return with the IRS that omitted nearly a half million dollars of income from his job at the bank. ”Coe’s greed helped drive FirstCity Bank into the ground. He defrauded the bank to fund his ultimate payday and placed his interest in ill-gotten personal gain ahead of the interests of the bank, its customers, its investors, and the community the bank served. It’s precisely that sort of behavior that has robbed the public of its confidence in the banking industry and its institutions, and for his fraud, Coe will be banned for life from ever again practicing banking.”
6/27/12: Ponzi Schemer Scott Rothstein Knew Fraud Was Collapsing - (Source: Sun Sentinel, Fort Lauderdale, Fla — The letter sent Scott Rothstein into a panic, he feared his colossal crimes were about to be exposed. It was February 2009, eight months before his $1.4 billion Ponzi scheme collapsed. A family of investors had sent him the letter demanding their $4.25 million back immediately, and Rothstein was certain they had uncovered his secret. “Holy s***, this is going to explode,” Rothstein recalled thinking. “They figured out the Ponzi scheme. They know there’s no money in the accounts. We are all going to jail.”
6/27/12: Lenny Dykstra Agrees to Plea Deal in Bankruptcy Fraud Case - (Source: Los Angeles Times) - LOS ANGELES — Former baseball star and self-styled financial guru Lenny Dykstra, already sentenced to three years in a California state prison for a car scam, has agreed to a plea deal on federal bankruptcy fraud charges after looting his mansion of valuables as he struggled to battle numerous creditors. Dykstra, who helped the New York Mets win the 1986 World Series and later became a celebrity stock picker before his finances dissolved in chaos in 2009, has racked up a score of charges in recent years. His fall from grace during the last two years has resulted in conviction for a car finance scam and a separate charge of lewd conduct with a deadly weapon. Federal prosecutors entered under seal a plea agreement with Dykstra in connection with his embezzlement from the bankruptcy estate case.
6/27/12: A Stockbroker’s Undisclosed Arrest Sets Off A Regulatory Cavalcade Of Disaster - For the purpose of proposing a settlement of rule violations alleged by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”), without admitting or denying the findings, prior to a regulatory hearing, and without an adjudication of any issue, Bruce Parish Hutson submitted a Letter of Acceptance, Waiver and Consent (“AWC”), which FINRA accepted. The AWC alleges that on April 21, 2009, Hutson was arrested for retail theft based on allegations that he stole merchandise from a retail store in Wisconsin. Contrary to Firm policy, Hutson did not advise his member firm of the arrest.
6/27/12: Barclays to Pay More Than $450 Million in Interest-Rate Settlement - (Source: Los Angeles Times) – NEW YORK — Barclays Bank PLC has agreed to pay more than $450 million to settle charges it attempted to manipulate keyinterest rates. The London-based investment bank announced settlements with the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Commodities Futures Trading Commission and the BritishFinancial Services Authority. Investigators found the bank manipulated the London InterBank Offered Rate, or LIBOR, and the Euro Interbank Offered Rate, or EURIBOR, benchmark interest rates used in the world’s financial markets.
6/28/12: Mortgage Scheme Nets Crofton Man a Prison Sentence - (Source: By Jamie Smith Hopkins, The Baltimore Sun - A Crofton man was sentenced Wednesday to more than four years in prison for redirecting about $5 million in mortgage payoffs on 17 Maryland properties to himself and a co-defendant, according to federal prosecutors. Todd R. Bettin, 42, was assistant manager of At Home Mortgage when he conspired with the owner of a Gambrills settlement company to illegally benefit from money intended to pay off clients’ mortgages.
6/27/12: Bidzina Ivanishvili’s banks and company arrested - Georgia, Tbilisi, National Bureau of Georgia continues performing the proceedings of the “Georgia Dream” coalition leader, Bidzina Ivanishvili. As told Trend in Bureau, gathering information was carried out on the property registered on billionaire. Executive Bureau requested the national Bank of Georgia, the identity of a beneficial owner of the banks “Kartu” and “Progress bank” and found that the owner of 100% stake in the bank “Kartu” is a “Kartu group”, and 21.7% shares of “Progress bank” – the owner of the beneficiary. Information provided by the National Bank of Georgia, found that, in accordance with the law on commercial banks face when buying a share of the bank is obliged to put in the prescribed manner notify the National Bank. In case of non compliance with this rule, the transaction for the sale of shares is not valid. Because the National Bank of Georgia was not represented by a declaration in order to change ownership of the beneficiary bank “Kartu”, the owner of 100% stake in the bank “Kartu” is still Bidzina Ivanishvili.
6/29/12: Karkala: Bank Manager Arrested for Fraud - Karkala, Jun 29: Suresh KP (29) who was working as a manager in Bhuvanendra branch of Syndicate bank was arrested on charges of misappropriating funds on Wednesday June 27 and was sent to Hiriyadka Jail. It is learnt that he opened fake accounts in fictitious names and created fake loans on them. He used to withdraw money from ATMs, committing a fraud of Rs 13.84 lac.
6/29/12: FBI says arrests Bernard Madoff’s brother - NEW YORK, June 29 (Reuters) – The FBI said on Friday it had arrested Peter Madoff, the younger brother of swindler Bernard Madoff, who is serving a 150-year prison sentence for his multibillion dollar Ponzi scheme. The arrest of Peter Madoff was expected as he is due in federal court in Manhattan later Friday to plead guilty to charges related to his brother’s decades-long fraud. Federal prosecutors on Wednesday revealed in a letter that Peter Madoff had been criminally charged with participating in his brother’s fraud. He is the first Madoff family member to be arrested and charged.
7/2/12: Catonsville RE Appraiser Pleads Guilty for Trying to Obtain $4.3M in Fraudulent Mortgage Loans - (Source: FBI) - BALTIMORE—Real estate appraiser David C. Christian, age 62, of Catonsville, Maryland pleaded guilty today to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. According to his guilty plea, Christian appraised a number of properties on behalf of purchasers who were seeking financing through a mortgage brokerage company. At the request of a co-conspirator who controlled the mortgage brokerage company, Christian prepared at least 17 fraudulent appraisals for $4,306,950 in loans originated at the mortgage company. Christian falsified the appraisals by using fake photos and descriptions of the properties, misrepresenting the condition of the properties, and used inappropriate comparable properties. The total loss for the 17 loans amounted to $2,661,366.
7/2/12: Four Defendants Indicted in Alleged $9.1M Mortgage Fraud Scheme - (Source: FBI) - CHICAGO—Four defendants, including a licensed realtor and two licensed loan originators, were indicted for allegedly participating in a scheme to fraudulently obtain at least 42 residential mortgage loans totaling approximately $9.1 million from various lenders, federal law enforcement officials announced today. The indictment alleges that the mortgages were obtained to finance the purchase of properties throughout Chicago by buyers who were fraudulently qualified for loans while the defendants allegedly profited. The lenders and their successors incurred losses totaling approximately $4.7 million because the mortgages were not fully recovered through subsequent sales or foreclosures. All four defendants were charged with various counts of bank fraud, mail fraud, and wire fraud in a five-count indictment that was returned by a federal grand jury last Thursday. The indictment also seeks forfeiture of at least $4.7 million.
7/2/12: Gary Foster: Former VP of Citigroup Sentenced to 97 Month in Prison for Embezzlement - (Source: FBI) — Gary Foster, a former vice president in Citigroup, Inc.’s treasury finance department, was sentenced to 97 months’ imprisonment today on a conviction for bank fraud arising from his embezzlement of more than $22 million from Citigroup. Foster embezzled by first transferring money to Citigroup’s cash account and then wiring it to his personal bank account at another bank. Foster used the money to buy real estate and luxury automobiles, including a Ferrari and a Maserati. In total, the value of the seized and restrained property is estimated to be approximately $14 million.
7/2/12: FTC Wins Multi Million Dollar Case Against Foreclosure Assistance Scam That Gave False Promises - (Source: FTC) — The Federal Trade Commission won a $2.6 million federal court judgment against three defendants behind a scheme that charged consumers large upfront fees and failed to deliver the mortgage modifications they promised. The FTC alleged that the defendants behind Crowder Law Group promised relief from burdensome mortgages by falsely claiming they could modify consumers’ mortgages and substantially reduce their monthly payments; exaggerating the role an attorney would play in obtaining a loan modification; and pretending to be affiliated with a government agency.
7/3/12: Mortgage Broker Gets Probation - (Source: The Pueblo Chieftain, Colo. – A Pueblo mortgage broker convicted in May of bilking at least $160,000 from a friend, was sentenced Monday to five years probation and may serve a 90-day jail term pending an appeal. Anthony Paglione, 61, was convicted for misappropriating money from Vincent Gagliano through a complicated series of loan swaps between two Pueblo homes. Paglione said the financial collapse the country has seen is one reason for what has happened.
7/4/12: Bank official threatens client, held - KOLKATA: A senior official of a private bank was has been arrested for allegedly sending threat mails to a city businessman. Sunil Bansali was rounded by police from Park Street on Monday night, police rounded from Park Street rounded up the bank official. Later, Bansali was produced in court and later released on bail. Sahni alleged that Bansali had demanded cut money to process the loan application, but Sahni turned him down. This made Bansali furious. He reportedly started harassing Sahni for money and later threatened to cancel the application.
7/5/12: U.S. Group: Lebanese Banks Laundering Money - (Source: The Daily Star, Beirut, Lebanon) — An anti-Iranian U.S. activist group is piling pressure on U.S. and European banks to dump their holding of Lebanese sovereign debt, describing Lebanon’s banking sector as a front for Iranian money laundering in cooperation with Hezbollah. “As a result of the actions and omissions of BDL [Lebanon's Central Bank] and the LBS [Lebanese banking system], Lebanon has become a sovereign money laundering jurisdiction that receives massive inflows of illicit deposits … from Hezbollah’s terror and criminal activities, and the illicit symbiotic relationships among Iran, Syria and Hezbollah,” said a press release issued Tuesday by the New York-based group United against Nuclear Iran. UANI argued that despite Lebanon’s “great risk of sovereign default” due to its high debt to GDP ratio, Lebanese sovereign bonds showed “irrational strength” that corresponds with increased pressure against Iran. UANI is also pushing to bar Lebanese financial institutions from participating in the U.S. financial system, urging the U.S. Treasury to designate Lebanon’s financial system as a “money laundering concern” under a statute of the Patriot Act.
7/5/12: Boxford Man Pleads Guilty to $6.9M Fraud Scheme - (Source: FBI) – ALEXANDRIA, VA—James W. Massaro, 70, of Boxford, Massachusetts, pled guilty today to engaging in a fraudulent foreign investment scheme that defrauded at least 20 victims of more than $6.9 million. Massaro pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. He faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison when he is sentenced on September 21, 2012.
7/5/12: Threat To Broker’s Client Assets Ends - The winding-up of a former Bahamian broker/dealer whose principal pled guilty in the US to money laundering is close to completion, its liquidator saying the Attorney-General’s withdrawal of a Forfeiture Order registration had eliminated a potential threat to client assets.
7/6/12: Prosecutors seek arrest warrant for Lee’s brother, ruling party lawmaker over bank scandal SEOUL, July 6 (Yonhap) — Prosecutors on Friday sought court warrants to arrest President Lee Myung-bak’s elder brother and a ruling party lawmaker for further questioning about their alleged involvement in a bank bribery scandal. Lee Sang-deuk, a 77-year-old former lawmaker of the ruling Saenuri Party, and Chung Doo-un, a legislator from the same party, were specifically charged with violating the law on political funds and peddling influence in exchange for accepting huge amounts of money from operators of two troubled savings banks. Prosecutors have found the chairmen of the banks extensively lobbied politicians and officials to avoid regulatory punishment. Despite these efforts, the two banks — Solomon Savings Bank and Mirae Savings Bank — had their businesses suspended earlier this year for lack of capital. The chairmen were later indicted on charges of extending illegal bank lending and conducting management irregularities.
7/6/2012: Ex-Bankas Snoras Owners Arrested Again in U.K. Over Fraud Claims - Bankas Snoras AB’s former owners were arrested again in London today on expanded claims they siphoned at least 1.7 billion litas ($609.5 million) from the failed Lithuanian lender to finance luxurious lifestyles. Russian banker Vladimir Antonov and his business partner Raimondas Baranauskas, who were detained in November and are fighting extradition to Lithuania, were arrested a second time after authorities probing the bank’s collapse in the Baltic country issued another European arrest warrant containing new allegations, John Hardy, a lawyer for the prosecution, said at a scheduled hearing today in London’s Westminster Magistrates Court.
7/6/12: Financial Adviser to be Tried Over the Theft of $2.2 Million - (Source: By The Honolulu Star-Advertiser (MCT) – A financial adviser accused of stealing $2.2 million from 22 active and retired city employees is scheduled to go on trial in state court next month for securities fraud and money laundering. Bruce M. Harada, 53, pleaded not guilty to the charges June 28. He remains in custody, unable to post $250,000 bail. He was an independent financial adviser for ING North America Corp., managing the deferred compensation accounts of active and retired city employees. Harada convinced at least 22 people to withdraw money from their deferred compensation accounts to reinvest in a mutual fund he said was authorized by ING. Instead Harada put it in his personal account and spent it for his own use, Van Marter said.
7/6/12: Fenton Man Pleads Guilty in $100-Million Mortgage Scheme - (Source: Detroit Free Press – A Fenton man pleaded guilty Thursday to running a massive mortgage fraud scheme that cost lenders more than $100 million in losses — some of which was used to buy cars, boats, trips and a helicopter for several con artists who were in on the scam, according to authorities. The U.S. Attorney’s Office said the ringleader, Ronnie E. Duke, 45, ran a nearly four-year scheme with eight others that involved more than 500 fraudulent mortgage loans, more than 100 straw buyers and roughly 180 residential properties in metro Detroit. The properties were used as, or falsely portrayed as, collateral for the loans, most of which went into default and foreclosure, authorities said.
7/6/12: FBI: Enumclaw finance adviser stole $2M, faked suicide - An Enumclaw financial planning adviser who allegedly left a fake suicide note in his car parked on Deception Pass has been arrested and charged with stealing at least $2 million from his clients, including one client whose death he also allegedly faked to collect the man’s life insurance. Aaron Travis Beaird, who worked as a financial planning adviser in Enumclaw, has been charged with wire fraud. The arrested him July 2 at SeaTac airport when he returned to Washington state from an undisclosed location.
7/7/12: Bank of India official arrested for bribery - Mumbai, July 7 — A senior official of the state-run Bank of India was nabbed red-handed while accepting a bribe of Rs.100,000, the Central Bureau of Investigation said here Saturday. Senior Manager Ganesh C. Das of the bank’s Mumbai main branch was trapped by CBI sleuths from the CST Station Friday evening taking the bribe from a financial consultant.
7/7/12: Judge: Bank fraud defendant to pay $712K - A federal judge has ordered a former Topeka bank vice president to pay more than $700,000 in restitution to the bank. Jennifer Hughes-Boyles, 40, of Topeka, Kansas pleaded guilty to bank fraud, a felony.
7/9/12: Enterprise Credit Union Employee in Dickinson County Pleads Guilty to Embezzling $85,000 - (Source: FBI) - TOPEKA, KS—A former employee of a credit union in Dickinson County has pleaded guilty to embezzling $85,000. Deborah A. Bomia, 46, Enterprise, Kansas, pleaded guilty to one count of embezzlement. In her plea, she admitted the crime occurred from April 30, 2005 to August 8, 2011, while she worked for Enterprise Credit Union in Enterprise, Kansas.
7/9/12: Johnson City Man Sentenced for Ponzi Investment Scheme That Lasted 15 Years - (Source: FBI) - Thomas E. Kelly, 64, of Johnson City, New York, was sentenced today in United States District Court to a term of imprisonment of four years and three months in connection with his previously entered plea of guilty to the felony crime of mail fraud. In addition, a term of five years’ supervised release, which will follow completion of Kelly’s prison sentence. Kelly was employed as a financial consultant by a number of banks located in the Binghamton, New York area. In his position as financial consultant, Kelly recommended that clients sell off legitimate securities investments in order to invest in a fictitious entity Kelly called Seneca Group. Kelly promised investors with Seneca Group a stable, secure investment. Instead, Kelly used money invested with Seneca Group to, make risky investments in the stock market and pay some of Kelly’s personal expenses. The amount of loss to investors as a result of Kelly’s scheme was almost one million dollars.
7/10/12: Dozens arrested in loan fraud scheme with victims in U.S, Canada - (Reuters) – Dozens of people were charged in what federal authorities on Tuesday called a highly sophisticated loan fraud scheme that robbed $2.7 million from at least 2,000 victims with poor credit histories in Canada and the United States. Would-be borrowers were lured to websites of 67 fictitious businesses with names similar to well-known lenders such as “Countrywide Funding,” which sounds similar to the legitimate Countrywide Financial Corp., and “Admiral Financial Services,” which mirrors Admiral Financial Corp., authorities said. They were approved for loans in exchange for security deposits ranging from a few hundred dollars to several thousand dollars – to be sent in advance of the flow of borrowed cash that never arrived.
7/10/12: Arlington Development Company Convicted in Mortgage Fraud Case - (Source: Dianna Hunt Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas (MCT) — An Arlington development company was convicted Monday and paid $50,000 in fines for participating in a complex $13 million mortgage fraud that operated throughout North Texas. In a rare criminal case against a corporation, Sierra Developers pleaded no contest to helping generate nearly $600,000 in fraudulent loans for the sale of two homes worth far less in Mansfield’s Twin Creeks subdivision in 2004.
7/11/12: Orange County Man Sentenced for Tax Evasion in Mortgage Fraud Conspiracy - (Source: FBI) - RIVERSIDE, CA—Today, Gregory Flores, former manager at All Fund Mortgage in Anaheim Hills, was sentenced to 144 months’ imprisonment and three years of supervised release. U.S. District Judge J. Virginia Phillips also ordered Gregory Flores to pay over $1 million in restitution to homeowner victims and over $98,000 in restitution to the IRS for his role in a mortgage fraud conspiracy and for evading taxes.
7/12/12: DOJ: Former Bank of the Commonwealth Executives Arrested for Alleged Fraud - Former executives and favored borrowers at the failed Bank of the Commonweath have been arrested and charged with masking nonperforming assets for their own benefit, in a scheme that contributed to the Virginia bank’s 2011 collapse, the Justice Department said.
7/12/12: Former bank manager pleads guilty to embezzlement - NEW ORLEANS (AP) – U.S. Attorney Jim Letten says a former manager of a Whitney Bank branch in Metairie has admitted stealing more than $56,000 from the bank. He says 50-year-old Karen Sork pleaded guilty Wednesday to bank theft, and could get up to 10 years in prison and $250,000 in fines, and restitution. Court documents say she was a banking officer and manager at the branch from December 2008 to August 2009, and sometimes acted as a teller. It says that when she did, she would regularly take cash from her “cash drawer,” put it into her personal accounts, and fill in a false amount of money on the balance sheet at the end of her shift.
7/13/12: Peregrine CEO arrested on fraud charges - WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Russell Wasendorf, the head of failed futures broker Peregrine Financial Group Inc., was arrested on Friday and charged with making false statements to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Wasendorf’s arrest comes after the CFTC filed a lawsuit against Iowa-based investment firm he oversaw, commonly known as PFGBest, alleging that the firm committed fraud by misappropriating roughly $215 million in customer funds. PFGBest filed for bankruptcy this week. The criminal complaint cites a seeming confession left by Wasendorf, who attempted to commit suicide on Monday. “I have committed fraud,” he said in a note referred to in the complaint. “Through a scheme of using false bank statements I have been able to embezzle millions of dollars from customer accounts” at the company. He added the scheme has been going on for nearly 20 years.
7/13/12: Former Hypo Bank Boss Arrested - Celje, 13 July (STA) – Božidar Špan, the former CEO of Austrian-owned Hypo Alpa Adria Bank, was detained Friday morning. Unofficial information indicates police are investigating the bank’s dealings with bankrupt builder Vegrad.
7/16/12: Nigeria: NCC Arrests Bank Manager Over Unregistered Internet Band - Akure — A manager with a first generation bank in Akure, Ondo State was, arrested by the National Communication Commission, NCC, over the use of unauthorised internet facility.The action of NCC officials resulted in long queue on the bank premises and at the ATM machines. The internet link being used by the bank was not licensed for it.”If the bank wants to use the link, it should approach NCC for licence instead of tapping into it without clearance from the Federal Government.”
7/16/12: Bank worker, customers arraigned for N10m fraud- A senior official of Diamond Bank Plc, Oludare Kazeem, and two customers of the bank have been arraigned before a Yaba Magistrate Court in Lagos for allegedly defrauding the bank of N10million. Kazeem was said to have aided Abike Awosika, 60, and Ademola James, 55, to steal the money from the bank. They were said to have committed the fraud when Kazeem assisted James and Awosika in procuring forged statement of accounts from Access and Skye banks with which the customers withdrew N4.5million and N3.5million from the Oregun branch.
7/16/12: Devon man arrested in alleged investment scam - RADNOR, Pennsylvania — A $150,000 investment into a business venture ended with a $198,000 loss for a Radnor couple and felony charges against their investment broker. Richard D. Jameison Jr., 42, is free on bail, charged with three felony counts of writing bad checks and one count of deceptive business practices, also a felony.
7/17/12: Bank teller charged over $250k fraud- A Sydney bank teller will face court next month charged with siphoning $250,000 from clients’ accounts. Police arrested the 39-year-old after investigations into an alleged fraud. Between October 2010 and January this year the woman, who worked for an inner-city bank, transferred the money into her own account. She has been charged with seven counts of dishonestly obtaining financial advantage by deception.
7/17/12: Two North County SD Loan Officers Admit Participating in Mortgage Fraud Scheme - (Source: FBI) – United States Attorney Laura E. Duffy announced that Simon Saeid Koli entered a guilty plea in federal court in San Diego today to count one of an indictment charging him and co-defendant Kian Ashkanizadeh with conspiracy to commit mail fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering in connection with a mortgage fraud scheme. Both defendants, who worked at a mortgage company called Southern California Finance, admitted that they recruited family members and friends to supply their names and signatures on mortgage loan applications. The defendants they then fabricated the job titles, income, and assets of the purported buyers, so they could qualify for approximately $1 million in mortgage funding on each of the properties. They diverted $200,000 in sham “consulting fees” and another $45,000 in fraudulent “construction fees” from each of the four transactions. The defendants took for themselves most of this extra $980,000 that they diverted from the escrow proceedings.
7/18/12: Former Star Bank Manager in Bertha Sentenced for Stealing $80K from Bank - (Source: FBI) - MINNEAPOLIS—Earlier today in federal court in St. Paul, the former vice president and branch manager of the Star Bank in Bertha, Minnesota, was sentenced for stealing $80,000 from the bank. United States District Court Judge Donovan W. Frank sentenced Kenneth Marlyn Ashbaugh, age 68, of Bertha, to five years of probation, along with 30 days in a county jail, six months of home confinement, and 500 hours of community service on one count of bank theft. In addition, Ashbaugh was ordered to pay more than $102,000 in restitution. Ashbaugh was charged on January 27, 2012, and pleaded guilty on March 5, 2012.
7/18/12: Man Behind Ponzi Scheme Gets 5 Years - ALBANY (Source: Times Union, Albany, N.Y. (MCT) — He took her money, her home and her credit. Now Arthur Strasnick is going to federal prison for five years — and his victim is dealing with the indefinite fallout from a financial “atrocity.” That’s what the woman told a federal judge Tuesday before Strasnick was sentenced for a nearly $2 million Ponzi scheme and mortgage scam. The 52-year-old victim said it left her in a financial nightmare and on the brink of suicide.
7/18/12: Bakersfield Family Indicted in Alleged Mortgage Fraud Scheme - (Source: The Bakersfield Californian (MCT) – The U.S. Department of Justice Tuesday unsealed a 26-count indictment against a Bakersfield family and their associates, accusing them of causing $5 million in lender losses in a years-long mortgage fraud scheme.Returned by a federal grand jury on Thursday, the 23-page indictment names Jara Brothers Investments Inc., or JBI, also known as Jara Brothers Development; and Pershing Partners, LLC, both property development companies.
7/18/12: LaRoque Indicted on Eight Counts of Theft, Unlawful Transactions Regarding Loan Business - (Source: The Free Press, Kinston, N.C. (MCT) – A federal grand jury has issued an eight-count indictment against Rep. Stephen LaRoque, R-Lenoir, for theft and misuse of funds from his small-business lending organizations. The office of Thomas G. Walker, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina, issued a 72-page indictment Tuesday detailing the 15-year history of the East Carolina Development Company Inc. LaRoque founded the ECDC in 1997 to loan federal funds to people in Eastern North Carolina who want to start a business but have been turned down by private lenders.
7/18/12: Former Chief Financial Officer of Bixby Energy Systems Inc. Sentenced for Securities Fraud and Tax Evasion - (Source: FBI) - MINNEAPOLIS—Earlier today in federal court in St. Paul, the former acting chief financial officer for Bixby Energy Systems Inc. was sentenced for lying to investors to get them to commit large sums of money to the business and for failing to file federal tax returns and reporting his income for three years, which resulted in a tax loss for the Internal Revenue Service of $825,866.United States District Court Judge Susan Richard Nelson sentenced Dennis Luverne Desender, age 65, to 97 months on one count of securities fraud and one count of tax evasion. On September 14, 2011, Desender was charged and pleaded guilty to securities fraud. On February 23, 2011, he was charged and pleaded guilty to tax evasion.
7/18/12: Ex-UBS France Employee Charged in Tax Inquiry After Raids - A judge leading a tax-fraud investigation concerning UBS AG’s French unit has charged a second person with aiding in illicit marketing and money laundering. UBS avoided prosecution in the U.S. in 2009 by paying $780 million, admitting it helped thousands of Americans evade taxes and turning over the names of 250 American clients to authorities. UBS later revealed another 4,450 accounts held by clients in the country.
7/18/12: Exclusive: U.S. Insider Trading Investigation Winding Down - Edward Brogan was Japan’s highest-profile hedge fund manager until he suddenly dropped out of view this month.Dubbed the “King of Tokyo” by traders, the 53-year-old American seemed to have it all: wealth, professional acclaim and status as a patron of contemporary art.In his best year, Brogan had managed over one billion dollars in his flagship Whitney Japan Fund, although much of that has been withdrawn.
7/19/12: Stockbroker arrested as a serial window smasher - How do relieve stress if you are a broker with a top flight firm? Michael Steven Poret, 58, a broker at UBS Financial Services in Los Angeles, had an interesting method. He was arrested recently by the LAPD and accused of vandalizing “numerous businesses along Ventura Boulevard and several private homes in Beverly Hills,” according to the LATimes. ”A witness account and private surveillance footage have depicted the vandal as a graying man in white gloves firing marbles at plate glass windows with a slingshot from the driver’s seat of his car, then driving away in no apparent hurry. Authorities believe that Poret could be connected to more than 20 vandalism incidents in Beverly Hills and more than 50 in Encino, as well as several other vandalism reports authorities have received in Van Nuys and Topanga Canyon. The vandal appears to target businesses indiscriminately, hitting coffee shops, an autism treatment center and a salon.”
7/19/12: European report rips into Vatican bank for lack of oversight, transparency - A European report on Wednesday identified serious failings in the Vatican’s scandal-plagued bank, sharply criticizing its management and giving the Holy See a negative rating in almost half the most important transparency-related criteria. The Vatican said it saw the 241-page report as a constructive starting point that would allow it to improve its financial controls rather than as a conclusion. The report, by Moneyval, a department of the Council of Europe, was particularly pointed in its criticism of the management of the Vatican bank, officially known as the Institute for Works of Religion (IOR), and “strongly recommended” it be “independently supervised by a prudential supervisor in the near future.”
7/19/12: Hyderabad: Police arrest owner of investment company - Hyderabad, July 19 (PTI) City police today arrested V Ramesh, Managing Director of City Facility Management Services, for allegedly duping hundreds of investors by promising high returns and collecting deposits of Rs 43 crore. Investors approached the police after Ramesh became untraceable and office of the company was locked. Police have received complaints from about 1,800 investors so far. According to police, Ramesh had paid his investors around Rs 33 crore towards returns. The rest, he allegedly misappropriated. Some of the money was used for stock market trading. Personnel from Central Zone of Special Task Force arrested him and seized a four-wheeler, a laptop and a cash of Rs 40 lakh. Probe revealed that Ramesh, a commerce drop-out, had earlier been arrested in Kavali and Tirupathi in cases of theft and cheating some time ago. There was also a dowry harassment case pending against him, lodged by his wife.
7/19/12: Eleven Charged, Arrests Made In $15 Million Mortgage Fraud Scheme - CAMDEN, N.J. – Eleven individuals from five states are charged in New Jersey for their alleged roles in a $15 million mortgage fraud scam that used phony documents and “straw buyers” to make illegal profits on overbuilt condos, including a defendant who attempted to murder a witness to the scheme, New Jersey U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.
7/20/12: Fulton County investment adviser arrested on securities fraud charges - WARFORDSBURG, Pennsylvania – Three years after the SEC first brought a civil suit against a Fulton County investment adviser, Robert G. Bard, has been arrested on securities fraud charges.Bard was indicted by the federal grand jury in Harrisburg, on Wednesday, in a 21-count Indictment charging one count of securities fraud, 14 counts of wire fraud, three counts of mail fraud, one count of bank fraud, one count of investment adviser fraud, and one count of making false statements to the FBI. Bard faces up to 20 years’ imprisonment on the securities fraud charge, up to 20 years’ imprisonment on the wire and mail fraud charges, up to 30 years’ imprisonment on the bank fraud charge, and up to five years’ imprisonment on the investment adviser fraud and false statements charge, as well as substantial fines and penalties if convicted.
7/20/12: Malaysia’s Securities Commission Spokeswoman: Sime Darby Director Arrested for Alleged Insider Trading - A director of Malaysian conglomerate Sime Darby Bhd. (4197.KU) has been arrested for alleged insider trading, a spokeswoman at the country’s Securities Commission said Friday.
7/20/12: Kumar Gets Probation for His Galleon Trial Cooperation - Crime doesn’t pay, but the lesson from insider-trader Anil Kumar’s case is that it pays to cooperate if you get caught. Kumar, 53, the former McKinsey & Co. partner, was facing 25 years in prison after pleading guilty to participating in an insider-trading scheme with Galleon Group LLC co-founder Raj Rajaratnam. Instead, he received a term of two years’ probation. U.S. Circuit Judge Denny Chin in Manhattan yesterday said he wouldn’t send Kumar to prison, and cited what prosecutors called Kumar’s “essential” and “extraordinary” cooperation as the first and key witness in the biggest insider-trading cases in U.S. history.
7/20/12: SJ Bank Manager, Husband Bilk Victim of $1.1 M- A JP Morgan Chase bank manager and her husband were convicted Thursday of scamming a 97-year-old man out of $1.1 million in life savings, according to the Santa Clara County District Attorney. Prosecutors said that bank manager Christina Bray, 30, befriended the elderly banking client and pretended to manage his financial affairs. Instead, prosecutors said, Bray and her husband, Jimmy Bray, 39, of San Jose, spent the victim’s money on luxury cars and liposuction. The couple pleaded guilty to several counts of felony elder theft.
7/20/12: UCO Bank manager, assistant held for fraud- NAGPUR: Kanhan police on Saturday arrested manager of UCO Bank, Gondegaon branch, for allegedly defrauding the bank of Rs1.52 crores. The assistant manager of the bank too has been arrested. The police are now looking for a private agent in the case. The manager, Anand Padikar (49) was produced before the court along with assistant manager Shrikant Joshi by the police on Saturday.

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7/23/12: Suspect in underground bank network arrested - Shanghai police broke up an illegal banking network recently that involved 2 billion yuan ($314 million). The main suspect, identified only as Ge, 41, is accused of illegally making 2 million yuan in two years before he was detained. The underground banking network had more than 20 accounts in Shanghai and Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Guangdong provinces, according to investigators. In 2010, he is alleged to have developed an illegal foreign exchange network, China National Radio reported.
7/23/12: Former East Berlin Woman Gets Almost 20 Years for Fraud - (Source: Greg Gross The York Dispatch, Pa. (MCT) — A former East Berlin real-estate agent who defrauded mortgage lenders of more than $6.2million by filing false loan applications, then pocketed about $2.3 million of that money, was sentenced to nearly 20 years in prison. Joanne M. Seeley, 42, now of South Carolina, was sentenced Friday to 238 months in prison following a two-day sentencing hearing. Seeley was convicted in November of four counts each of wire fraud and money laundering.
7/23/12: Irish banker McAteer arrested by Anglo probe fraud squad officers - Willie McAteer is set to become the first banker prosecuted over the collapse of the toxic Anglo Irish Bank in 2008-2009. McAteer, an executive in the former rogue lender, is due in court in Ireland on fraud charges. Anglo’s former finance director was arrested this morning by fraud squad officers investigating financial irregularities at the bust bank.
7/23/12: Former Financial Services Executive Indicted for Participation in a Conspiracy and Scheme to Defraud Involving Investment Contracts - (Source: FBI) - WASHINGTON—A former financial services executive was indicted yesterday for his participation in a far-reaching conspiracy and scheme to defraud related to bidding for contracts for the investment of municipal bond proceeds and other municipal finance contracts, the Department of Justice announced. The indictment charges Phillip D. Murphy, a former executive for a financial institution, with participating in a wire fraud scheme and separate fraud conspiracies from as early as 1998 until 2006.
7/24/12: Anglo Irish Bank’s ex-CEO arrested for fraud - DUBLIN – Fraud detectives arrested the former chief executive of Anglo Irish Bank and charged him Tuesday over a conspiracy to hide colossal losses at the bank that brought the nation to the brink of bankruptcy. Forensic accountants found that Anglo provided secret loans to 16 insiders on condition they used the €1.1 billion ($1.35 billion) to buy Anglo stock.
7/24/12: Former HSBC Employee Falciani Arrested In Spain, Mediapart Says - Herve Falciani, a former software technician at HSBC Holdings Plc’s Swiss private bank who gave client data to a French prosecutor, was arrested in Spain, Mediapart reported in a summary of an article on its website, without saying where it got the information. Switzerland accuses Falciani of stealing data and breaching banking secrecy, according to the report.
7/24/12: Arrest of traders for rates manipulation imminent - US PROSECUTORS and European regulators are close to arresting individual traders and charging them with colluding to manipulate global benchmark interest rates, according to people familiar with a sweeping investigation into the rigging scandal. Federal prosecutors in Washington, DC, have recently contacted lawyers representing some of the suspects to notify them that criminal charges and arrests could be imminent, said two of those sources, who asked not to be identified because the investigation is ongoing.
7/24/12: Six Guilty in U.K. Insider-Trading Ring at Banks’ Printers - Spain and Italy reinstated a short- sale ban on stocks as bank shares plunged to record lows, bond yields rose and the euro traded below its lifetime average against the dollar on concern the debt crisis is growing. Spain’s CNMV market regulator banned the creation of negative bets on equities through shares, derivatives and over- the-counter instruments for three months. Italy’s Consob prohibited the practice on 29 banking and insurance stocks for one week, citing “grave tensions” in financial markets.
7/24/12 : Ex-Carlyle Consultant Seeks Probation For Insider Trading - Former A.T. Kearney Inc. partner Sherif Mityas asked to be sentenced to only probation for trading on information he learned as a consultant to the Carlyle Group (CG) about the private equity firm’s 2010 purchase of vitamin maker NBTY Inc. Mityas, who pleaded guilty in March to one count of securities fraud, filed a memorandum inBrooklyn, New York, federal court requesting that a judge impose a three-year term of probation. Federal guidelines point to a sentence of 10 to 16 months in prison, the filing said.
7/24/12: Local Securities Trader Indicted on Six Year/$2.5M Investment Fraud Scheme - (Source: FBI) - ST. LOUIS, MO—Grahame E. Rhodes was indicted involving an investment fraud scheme of approximately $2.5 million beginning in 1995 through 2011. According to the indictment, Rhodes was a self-employed futures securities trader who solicited clients/investors— mainly family members, neighbors, and friends—by promising them high rates of returns on their investments. The indictment alleges that despite his promises, his investments were minimal and earned little or no return of income. He returned some money to investors representing it to be profits, but it was actually money from new investors. Rhodes allegedly told them he had invested their money when he had not, and delayed requests for withdrawal of their money by creating false excuses to justify the delay. The indictment states that on many occasions he converted the money for his own personal use.
7/24/12: Former NY Employee of a Financial Institution Pleads Guilty for Role in Fraud Conspiracy - (Source: FBI) - WASHINGTON—A former financial institution employee pleaded guilty today for his participation in a conspiracy related to municipal bonds, the Department of Justice announced. According to the plea proceeding Alexander Wright, engaged in a fraud conspiracy in the municipal finance industry. The New York-based financial institution that employed Wright as a vice president of the municipal derivatives marketing group was a provider of investment agreements as well as other municipal finance contracts to public entities.
7/24/12: Ashburn Realtor Sentenced to 7 Years for $7M Mortgage Fraud Scheme - (Source: FBI) - ALEXANDRIA, VA—Nadin Samnang, 29, of Ashburn, Virginia, was sentenced today to 84 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for orchestrating a mortgage fraud scheme that involved more than 25 homes in northern Virginia and over $7 million in losses to lenders. He was also ordered to pay restitution to the victim lenders and to forfeit to the United States nearly $1 million in proceeds of his unlawful conduct.
7/25/12: Former McGinn, Smith, & Co. Inc. CFO Pleads Guilty - (Source: FBI) - ALBANY, NY—The former chief financial officer for McGinn, Smith, & Co. Inc., Brian Shea, 53, of Niskayuna, New York, pled guilty today before United States District Court Judge David N. Hurd to one count of corruptly interfering with the administration of the internal revenue laws. Shea faces up to three years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
7/25/12: POLICE: Ex-Bank Manager Charged With Exploitation, Forgery in St. Charles - After a six-month-long investigation, a 56-year-old St. Charles woman was charged with financial exploitation of the elderly, forgery and felony theft, police said. Police arrested Lynn A. Pranga, St. Charles, after an investigation revealed the former branch manager of an MB Financial Bank violated a customer’s account by making unauthorized withdrawals of an account between 2009 and 2011. The investigation began Jan. 11 after an elderly MB Financial Bank customer reported to bank officials that his five-year certificate of deposit had been changed to a one-year CD and was worth far less than when it started out. Officials from the bank told the customer that records showed several withdrawals had been made from the account. He denied having made any withdrawals.
7/15/12: Mexico fines HSBC $28 million in money laundering investigation - MEXICO CITY — Mexican regulators have levied a $28 million fine against the Mexico subsidiary of London-based HSBC bank for failing to prevent money laundering through accounts at the bank.Mexico’s National Securities and Banking Commission said Wednesday that HSBC has paid the fines, equivalent to 379 million pesos, or about half of the subsidiary’s 2011 annual profits. The commission, and a report by a U.S. senate investigative committee, found the bank failed to control suspicious flows of billions of dollars through its accounts and didn’t respond promptly after being warned about a huge swell in dollar cash transactions at the bank.
7/25/12: 20 People Charged in Puerto Rico for Loan Application Fraud - (Source: FBI) – SAN JUAN—A grand jury returned a 45-count indictment charging 20 individuals with making false statements in loan applications, aggravated identity theft, and money laundering. According to the indictment, defendants Carlos D. Cuevas-Díaz, Miguel Ángel Echegaray-González, and Lee A. Arcia-Centeno conspired and agreed with each other, and with diverse other persons known and unknown to the grand jury, to knowingly make false statements or cause false statements to be made to mortgage lending institutions Equity Mortgage, Latin American, and Express Solution for the purpose of influencing the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) to insure the mortgage loans.
7/25/12: Throop Man Sent to Jail for Conducting Unlicensed Mortgage Business, Theft- (Source: The Times-Tribune, Scranton, Pa. – In the eyes of the clients he provided mortgages to over several months in 2009, Timothy Tanana was a helpful professional. But in the eyes of Lackawanna County Judge Vito P. Geroulo on Tuesday, the 43-year-old Throop man was simply a “con man.” When it came time for Mr. Tanana to speak for himself before receiving a sentence of 11 to 23½ months in Lackawanna County Prison for theft and conducting unlicensed mortgage business, he dwelled on his mounting bills and gambling addiction. Judge Geroulo, however, pointed out that Mr. Tanana appeared to be trying to “smooth” him just as he had the 17 clients he persuaded to pay a total of $53,137.58 to him in fees – while he was already making a $160,000 salary.
7/25/12: More Than 1,000 Bilked in Mortgage Modification Scam - (Source: The Press-Enterprise, Riverside, Calif. (MCT) — The operators of a boiler-room telemarketing company, US Homeowners Assistance, were ordered Tuesday, July 24, to pay more than $4 million in penalties for false mortgage modification loan promises made to more than 1,000 customers.
7/26/12: FL Title Agency Owner Sentenced for Mortgage Fraud Scheme - (Source: FBI) - JACKSONVILLE, FL—U.S. Attorney Robert E. O’Neill announces that U.S. District Judge Henry Lee Adams, Jr. today sentenced Cynthia Darlene Strickland (46, Jacksonville) to 18 months in federal prison for bank fraud related to a mortgage fraud scheme. As part of the sentence, the court ordered Strickland to pay restitution to victims in the amount of $531,356. The court also entered a judgment against Strickland for $178,625, which was the amount of money she received as a result of the scheme. Strickland pled guilty.
7/25/12: Capital One To Pay Millions After Being Charged With Improper Military Foreclosures - WASHINGTON — Capital One has agreed to pay $12 million to resolve allegations the bank violated special consumer protections in federal law for members of the military, the Justice Department announced. The government says Capital One wrongfully foreclosed on some homes and improperly repossessed some cars. In addition, the government says the bank obtained wrongful court judgments against some service members and improperly denied interest rate relief on some credit card and car loans. In a settlement under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, Capital One will pay $7 million in damages, including at least $125,000 to each service member whose home was unlawfully foreclosed upon and at least $10,000 to each service member whose vehicle was unlawfully repossessed. Capital One will provide a $5 million fund to compensate service members denied appropriate benefits on credit card accounts, auto and consumer loans.
7/26/12: 7 Defendants Indicted in Alleged $8.5M Mortgage Fraud Scheme Involving Multiple Lenders- (Source: FBI) - CHICAGO—Seven defendants, including two real estate investors and three licensed loan originators, were indicted today for allegedly participating in a scheme to fraudulently obtain more than 20 residential mortgage loans totaling approximately $8.5 million from various lenders. The indictment alleges that the mortgages were obtained to finance the purchase of properties by buyers who were fraudulently qualified for loans while the defendants allegedly profited. As a result, various lenders and their successors incurred losses because the mortgages were not fully recovered through subsequent sale or foreclosure. All seven defendants were charged with one or more counts of mail fraud and/or wire fraud in a 12-count indictment that was returned by a federal grand jury. The indictment also seeks forfeiture of at least $8.5 million.
7/26/12: Former Anglo Irish banking chiefs arrested - More high-ranking bankers, including Massachusetts-based former Anglo Irish Bank CEO David Drumm, could be included in later prosecutions in an investigation which started in February 2009.
7/27/2012: Michael Marin, Ex-Wall Street Trader, Took Cyanide After Guilty Arson Verdict - PHOENIX — A former Wall Street trader who collapsed in court after being found guilty of arson and later died committed suicide by taking cyanide, according to an autopsy released Friday. The Maricopa County medical examiner’s office toxicology tests showed Michael Marin, 53, had the poison in his system. The report also noted an apparent suicide note emailed by Martin shortly before his death and cyanide found in his car afterward. After he was found guilty of arson in June, Marin put his head in his hands and appeared to put something in his mouth. He then drank from a sports bottle.
7/27/12: Citibank’s Indonesian Scandal Deepens As Convicted Debt Collectors Go Missing - Irzen Octa, an Indonesian businessman, died in a Citibank office under mysterious circumstances last March, while debt collectors were questioning him about money he owed on a Citibank credit card. Now, two of the three collectors convicted in Octa’s death are reportedly on the run from the law. Arif Lukman and Henry Waslinton, who were each sentenced to five years in prison last month for their role in the March 2011 interrogation, have failed to answer a court summons for detention, according to theJakarta Globe. On Wednesday, both men were declared fugitives. Octa, who owed Citibank more than $11,000 at the time of his death, met with third-party collectors on March 28, 2011, in an attempt to negotiate a settlement. He was found dead in the Citibank office that afternoon. Post-mortem reports from various doctors have given his cause of death as asphyxiation, brain hemorrhage and “blunt violence,” according to The Washington. In the past, Citi customers in India have alleged that debt collectors working on behalf of the bank threatened to kill them or remove their organs if they did not pay. A Citi spokeswoman told reporters that these were “isolated cases.”

7/27/12: CBI arrests banker for Rs 50K bribe- India, PATNA: A CBI team on Thursday caught Samastipur-based Kshetriya Gramin Bank branch manager Shiv Kumar red-handed when he was entering the bank after accepting a bribe of Rs 50,000 from a complainant, Laxmi Sah, a resident of Samastipur.CBI SP B K Singh said a loan of Rs 4.30 lakh under the Pradhan Mantri Rojgar Yojana was sanctioned to Sah for setting up an oil mill. But the branch manager was demanding Rs 70,000 for withdrawal of the loan amount. Sah lodged a complaint with the CBI on July 23, he said.Singh said a CBI team verified the allegation and laid a trap on Thursday. The complainant reached the bank and the branch manager gave him Rs 1 lakh and came out of the bank with him. Kumar gave the complainant an envelope and asked him to put Rs 70,000 into it.
7/27/12:TD bank denies wrongdoing after court convicts U.S. fraudster in $7B Ponzi scheme- Robert Allen Stanford was the stereotype of a Texas tycoon, oozing the extravagance billions of dollars buys: a fleet of private jets, yachts and helicopters; mansions, castles and a private island; mixing with celebrities and world despots; being knighted and hosting a world sports tournament where he put up the US$20-million purse. At the height of his outsized life, however, his banking empire collapsed and, last month, a U.S. court exposed his US$7-billion fraud, sentencing the 63-year-old to 110 years in prison. Now, attention is turning to the role a respected Canadian bank may have played in allowing Stanford to strip 21,000 investors of their savings.
7/27/12: Virginia Mortgage Broker Pleads Guilty in $700,000 Fraud Scheme - (Source: FBI) - WASHINGTON—Donald M. Ramsey, 45, a mortgage broker from Alexandria, Virginia, pled guilty today to a charge of conspiracy to commit bank and mail fraud for his part in a scheme that cost lenders more than $700,000.
7/27/2012: Bankrupt Sean Quinn: I’m scared to go to prison but I won’t back out of it- BANKRUPT businessman Sean Quinn has said he is afraid to go to prison but he won’t back out of it. Last week, a High Court judge jailed the son and nephew of the disgraced businessman for three months after finding failures to adequately comply with court orders aimed at reversing measures stripping multi-million assets from the Quinn family’s international property group. Sean Quinn Junior is currently serving a three month sentence. Peter Darragh Quinn failed to turn up in court and a warrant has been issued for his arrest.
7/27/12: Barclays Execs Under Another Investigation AND BANK SET ASIDE HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS FOR MISSELLING DERIVATIVES - (NEWSER) – Barclays raised a whole bunch of eyebrows when it released its earnings today—and in the process revealed, among other things, that current and former senior executives were under an investigation totally unrelated to the Libor. UK regulators are looking into whether the bank sufficiently disclosed details of the $11.45 billion cash injection it got from Middle Eastern investors during the 2008 financial crisis, the Wall Street Journal reports. If that weren’t enough, the company also revealed that it had set aside $705 million to cover misspelling of derivatives to small businesses, and that it was facing a number of lawsuits over the Libor scandal. On the call, departing Chairman Marcus Agius apologized yet again for that mess, and said he was working to find his own replacement, along with one to fill the hole left by former CEO Robert Diamond. “It is tempting to find a quick solution,” he said. “It is important that the right selection is made.”
7/27/12: Foreclosure Prevention Business Owner Pleads Guilty in Major Mortgage Fraud Scheme - (Source: FBI) - WASHINGTON—Carline M. Charles, 41, who operated a business that supposedly would rescue distressed homeowners from foreclosure, pled guilty today to conspiracy to commit bank fraud for her role in a mortgage fraud scheme that cost lenders at least $1 million, announced U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen, Jr. and James W. McJunkin, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office.
7/27/12: CO Man Pleads Guilty to Scheming Investors Out of $7M for Personal Use - (Source: FBI) – MINNEAPOLIS—Earlier today in federal court, a 37-year-old Colorado man pleaded guilty to scheming investors out of $7 million. Evan Matthew Flaxman, of Silverthorne, Colorado, pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud in connection to the scheme. Flaxman, who was charged on June 14, 2012, entered his plea before United States District Court Judge Patrick J. Schiltz.
7/27/12: Former Hedge Fund Manager Receives Over 6 Years in Prison for Being in Charge of Ponzi Scheme - (Source: FBI) – A hedge fund manager was sentenced today in Brooklyn federal court to serve 78 months in prison for running a Ponzi scheme. Ward Onsa, 60, of Naples, Florida, the manager of New Century Hedge Fund Partners LP, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Dora L. Irizarry. Onsa pleaded guilty in December 2011 to operating the scheme, which resulted in losses to investors of over $3 million dollars. The court also ordered restitution to be paid to the defendant’s victims.
7/27/12: Man From Ohio Charged with Investor Fraud- (Source: FBI) — A resident of East Liverpool, Ohio, has been indicted by a federal grand jury in Pittsburgh on charges of wire fraud, United States Attorney David J. Hickton announced today. The defendant defrauded three investors by representing that he was a successful currency trader and obtaining $78,000 from them for this purpose and thereafter retaining and spending more than $49,000 for his own purposes, while earning no profits for investors and incurring more than $28,000 in currency trading loses. The law provides for a maximum total sentence at each count of 20 years in prison, a fine of $250,000, or both.
7/27/12: - SEC, FINRA Enforcement Roundup: $268M Insider Trading Scheme Busted - Charges of insider trading in a secondary stock offering, accounting violations, insider trading around an acquisition and efforts by a phony company president to push a fake penny-stock investment were among enforcement actions taken by the SEC, while FINRA censured and fined a firm for a registered representative’s unsuitable and excessive trading in client accounts.
7/27/12: Comsys CEO pal charged with insider trading - CHICAGO (MarketWatch) -The Securities and Exchange Commission said Wednesday that it has charged a friend of a CEO of a Houston-based employment services firm with insider trading for using confidential information he learned “while they were spending time together.” Accused is Ladislav “Larry” Schvacho, who the SEC charges illegally made $511,000 by using the information to trade around the 2010 acquisition of Comsys IT Partners Inc. by Manpower Inc. (US:MAN) They claim that he gleaned nonpublic information while Comsys CEO [Larry Enterline] “called other Comsys executives to discuss the acquisition and through confidential, merger-related documents to which Schvacho had access.” He then compiled a portfolio of 72,000 shares of Comsys in the weeks before the acquisition, the SEC said, using all available cash in his brokerage accounts to buy it. Schvacho then sold half of his Comsys shares as soon as the deal announcement was made.
7/27/12: Ipswich: Santander worker avoids jail over thefts from customer accounts - A BANK worker with a gambling addiction who embezzled more than £12,000 from customers’ accounts has walked free from court after a judge gave him a suspended prison sentence. Sentencing Matthew Farr, 23, who gambled £85,000 away in a 15-month period leading up to his arrest, Judge Rupert Overbury said he had “exploited” his position with Santander bank to systematically steal money from customers’ accounts. “The harm caused by what you have done has not only caused financial loss but also an incalculable erosion of public confidence in the banking system which is particularly serious in these current economic times,” said the judge.
7/27/12: Kosovan central bank launches sting operation on unlicensed financial institutions - The Central Bank of the Republic of Kosovo (CBK) today (July 27) carried out surprise visits to two locations on suspicion of the conduct of unlicensed financial activity. The operation was approved by the executive board of the central bank shortly before the investigations were launched.
7/27/12: Traders’ assets frozen in CNOOC-Nexen deal - A federal court on Friday froze the assets of traders accused of trading on inside information ahead of a controversial bid by China’s state-run CNOOC for Canadian oil company Nexen Inc., U.S. securities regulators said. The Securities and Exchange Commission sought the action and said certain traders used accounts in Singapore and Hong Kong to reap more than $13 million in illegal profits by buying up Nexen shares ahead of the deal.
7/28/12: Two PNB staffers held for accepting Rs 1.8 crore in bribe - Mumbai, Jul 28 (PTI) Two employees of a nationalised bank were arrested by CBI for allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 1.8 crore in lieu of official favour, the agency officials said today. Manibhushan, senior manager in the Regional Stationary Department Centre of the Punjab National Bank and asset recovery agent Mendiratta were apprehended from here yesterday while accepting the bribe of Rs 1.8 crore from a complainant.
7/28/12: UK – Six Sentenced for Insider Trading - UBS and JPMorgan print rooms. One of six individuals sentenced on Friday to a total of 16 years in prison for taking part in an insider trading ring has said the JP Morgan Cazenove print room manager allegedly at the heart of the conspiracy avoided prosecutors by fleeing to Northern Cyprus. Ersin Mustafa, a contractor for Xerox running the secure print room in JP Morgan, was accused of playing a pivotal role in sourcing confidential documents from the bank and from UBS where his brother Ali Mustafa worked – his role also involving the confidential printing of market-sensitive documents, many of them linked to corporate takeover plans.
7/28/12: CT woman sentenced to 8 years for fraud - HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) – A federal judge has sentenced a Washington Depot woman to eight years prison in a fraud case that cheated mostly elderly investors out of $1.9 million. The judge called 55-year-old Robin Brass a “clever and effective con artist” as he delivered the sentence Friday in U.S. District Court in Hartford. Several victims who spoke at the hearing said Brass was a one-time friend who betrayed their trust, stole their life savings and, in some cases, left them dependent on food stamps.
7/28/12: Barclays needs a total management overhaul - In the past four weeks the bank has been laid low by scandal after scandal. The £290m fine for attempting to rig Libor was followed by what can only be described as the exposure of a diabolical relationship with the bank’s regulator, the Financial Services Authority, whose top executive lashed out against the bank’s “culture of gaming” in testimony before MPs. Then on Friday it got even worse: a £450m bill to pick up the cost of mis-selling interest rate swaps to small businesses, and the extraordinary revelation that its finance director Chris Lucas was being investigated in relation to the rescue fundraising the bank conducted during the 2008 crisis.
7/28/12: Whitman Trial To Turn On Whether He Knew Of Illicit Tips - Whitman Capital LLC founder Doug Whitman is going on trial for using illicit tips from technology company insiders including one who was a neighbor, a woman at the center of the biggest stock-tipping probe in U.S. history. Roomy Khan, a former Intel Corp. (INTC) executive, is scheduled to be one of the government’s key witnesses at Whitman’s trial that starts July 30 in federal court in Manhattan. Khan twice pleaded guilty to passing inside information to Galleon Group LLC fund manager Raj Rajaratnam – once in 2001 and again in 2009.
7/28/12: Zambia: Two Nabbed for Money Laundering - A BANKER and a business executive in Chipata have been arrested for alleged theft and money laundering involving more than K300 million. Mike Kabwe, 29, a banker residing at 1806 Chipata Motel and Petros Banda, 39, of farm number 120 Kapara also of Chipata have been arrested and jointly charged with theft and money laundering. In the second offence, Kabwe is separately charged for theft by servant and fraudulent false accounting.
7/29/12: German accused of pyramid scheme fraud arrested in Las Vegas - (Reuters) – A German man accused of using an Internet pyramid scheme to bilk investors of over $100 million dollars and then going on the run for five years has been arrested in Las Vegas. Ulrich Felix Anton Engler, 51, was arrested on Wednesday for violating U.S. immigration law. Engler is wanted by German authorities on multiple criminal charges after allegedly defrauding several thousand German, Swiss and Austrian investors. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison. Engler is accused of using a Florida-based marketing company to promote another company which falsely claimed it traded in stocks and other securities to lure investors who lost access to their money once it was transferred to the United States.Last year, authorities began to re-examine his case and determined he was running a similar scheme in Nevada under a new name.
7/29/12: Fake bank operator nabbed in Kano - The police in Kano have arrested one Taofee Adekunle for allegedly operating an illegal Finance House, popularly known as “Wonder Bank”. The state Commissioner of Police, Mr Ibrahim Idris disclosed this while briefing newsmen in Kano on Saturday. The commissioner said the suspect, who had a network of marketers spread all over Kano metropolis, collected a total sum of N5.5 million from 328 victims with the promise to give them credit facility.‘’The method adopted by the fraudster is to ask his victim to pay 20 per cent of the credit facility before he disburses the loan. After collecting the percentage, the transaction stops as he will not disburse the loan as promised.’’
7/29/12: Ex treasury chief Kutengule speaks out on fertiliser deal - Former Secretary to Treasury, Dr Milton Kutengule, has reacted to a leaked report by Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) which implicated him in a 2005 fertiliser subsidy deal the bureau claims wasted $6.9 million (about K2 billion at present exchange rates). Kutengule left the ministry of finance in 2008 in connection with a mysterious K20 million Credit Scheme Account he is alleged to have opened at a commercial bank for which he was the sole signatory to all transactions that followed.
7/29/12: Former Real Estate Developer Pleads Guilty to $16 Million Golf Course Investment Fraud Scheme - SAN JOSE, California – A former real estate developer from Carmel, California, pleaded guilty on Thursday to wire fraud and money laundering arising out of his golf course investment fraud scheme in which he defrauded more than 50 victims. Thomas Joseph O’Meara, III, 65, formerly a Carmel resident now living in Palm Desert, California, admitted in his plea agreement that he carried out an investment fraud scheme. O’Meara recruited individuals to invest more than $16 million.
7/29/12: Criminals abuse New Zealand’s liberal company laws - WELLINGTON, New Zealand – When American Jeffery Lowrance this month pleaded guilty in federal court to wire fraud and money laundering after running a $25 million Ponzi scheme, he was just the latest in a long list of criminals to take advantage of liberal company laws in New Zealand. Like other criminals before him, he found that for about $130 and a small amount of online paperwork, he could set up a shell company in New Zealand without stepping foot in the country or having any financial presence. He registered First Capital Savings & Loan to an Auckland address but ran his scheme from Panama.
7/30/12: Iran sentences 4 to death in $2.6B fraud case - TEHRAN, Iran — An Iranian court has sentenced four people to death and given two more life sentences on charges linked to a $2.6 billion bank fraud described as the biggest financial scam in the country’s history, an official said Monday. The trial, which began in February, involved some of the country’s largest financial institutions and raised uncomfortable questions about corruption at senior levels in Iran’s tightly controlled economy.

[Sabrina]

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/07/28/uk-banking-libor-traders-idUKBRE86R03620120728

Insight - At least three banks seen central to Libor rigging

(Reuters) - New details from court documents and sources close to the Libor scandal investigation suggest that groups of traders working at three major European banks were heavily involved in rigging global benchmark interest rates.

Some of those traders, including one who used to work at Barclays Plc in New York, still have senior positions on Wall Street trading desks.

Until now, most of the attention has involved traders at Barclays, which last month reached a $453 million settlement with U.S. and UK authorities for its role in the manipulation of rates. Now, it is becoming clear that traders from at least two other banks - UK-based Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc and Switzerland's UBS AG - played a central role.

Among them, the three banks employed more than a dozen traders who sought to influence rates in either dollar, euro or yen rates. Some of the traders who are being probed have worked for several banks under scrutiny, raising the possibility that the rate fixing became more ingrained as traders changed jobs.

The documents reviewed by Reuters in analyzing the traders' involvement included court filings by Canadian regulators who have been investigating potential antitrust issues; settlement documents with Barclays filed by the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission in Washington and by the Financial Services Authority in the U.K.; and a private employment lawsuit filed by a former RBS trader in Singapore's High Court.

The scandal, which began to come to light in 2008, has become a time bomb for regulators and a big focus for politicians on both sides of the Atlantic. At issue is the manipulation between at least 2005 and 2009 of rates that are used to determine the cost of trillions of dollars of borrowings, including everything from home loans to credit card rates.

One former Barclays employee under scrutiny, Reuters has learned, is Jay V. Merchant, according to people familiar with the situation. Merchant, who oversaw the U.S. dollar swaps trading desk at Barclays in New York, worked for the bank from March 2006 to October 2009, according to employment records maintained by the U.S. Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA).

Merchant currently holds a similar position at UBS, where he works out of the Swiss bank's offices in Stamford, Connecticut, according to FINRA. He did not return requests for comment.

People familiar with the investigation said authorities are looking at whether some individuals on Merchant's trading desk tried to influence the rate on Libor by communicating with other traders in London to get a higher return on certain swaps the desk was trading. His specific role is unclear.

The Department of Justice declined to comment.

Merchant's attorney, John Kenney of Hoguet Newman Regal & Kenney, did not respond to requests seeking comment.

A UBS spokeswoman said that the bank has "no reason to believe Mr. Merchant has engaged in any improper conduct at UBS." The spokeswoman, who noted that Merchant is on a two-week vacation, declined to comment on the broader investigation.

Barclays declined to comment. In a statement, an RBS spokeswoman said the bank is cooperating with the investigation.

SPREAD FROM BARCLAYS

Earlier this week, Reuters reported that federal prosecutors in Washington have begun reaching out to lawyers for some of the individuals under scrutiny as they get closer to bringing possible criminal charges.

The dollar and euro rate-rigging appears to have begun in earnest in early 2005 in the dollar market, according to the documents reviewed by Reuters. By August of that year, Barclays traders were reaching out to traders at other big global banks to manipulate their rates to make them favorable to Barclays' trading positions.

Soon, the trading had crossed to the euro rate markets, according to the settlement documents filed in the Barclays investigation. And by 2007, traders at RBS and UBS were seeking to influence the yen rate market, according to documents filed in 2011 in Singapore's High Court and in Canada's Ontario Superior Court.

Traders at Barclays are believed to have participated in manipulating the rate for the dollar and the rate for the euro known as Euribor, according to documents filed in the Barclays settlement last month.

RBS and UBS traders are a focus of the global investigation because of their alleged involvement in seeking to influence yen-denominated rates.

Two RBS traders in London, Brent Davies and Will Hall, are alleged to have agreed to help a trader at UBS, Thomas Hayes, to manipulate yen Libor, according to court documents filed by the Canadian Competition Bureau.

UBS is cooperating with Canadian and U.S. authorities, according to people familiar with the situation.

Hayes worked at UBS from 2006 to 2009. He later moved to Citigroup where he remained until 2010, after which he left the bank. Hayes, Davies and Hall could not be reached for comment.

The documents reveal that Hayes also contacted traders at other banks in London to get them to manipulate yen rates. They include Peter O'Leary at HSBC Holdings Plc, Guillaume Adolph at Deutsche, and Paul Glands at JPMorgan. A second UBS employee sought to get a Citigroup trader, who formerly had worked at UBS, to influence rates.

None of these traders could be reached for comment.

CONDONED

In addition, a former trader at RBS, Tan Chi Min, said in a wrongful termination lawsuit filed in the Singapore High Court in 2011 that he was forced out for "improperly seeking to influence" the setting of Libor. Tan, who ran a trading desk at RBS, said in the suit that improper rate-rigging was known by some at the bank and condoned.

Tan denied trying to manipulate Libor, and alleged in the 2011 court filing, and one in March this year, that about a half dozen other RBS traders openly tried to request specific rates.

Tan's attorney, N. Sreenivasan, declined to comment because the court case is ongoing.

Beyond traders at the three European banks, authorities are still probing the role of others.

For example, traders at JPMorgan Chase & Co also interacted with some of the traders under scrutiny who worked for Barclays and RBS, according to a person familiar with the situation and court documents filed in Singapore.

Similarly, Deutsche Bank AG also had several employees whose trading is under scrutiny by authorities, according to people familiar with the situation and court documents filed in Canada.

JPMorgan and Deutsche Bank declined to comment.

28 July

[Sabrina]

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/07/31/uk-hsbc-earnings-idUKBRE86T07O20120731

31 July

HSBC takes $2 billion hit for U.S., UK scandals

(Reuters) - Revelations of lax anti-money laundering controls at HSBC are "shameful and embarrassing" for Europe's biggest bank, its boss said on Monday, and it may have to pay out well over $2 billion (1.27 billion pounds) for the scandal and in compensation for UK mis-selling.

HSBC set aside $700 million to cover fines and other costs after a U.S. Senate report criticised it this month for letting clients shift funds from dangerous and secretive countries, notably Mexico.

Chief Executive Stuart Gulliver told reporters the ultimate cost could be "significantly higher".

"What happened in Mexico and the U.S. is shameful, it's embarrassing, it's very painful for all of us in the firm," he said on a conference call. "We need to execute on the compliance changes and then prove ourselves worthy and rebuild this over a number of years. There are no quick and easy fixes."

The Senate report criticised a "pervasively polluted" culture at the bank and said HSBC's Mexican operations had moved $7 billion into its U.S. operations between 2007 and 2008.

"The firm clearly lost its way in this regard and it's right that we apologise," said Gulliver. "Colleagues internally have been aware that this is the backdrop of why we had to change the firm."

The provision ate into first-half underlying profits, which fell 3 percent from a year earlier to $10.6 billion, excluding gains from assets sales and losses on the value of its own debt.

HSBC, which was formed in 1865 and operates in 84 countries, said a new streamlined and centralised structure set up by Gulliver has simplified the bank and made it easier to monitor and enforce standards and compliance.

But it also set aside another $1 billion to compensate British customers for mis-selling them loan insurance, and $237 million to cover payouts to small UK businesses wrongly sold complex interest rate hedging products.

HSBC is also one of more than a dozen banks under scrutiny in a global interest rate-rigging scandal that has rocked the sector and further damaged the reputation of bankers following criticism of their culture and standards.

"It's very unfortunate and deeply concerning that even the banks considered more secure such as HSBC are so seriously at risk," said a top 30 investor in HSBC.

"And the news is still coming out - we have yet to see the impact, if any, of the Libor investigation and HSBC's role in that. It's hard to see how much more bad news the markets can take," said the investor, who asked not to be named.

Shares in HSBC were up 1.9 percent to 541.3 pence at 1350 GMT, lagging a 2.8 percent rise in Europe's bank index.

SOFT CHINA LANDING

The bank said economic headwinds would persist and it expected the euro zone economy to contract in 2012, while the United States would achieve sub-par growth this year and next. China's economy should have a "soft landing" and grow 8 percent or more this year, it said.

U.S. and British authorities have fined fellow UK-based bank Barclays $453 million for manipulating Libor, a benchmark interest rate based on how much banks charge to lend to each other. More banks are expected to be drawn into the investigation into banks submitting false rates from which Libor is calculated daily.

Royal Bank of Scotland's CEO said it is one of the banks in the investigation, and Britain set out the terms on Monday for a reform of Libor, saying urgent change was required.

Thomson Reuters Corp is the British Bankers' Association's official agent for the daily calculation and publishing of Libor.

Gulliver said that as a contributor to Libor and its euro zone equivalent Euribor, HSBC was cooperating with regulators, but it was too early to say what the outcome would be or to estimate the potential cost for the bank. No-one at HSBC had been fired or suspended over any Libor issues, he said.

HSBC is in talks to settle the investigation into its U.S. anti-money laundering compliance with the U.S. Department of Justice and other regulators. "It may take several more months to come to fruition," Gulliver said.

The bank said it could clawback some past bonuses from staff involved in the problem, but declined to comment if that could include former Chief Executive Michael Geoghegan.

Gulliver is mid-way through a deep overhaul to cut costs, sell or shrink unprofitable businesses, and to direct investment to faster growing Asian markets.

It has cut 27,000 jobs since the start of 2011 and sold or closed 26 business in that time, including sales of its U.S. credit card businesses and half its U.S. branches.

HSBC has been running down its U.S. loan book for years, but said it was unlikely to be able to drain out surplus capital from its U.S. operations until "well into the future".

Gulliver said he was aware of the investigation into its U.S. compliance problems in 2010 before he took over, and that shaped some of his restructuring. This also includes centralising control functions over a bank that was unwieldy.

HSBC said it had increased its spending on compliance to more than $400 million last year, more than double its $200 million in 2010.

Behind the problems the bank had shown "a pretty good set of numbers" and quick execution on his strategy, said Gulliver.

The bank reported a statutory pretax profit of $12.7 billion for the six months to the end of June, up 11 percent on the year and above an average analyst forecast of $12.5 billion, according to a poll by the company.

Its investment bank's profit rose 5 percent on the year to $5 billion, faring better than rivals in a tough market where activity has been hit by the euro zone crisis.

Costs represented 57.5 percent of income, similar to the past year and above Gulliver's 52 percent target.

and

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/9439478/Bankers-found-to-have-rigged-Libor-rate-could-face-jail.html

Bankers found to have rigged Libor rate could face jail

Bankers found to have rigged Libor could face jail after the Serious Fraud Office said it will look to bring criminal charges against those who attempted to manipulate Libor, a key global borrowing rate.

David Green QC, director of the SFO, said existing legislation could be used to bring criminal actions against banks implicated in the Libor rigging scandal.

Mr Green did not specify the precise charges that could be brought but it is possible bankers found guilty of manipulation could receive prison sentences of up to 10 years.

The decision to pursue prosecutions comes just over three weeks after the SFO formally announced an investigation into Libor and in particular whether it was possible to launch criminal proceedings against individual banks and bankers found to have rigged borrowing rates.

In a statement the SFO said it was “satisfied that existing criminal offences are capable of covering conduct in relation to the alleged manipulation of Libor and related interest rates”.
more at link

[Sabrina]

July 31, 2012 8:45 pm
European lenders take Libor scandal hit

FT

The spreading scandal over the manipulation of key lending rates and the downturn of Europe’s economy took their toll on two of the region’s leading investment banks, Deutsche Bank and UBS, which both revealed increased provisions and sharp profit falls.

Both banks are caught up in the scandal around the alleged manipulation of the London Interbank Offered Rate and related benchmark lending rates and on Tuesday topped up their estimates for litigation risk by a combined €580m. This reflects in part the expected costs of settling regulatory probes round the world.

Barclays last month paid £290m to settle its case with regulators in the UK and US over the Libor affair in a move that led within days to the resignation of the bank’s top three directors, including Bob Diamond, chief executive.



The dual impact of recent banking scandals, including the Libor affair, and struggling profitability has led to a crisis of confidence in the sector. Sentiment has been particularly bleak in Europe, amid growing anxiety that the eurozone crisis will worsen over the coming months.

In the three months to the end of June, Deutsche increased its estimate on unprovisioned litigation costs from €2.1bn to €2.5bn, while UBS added SFr210m to its litigation and regulatory provisions.

Both banks revealed more information about their potential exposure to the issue. UBS said the Libor affair had been taken up by attorneys-general in several US states, in addition to regulators and the US Department of Justice. Deutsche said it was being sued over claims it manipulated the Yen Libor rate and the price of derivatives tied to the Euroyen benchmark in a suit filed by US litigants in April.
However, neither bank would comment on suggestions that talks with regulators could lead to settlement deals as soon as the autumn.
Both banks were also hit by the ongoing impact of the economic downturn, with net profits for the three months to June falling 58 per cent at UBS and 46 per cent at Deutsche.

“The current environment continues to result in significantly lower levels of client activity, both in investment banking as well as in certain parts of our retail business,’’ Deutsche Bank said in its quarterly report. ‘’We expect this to continue in the second half of the year.’’
The hits were hardest in investment banking, as clients reduced business volumes dramatically, particularly in equities trading. Second-quarter profits at Deutsche’s investment banking unit fell by nearly two-thirds to €357m. At UBS operating income in investment banking tumbled from SFr2.9bn to SFr1.7bn, with the unit generating a pre-tax loss of SFr130m, thanks to a one-off hit of SFr349m from the botched flotation of Facebook three months ago.

UBS announced plans to take legal action against Nasdaq over the affair, which left brokers including UBS with excess supplies of shares when orders were duplicated.

Deutsche announced it would eliminate €3bn of overheads and cut 1,900 jobs from its payroll of 100,000. Anshu Jain, co-chief executive, also pledged to lead the way in reforming the culture of the investment banking industry.

Though Deutsche made clear that no senior manager had been implicated in the Libor probes, Mr Jain said he would put renewed emphasis on ethical standards throughout the bank and “root out bad behaviour”. He also promised to be “at the forefront” of reforms to investment banker pay.

[centreoflight]

Thank you again Sabrina for updating us what is going on in the financial sector.

I worked for UBS in Switzerland for over 20 years. At first in the 70s and early 80s I was naive and felt that the banks where doing a good job. It was the time when the bank needed the staff and I felt like i was part of a family. Then all changed, jobs became less, the pressure to produce augmented the competition between the bank workers. I started to see many dealings, which were not very ethical but my philosophy at that time was; I do not spit in the plate where I am eating from. So I keep quite.
In 1999 I got thrown out of UBS and that was an awakening for me. The bank refused to give me money, which they agreed in the social plan negotiated with the unions, because of the merge of the two big banks UBS and SBS. I needed to engage a lawyer to get the money I was entitled to.
Now I know that the name banksters is justified. The banking system is Robin Hood, the other way round. Taking from the poor to give to the rich.
Blessings
George

[modwiz]

I find it interesting that this last page has changed the theme to massive high profile arrests, instead of resignations. This is a major qualitative difference. The lampooning of those who said this will happen will continue for a time though. This thread is not one of the more viewed threads and that is a shame. Sabrina has kindly charted what are significant shifts on this planet with regards to the elite. To be sure, these arrests are of the small fish, the sacrificial lambs so to speak. It is precisely these lambs that provide cover for the real problem. The wolves in sheep clothing hiding amongst them. As the wolves are also out in the open, but camouflaged, they are not the ultimate problem either. One must cross moats and scale walls to get to the castle keep. Right now bodies are being tossed into the moats, a few more and we can cross over and begin scaling the walls.

Have torches and pitchforks handy.:whistle:

I am saddened that this thread is not more viewed. Saddened by the statement it makes and dynamics it reveals.

[Sabrina]

Thank you again Sabrina for updating us what is going on in the financial sector.

I worked for UBS in Switzerland for over 20 years. At first in the 70s and early 80s I was naive and felt that the banks where doing a good job. It was the time when the bank needed the staff and I felt like i was part of a family. Then all changed, jobs became less, the pressure to produce augmented the competition between the bank workers. I started to see many dealings, which were not very ethical but my philosophy at that time was; I do not spit in the plate where I am eating from. So I keep quite.
In 1999 I got thrown out of UBS and that was an awakening for me. The bank refused to give me money, which they agreed in the social plan negotiated with the unions, because of the merge of the two big banks UBS and SBS. I needed to engage a lawyer to get the money I was entitled to.
Now I know that the name banksters is justified. The banking system is Robin Hood, the other way round. Taking from the poor to give to the rich.
Blessings
George

Many thanks for your story George. I didn't work for bankers, but did for some of the so called elite. I reckon we've all gone thru' the process of going into organisations with the best intentions, doing our best, then seeing how it really is and mostly meeting unceremonious ends! However, gets us to see the real truth doesn't it and makes us much stronger and able to cope with what might be happening in the near future. Sabrina :)

[Sabrina]

I find it interesting that this last page has changed the theme to massive high profile arrests, instead of resignations. This is a major qualitative difference. The lampooning of those who said this will happen will continue for a time though. This thread is not one of the more viewed threads and that is a shame. Sabrina has kindly charted what are significant shifts on this planet with regards to the elite. To be sure, these arrests are of the small fish, the sacrificial lambs so to speak. It is precisely these lambs that provide cover for the real problem. The wolves in sheep clothing hiding amongst them. As the wolves are also out in the open, but camouflaged, they are not the ultimate problem either. One must cross moats and scale walls to get to the castle keep. Right now bodies are being tossed into the moats, a few more and we can cross over and begin scaling the walls.

Have torches and pitchforks handy.:whistle:

I am saddened that this thread is not more viewed. Saddened by the statement it makes and dynamics it reveals.

Yep Modwiz, there's a subtle shift going on isn't there, to real action. Although, I agree that those at the top of the tree have still to be taken down - but it won't go away for Murdoch and his crew by the look of it. And some near the top are being shaken I think.

Reckon this thread is for those who are in it for the long run, and know it wasn't going to go wham bam overnight (well it might now come to think of it). Also, it's not dealing with the fear porn or one liners for instant effect! Or trying to make it too much of a cliquey thing (ahh that's where I'm going wrong :)).... There's stories within stories in a lot of the main stream media stuff being posted, but I reckon there is a certain subtly to it that isn't for everyone and that's fine. Will do the 'told you so' bit when the time's right and use the pitchfork to pop the champagne corks... :) Sab.

¤=[Post Update]=¤

http://kauilapele.wordpress.com/2012/08/01/benjamin-fulford-7-31-12-full-version-why-the-west-is-now-under-nazi-rule-and-why-the-elite-are-in-denial-the-best-available-intelligence-at-this-point-still-indicates-that-this-autumn-will-b/#more-13629

Benjy Fulford's latest view of it all with an extract here (full story at link):

The bankers were a harder case to deal with but they did admit that rampant greed and incompetence has thoroughly imperilzaed [imperialized] the entire banking system. They also expressed surprize that mass arrests of prominent bankers had not begun. Until that happens, they said they will continue to “follow the money.”

One thing that all these highly educated and intelligent “elitists” showed is that as soon as the ultimate source of money in the West changes, people with a strong financial interest in the status quo will change their stripes overnight. In other words, they will change their worldview or at least their public worldview to suit whoever controls their paychecks.

That is why the current ruling cabal is doing absolutely everything in their power to prevent the control of the creation and distribution of Euros and dollars to be taken away from them. They know that as soon as that happens, the entire house of cards they have built up will collapse. They will continue to fight, kicking and screaming, to preserve the status quo until the very last.

Nonetheless, as the saying goes, denial is not a river in Africa and the unavoidable fact remains that the historical rights to most of the world’s gold (the ultimate basis of the BIS and central banking in the West) do not belong to the cabalists who have been using them. Even if the Western central banks say they are no longer on a gold standard, they still do not have money because the Western countries as a whole have been borrowing from the rest of the world for the past 30 years. The line of credit that made this possible is now drying up and many Western countries have come to the realization they no longer make very much actual “stuff,” they can use to trade with the rest of the world.

In other words, the vast majority of the world’s money that is backed by physical reality (real estate, factories, commodities, manufactured goods) is no longer under their control and that their fraudulent derivative money is being shunned. The 150 nation BRICS alliance is holding almost all the cards now.

The best available intelligence at this point still indicates that this autumn will be a time of major change. The entire Western financial system may be held together with duct tape and rubber bands until the regime changes expected in China and the US in November. However, there is a big September financial deadline that may force changes sooner than then.

[penn]

I find it interesting that this last page has changed the theme to massive high profile arrests, instead of resignations. This is a major qualitative difference. The lampooning of those who said this will happen will continue for a time though. This thread is not one of the more viewed threads and that is a shame. Sabrina has kindly charted what are significant shifts on this planet with regards to the elite. To be sure, these arrests are of the small fish, the sacrificial lambs so to speak. It is precisely these lambs that provide cover for the real problem. The wolves in sheep clothing hiding amongst them. As the wolves are also out in the open, but camouflaged, they are not the ultimate problem either. One must cross moats and scale walls to get to the castle keep. Right now bodies are being tossed into the moats, a few more and we can cross over and begin scaling the walls.

Have torches and pitchforks handy.:whistle:

I am saddened that this thread is not more viewed. Saddened by the statement it makes and dynamics it reveals.

Yep Modwiz, there's a subtle shift going on isn't there, to real action. Although, I agree that those at the top of the tree have still to be taken down - but it won't go away for Murdoch and his crew by the look of it. And some near the top are being shaken I think.

Reckon this thread is for those who are in it for the long run, and know it wasn't going to go wham bam overnight (well it might now come to think of it). Also, it's not dealing with the fear porn or one liners for instant effect! Or trying to make it too much of a cliquey thing (ahh that's where I'm going wrong :)).... There's stories within stories in a lot of the main stream media stuff being posted, but I reckon there is a certain subtly to it that isn't for everyone and that's fine. Will do the 'told you so' bit when the time's right and use the pitchfork to pop the champagne corks... :) Sab.

¤=[Post Update]=¤

[url]http://kauilapele.wordpress.com/2012/08/01/benjamin-fulford-7-31-12-

The best available intelligence at this point still indicates that this autumn will be a time of major change. The entire Western financial system may be held together with duct tape and rubber bands until the regime changes expected in China and the US in November. However, there is a big September financial deadline that may force changes sooner than then.

What is the big Sept. financial deadline that may force changes sooner?

Thanks again Sabrina!

[Ontarioguy]

I absolutely agree with Modwiz.. this thread deserves to be payed attention to!! As the arrests are increasing in number daily! you bet! I been keepin an eye on this thread and am amazed at Sabrina's dedication!!! Endless thanks to you Sabrina!!! Keep on keepin on !! :)

[Sabrina]

I find it interesting that this last page has changed the theme to massive high profile arrests, instead of resignations. This is a major qualitative difference. The lampooning of those who said this will happen will continue for a time though. This thread is not one of the more viewed threads and that is a shame. Sabrina has kindly charted what are significant shifts on this planet with regards to the elite. To be sure, these arrests are of the small fish, the sacrificial lambs so to speak. It is precisely these lambs that provide cover for the real problem. The wolves in sheep clothing hiding amongst them. As the wolves are also out in the open, but camouflaged, they are not the ultimate problem either. One must cross moats and scale walls to get to the castle keep. Right now bodies are being tossed into the moats, a few more and we can cross over and begin scaling the walls.

Have torches and pitchforks handy.:whistle:

I am saddened that this thread is not more viewed. Saddened by the statement it makes and dynamics it reveals.

Yep Modwiz, there's a subtle shift going on isn't there, to real action. Although, I agree that those at the top of the tree have still to be taken down - but it won't go away for Murdoch and his crew by the look of it. And some near the top are being shaken I think.

Reckon this thread is for those who are in it for the long run, and know it wasn't going to go wham bam overnight (well it might now come to think of it). Also, it's not dealing with the fear porn or one liners for instant effect! Or trying to make it too much of a cliquey thing (ahh that's where I'm going wrong :)).... There's stories within stories in a lot of the main stream media stuff being posted, but I reckon there is a certain subtly to it that isn't for everyone and that's fine. Will do the 'told you so' bit when the time's right and use the pitchfork to pop the champagne corks... :) Sab.

¤=[Post Update]=¤

http://kauilapele.wordpress.com/2012/08/01/benjamin-fulford-7-31-12-

The best available intelligence at this point still indicates that this autumn will be a time of major change. The entire Western financial system may be held together with duct tape and rubber bands until the regime changes expected in China and the US in November. However, there is a big September financial deadline that may force changes sooner than then.

What is the big Sept. financial deadline that may force changes sooner?

Thanks again Sabrina!



Yes what is this September date?? Any clues you financially unchallenged Avalonians?

This may come into play (via Ron Paul):

http://goldnews.bullionvault.com/audit-the-fed-080120122
1 Aug


LAST WEEK the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed my legislation calling for a full and effective audit of the Federal Reserve, writes Congressman Ron Paul.

Well over 300 of my Congressional colleagues supported the bill, each casting a landmark vote that marks the culmination of decades of work. We have taken a big step toward bringing transparency to the most destructive financial institution in the world.

But in many ways our work is only beginning. Despite the Senate Majority Leader's past support for similar legislation, no vote has been scheduled on my bill this year in the Senate. And only 29 Senators have cosponsored Senator Rand Paul's version of my bill in the other body. If your Senator is not listed at the link above, please contact them and ask for their support. We need to push Senate leadership to hold a vote this year.

Understand that last week's historic vote never would have taken place without the efforts of millions of Americans like you, ordinary citizens concerned about liberty and the integrity of our currency. Political elites respond to political pressure, pure and simple. They follow rather than lead. If all 100 Senators feel enough grassroots pressure, they will respond and force Senate leadership to hold what will be a very popular vote.

In fact, "Audit the Fed" is so popular that 75% of all Americans support it according to this Rasmussen poll. We are making progress.

Of course Fed apologists – including Mr. Bernanke – frequently insist that the Fed already is audited. But this is true only in the sense that it produces annual financial statements. It provides the public with its balance sheet as a fait accompli: we see only the net results of its financial transactions from the previous fiscal year in broad categories, and only after the fact.

We're also told that the Dodd-Frank bill passed in 2010 mandates an audit. But it provides for only a limited audit of certain Fed credit facilities surrounding the crisis period of 2008. It is backward looking, which frankly is of limited benefit.

The Fed also claims it wants to be "independent" from Congress so that politics don't interfere with monetary policy. This is absurd for two reasons.

First, the Fed already is inherently and unavoidably political. It made a political decision when it chose not to rescue Lehman Brothers in 2008, just as it made a political decision to provide liquidity for AIG in the same time period. These are just two obvious examples.

Also Fed member banks and the Treasury Department are full of former – and future – Goldman Sachs officials. Are we really to believe that the interests of Goldman Sachs have absolutely no effect on Fed decisions? Clearly it's naïve to think the Fed somehow is above political or financial influence.

Second, it's important to remember that Congress created the Fed by statute. Congress therefore has the full, inherent authority to regulate the Fed in any way – up to and including abolishing it altogether.

My bill provides for an ongoing, thorough audit of what the Fed really does in secret, which is make decisions about the money supply, interest rates, and bailouts of favored banks, financial firms, and companies. In other words, I want the Government Accountability Office to examine the Fed's actual monetary policy operations and make them public.

It is precisely this information that must be made public because it so profoundly affects everyone who holds, saves, or uses US Dollars.

¤=[Post Update]=¤

[url]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19088300
2 AUG

Euro crisis: ECB to meet amid bond intervention hopes

The European Central Bank (ECB) will hold its latest meeting amid much speculation that it will take action to bring down Spain's cost of borrowing.

ECB president Mario Draghi has said he is ready to do "whatever it takes" to support the euro, prompting a rally in shares and the single currency.

Fears that Spain will need a bailout have prompted speculation that the ECB will take unprecedented steps to help.

One commentator told the BBC that it was "crunch time for the euro".

David Llewellyn, vice chairman of the Banking Stakeholder Group at the European Banking Authority, said: "Expectations are very high, the markets recognise that past measures simply haven't worked.

"Above all if nothing is done to lower and stabilise the borrowing costs of countries like Spain and Italy then their future within the euro must be in question."

Mr Draghi will hold a news conference later on Thursday.


A decision on whether to help Spain will come as the central bank decides on interest rates. In July, the ECB cut its key rate from 1% to 0.75%, a record low for the eurozone.

On Wednesday, the US Federal Reserve took no further steps to boost the economy - as some observers had predicted - but said that it "will provide additional accommodation as needed to promote a stronger economic recovery".

Resume bond-buying?
At a conference in London last week marking the start of the Olympics, Mr Draghi said: "Within our mandate, the ECB is ready to do whatever it takes to preserve the euro. And believe me, it will be enough."

Many investors took that to be a hint that the ECB might restart its Securities Markets Programme (SMP).


That, in turn, allows indebted eurozone governments to borrow money at rates much lower than those offered in the commercial bond markets.

The last SMP purchase took place at the end of January. Since then, Mr Draghi has repeatedly reiterated his resistance to large-scale bond purchases.

There is also speculation that the eurozone's current bailout fund - with the ECB as its agent - will buy government bonds at auction to drive down the Spanish government's actual cost of borrowing.

But there is controversy around any such plan as the ECB is forbidden from lending money to European governments under its constitution. It faces opposition from Germany, its biggest funder.

Earlier this week, the Bundesbank - the German central bank which holds a seat on the ECB's council - took the unusual step of posting an English translation of an interview with its president Jens Weidmann from a month ago.

It said that the ECB should be aware that its independence "also requires it to respect, and not overstep, its own mandate".

[danceblackcatdance]

yep i'm still here reading too... continued big thanks Sabrina for the diligence :)

[Sabrina]

Bankers Arrested In Iceland, Ireland, UK, USA, Switzerland, India, France, Russia, Austria.

dmOZ3jtGtCc

[Rollo]

Me too Sabrina, thank you for your effort to bring all this info together in one thread.

Much love,
Rollo

[Sabrina]

3 Million Of America's Most Vulnerable Homeowners Are On The Brink Of Foreclosure


As many as 3 million American seniors, arguably the most vulnerable consumers in the country, are on the brink of losing their home, according to a recent AARP study.

In its report "Nightmare on Main Street," the group looked at the mortgage crisis' effect on the over-50 sect for the first time. As the title suggests, the outlook is far from bright.

Americans over the age of 50 accounted for 3.5 million underwater home loans as of December 2011––about 16 percent of all loans issued to that age group.

"The homeownership experience has changed from the American dream to the American nightmare for millions of older homeowners," the report says. "The collapse of the housing market that began in 2006 continues to be reflected in rising numbers of mortgage delinquencies and foreclosures."

Between 2007 and 2011, 1.5 million older Americans lost their homes to foreclosure during the mortgage crisis, while the foreclosure rate for homeowners over age 50 ballooned from from 0.3 percent in 2007 to 2.9 percent in 201. For those with seriously delinquent loans – those in foreclosure or more than 90 days past due, the percentage went from from 1.1 percent in 2007 to 6.0 percent in 2011.
And the older the homeowner, the more susceptible to foreclosure they are, the report shows, with the biggest jump in mortgage debt occurring in those over age 75.

"The collapse of the housing market has been especially painful for older homeowners," said Debra Whitman, AARP Executive Vice President for Policy. "Older homeowners often rely on their home equity to finance their needs in retirement – things like health care, home maintenance and other unexpected needs. The fact that so many older Americans have no equity at all is troubling."

The group pins most of the blame on public policy programs it says have been "inadequate" in helping older consumers out of unhealthy mortgage situations.


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/3-million-of-americas-most-vulnerable-homeowners-are-on-the-brink-of-foreclosure-2012-7#ixzz22NauRVb7

[Sabrina]

Well that used to be the opinion, but evidence is starting to show that might no longer be the case :)... Probably scary for a hedge manager to even envision - but we're made of stronger stuff :)...

http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/economic-intelligence/2012/07/30/why-big-banks-are-above-the-law

Why Big Banks Are Above the Law

James Rickards is a hedge fund manager in New York City and the author of “Currency Wars: The Making of the Next Global Crisis” from Portfolio/Penguin. Follow him on Twitter at @JamesGRickards.

Two developments in the banking industry with roots in the 1980s have now converged to give immunity to bankers for their criminal acts including mortgage fraud, accounting fraud, and LIBOR rate-rigging.

The first has to do with the consequences of a financial institution being charged with a crime. In the 1980s, Drexel Burnham was one of the largest and most powerful banks on Wall Street and the home of junk bond king Michael Milken and his hostile takeover empire. Drexel worked side-by-side with corporate raiders, hedge fund managers, and bond buyers to shake established company managers to the core and show that no one was safe from a debt-financed takeover backed by Milken. Behind this machine was a web of securities fraud and insider trading that was under investigation by the U.S. government. Beginning in 1986, Drexel suffered a series of individual and firm indictments and civil enforcement actions including some aimed at Milken himself. In December 1988, Drexel pleaded no contest to six felony charges and paid one of the largest fines in corporate history.

Then a curious thing happened. Over the course of a single day in February 1990, Drexel's short-term secured financing in the repo market evaporated. Drexel collapsed suddenly not because of a government indictment, but due to a run on the bank. The criminal cases against Drexel and Milken had caused a loss of confidence by the rest of Wall Street. Drexel was unable to leave its past behind and the firm succumbed to a criminal legacy.

[See a collection of political cartoons on the economy.]

The following year the king of Treasury securities dealers, Salomon Brothers, found itself involved in a criminal plot to rig the Treasury note market. Again, a run on the bank commenced and Salomon's balance sheet collapsed by two thirds in a matter of weeks. This time the outcome was different. The Treasury and Federal Reserve decided that two major bankruptcies in two years might be more than the system could bear. Warren Buffett was recruited as a white knight to refinance Salomon and a new management team including a former Treasury general counsel was brought in to put a clean face on the company. Salomon was spared. The lesson of Drexel and Salomon was that when banks face criminal prosecution, they also risk collapse.

The second development was the rise of the "too big to fail" doctrine. Many observers believe too big to fail is a product of the 2008 panic and TARP bailout, but the policy is much older. In 1984, Continental Illinois, the seventh largest bank in the United States, suffered a run on the bank. Contrary to established regulatory practice of bank closure or purchase by another bank, the regulators provided open bank assistance. In defending this action, the comptroller of the Currency explicitly stated that it was the policy of the United States not to let any of the 11 largest banks in the country fail. By 2011, that list had expanded to 29 firms including Citibank, J.P. Morgan, and Bank of America.

Now consider how these two developments work when applied together. The government knows that banks that are prosecuted may fail. They also know that some banks are too big to fail. It follows that some banks are too big to prosecute. They are above the law. Too big to fail means too big to jail.

Consider further that bankers know this. They know they are above the law and act accordingly. Normally, the prospect of being rousted out of bed at 5:00 a.m. and led away in handcuffs by FBI special agents in the full glare of television news lights is enough of a deterrent to keep even the greediest bankers in bounds. Yet, knowing they are immune from prosecution increases the temptation to engage in various kinds of fraud. When this green light for fraud is combined with heads-I-win, tails-you-lose gambling financed by federal deposit insurance, it's no wonder banks are engaged in institutionalized serial criminality not seen since the heyday of the Mafia in the 1950s.

[Read the U.S. News Debate: Does the J.P. Morgan Loss Prove the Need for Tougher Bank Regulations?]

Government has tried to finesse this dilemma using deferred prosecution agreements. These are basically deals where the government announces criminal charges but agrees not to go forward with the prosecution provided the bank pays fines, changes management, and keeps its nose clean for a year or more. If new crimes are committed in that time period, the deferred criminal charges spring back to life. It's a way to highlight alleged crimes without actually causing a run on the bank.

Expect to see such deferred prosecution agreements in the LIBOR scam cases. Also expect some individual arrests, perhaps soon, but only when the public has been carefully prepared and it has been made clear that these are "rouge" individuals and not the bank itself being charged with a crime.

At least that's some accountability. Yet, the larger problem remains. Unless banks are allowed to fail, whether it be for mismanagement or crimes, the feeling of being above the law will remain. The government reinforces that arrogance by its failure to prosecute. In the end, those who don't enforce the law are just as much to blame for bank crimes as the pinstriped perpetrators.

Read John Vogel: Can Eminent Domain Save Underwater Homeowners?
Check out Economic Intelligence on Twitter at @EconomicIntel.
Check out U.S. News Weekly: an insider's guide to politics and policy.

[Sabrina]

http://www.freewoodpost.com/2012/07/28/anonymous-hacks-irs-database-publishes-romney-tax-returns/

Anonymous Hacks IRS Database — Publishes Romney Tax Returns

Late last night, the mysterious group of hackers known as Anonymous successfully hacked the main database for the Internal Revenue Service. The group appeared to have a singular target- Republican Presidential nominee Mitt Romney. Romney has been criticized by both parties for his failure to produce more than one past tax return. According to Ann Romney on ABC’s “Good Morning America” they had no intention of ever disclosing the contents on those returns: “We’ve given all you people need to know and understand about our financial situation and how we live our life”. Anonymous however, seems to have thought that we “the people” might want to know a little more about the man who seeks the White House.

The Anonymous attack successfully retrieved 25-years worth of Romney’s tax returns and published them without permission on major websites throughout the Internet. The majority of these websites removed the returns within minutes, however it was too late to completely protect the candidate’s already tainted image. We at Free Wood Post were able to examine Romney’s 2008 tax return and found that he had good reason to fear its release. The 2008 return paints a picture of an extraordinarily wealthy man, whose low tax rate and bizarre itemized deductions will surely raise many questions as to his suitability to be President.

Romney campaign spokeswoman Andrea Saul stated last week that “there has been no year in which Romney paid zero taxes”. In 2008, this was true. He earned $23,425,316 and paid $412.18 in federal income taxes. This calculates to a federal tax rate of 0.0018%. How did Romney get his tax burden so low? According to his return, he had approximately $23,407,000 in itemized deductions. These deductions ranged from $78,923 for “Toupee Creators Unlimited” and $41,826 for “Spray-on tan services” to a $3.8 million dollar write-off for a trip to Las Vegas with potential campaign donors. The Romney family also paid salaries to their numerous employees including, two yacht captains, three pilots for their private jets, two professional dog walkers, one toupee stylist and a “live-in contortionist”. What someone does with a live-in contortionist, one can only speculate. However, the $891,064 Romney spent on an “EWS Donor Party at the Pennsylvania Mansion” might give us a clue. While the return does not indicate what “EWS” stands for, given that the deducted supplies for the party included “Venetian masks, alcohol, lubricant and various Egyptian leather accessories” it was most likely an “Eyes Wide Shut” party.

In addition to his wild nights, Romney also deducted health related expenses. These included $127,000 for Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for a condition termed “Pseudologia fantastica” also known as Compulsive Liar Syndrome. This may explain why the Republican nominee’s views seem to change dramatically depending on his audience. In fact, his recent string of political gaffes may be the direct result of his inability to keep up with the many competing “truths” he has spoken over the past year. According to noted Psychiatrist Bryan King, “Pathological liars seem utterly sincere about their lies, but if confronted with facts to the contrary, will often just as sincerely reverse their story.” According to Politifact, a news organization that researches the veracity of politician’s statements, only 16% of Romney’s examined statements were found to be completely true.

While the 2008 tax return only gives us a brief glimpse into the life of Mitt Romney, it is unlikely that the other 24 years would have given us his complete financial picture. Given that Romney has several secret tax havens in the Cayman Islands, Bermuda and until recently Switzerland, we will likely never know the extent of his holdings or of the other unorthodox appetites he quenches with that money. However, the Anonymous hack did succeed in giving Americans a better understanding of the Republican candidate.

[danceblackcatdance]

http://www.freewoodpost.com/2012/07/28/anonymous-hacks-irs-database-publishes-romney-tax-returns/

Anonymous Hacks IRS Database — Publishes Romney Tax Returns

... We at Free Wood Post were able to examine Romney’s 2008 tax return and found that he had good reason to fear its release. The 2008 return paints a picture of an extraordinarily wealthy man, whose low tax rate and bizarre itemized deductions will surely raise many questions as to his suitability to be President.

Romney campaign spokeswoman Andrea Saul stated last week that “there has been no year in which Romney paid zero taxes”. In 2008, this was true. He earned $23,425,316 and paid $412.18 in federal income taxes. This calculates to a federal tax rate of 0.0018%. How did Romney get his tax burden so low? According to his return, he had approximately $23,407,000 in itemized deductions.

wouldn't this make him extremely suitable to be president, its obvious he's a bloody accounting / budget genius.. sort the US financial probs quick smart :)

[Sabrina]

http://www.sharecast.com/cgi-bin/sharecast/story.cgi?story_id=20272631

2 Aug UK

RBS to be fined for IT mishap, mis-selling scandals


LONDON (SHARECAST) - Royal Bank of Scotland is expected to incur a 300m-pound one-off charge in relation to IT breakdowns at Natwest and two mis-selling scandals.

According to an exclusive report by Mark Kleinman, the City Editor of Sky News, the bank will reveal details of the financial impact from these issues on Friday when it releases its first-half results.

The IT meltdown in June, which resulted in millions of customers of RBS and Natwest being unable to access their cash, will see the bank take a £125m charge relating to compensation and costs to improve its computer systems.

In regards to the payment protection insurance (PPI) mis-selling scandal, the bank is expected to increase its provisions for compensating victims by around £130m, taking the total hit to £1.2bn, of which the rest was recognised in the lender's results last year.

Meanwhile, the provisions for compensating small businesses that were wrongfully sold expensive interest rate hedging products is thought to total £50m. Barclays, meanwhile, revealed last week that it took a £450m hit in the first quarter for that issue.

Shares were trading 5.23% lower at 204.13p by 14:37 on Thursday, pressured down further by rumours that the government, which already owns an 83% stake, is considering nationalising the bank in an effort to kick-start lending to businesses.

[Sabrina]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/9447274/Kofi-Annan-resigns-as-Syria-envoy.html

2 Aug

Kofi Annan resigns as Syria envoy

Kofi Annan, the former United Nations secretary general, conceded the failure of diplomacy to resolve Syria’s conflict when he announced his resignation as international peace envoy today.

Mr Annan, who had served as the joint envoy of the UN and the Arab League, will step down at the end of August. There was no word on any possible successor. Ban Ki-Moon, the UN secretary general, announced the impending departure with “deep regret”.
Mr Annnan, who was appointed in February, devised a six-point peace plan designed to resolve Syria’s civil war. In theory, this proposal commanded the united support of the UN Security Council, the Arab League – and President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

However, both sides in Syria’s civil war ignored the plan. The ceasefire and separation of forces demanded under point 2 were never implemented. A UN mission sent to Syria to monitor the supposed ceasefire was attacked several times, forcing it to withdraw most of its observers for their own safety.

full story at link - but no doubt the full story is sadly not at the link at all :)..

[Sabrina]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/9447803/Court-rejects-Barclays-move-to-delay-Libor-test-case.html

2 Aug UK

Court rejects Barclays move to delay Libor test case

Barclays has failed in an attempt to delay a legal claim over allegations it mis-sold an interest rate swap to a care home operator.


Barclays is facing its first court battle over Libor-rigging allegations after losing an attempt to have a case delayed over claims it mis-sold an interest rate hedge to a business customer.

Judge Simon Brown QC yesterday rejected Barclays’ move to have a mis-selling claim brought by care home operator Guardian Care Homes pushed back and ordered the bank to file a defence by the end of next week.

Mr Brown said Barclays request to have the case delayed until Guardian’s claim had been investigated as part of an Financial Services Authority compensation scheme was an “impossible argument”.

“We just do not know if the scheme [the FSA compensation process] will include the claimants, or even know who is a skilled person. Some cases need to be litigated and I have a duty decide which,” said Mr Brown.

The Guardian claim, which is being heard at Birmingham Mercantile Court, is seen as an important test case for the thousands of businesses that are thought to have potentially been mis-sold complex interest rate derivatives by banks, including HSBC, Lloyds and Royal Bank of Scotland, as well as Barclays.

The case is also seen as important as it contains specific allegations that Barclays’ attempts to manipulate Libor cost it thousands of pounds in extra payments.

“Today was a cynical attempt by Barclays to avoid responding to the allegations they face both with swap mis-selling, but also Libor. To say that the FSA redress scheme is in a position to provide us with fair justice is laughable and I am delighted the court has recognised that,” said Gary Hartland, chief executive of Guardian Care Homes.

[Sabrina]

MILAN/FRANKFURT | Tue Jul 31, 2012 4:42pm BST
(Reuters) - Italian police have searched the Milan offices of Barclays as part of widening international investigations into alleged rigging of global interest rates, judicial sources and consumer groups said on Tuesday.

Barclays has been fined over $450 million by U.S. and British authorities for manipulating Libor benchmark rates, which are used to set prices for trillions of dollars of financial products across the globe. Its chief executive Bob Diamond was forced to quit over the scandal.

More than a dozen lenders, including UBS and Deutsche Bank, are being probed worldwide by investigators looking at whether Libor, which is priced in pounds, and other global benchmark rates were rigged.

The search at Barclays' Milan offices took place last Friday and was ordered by prosecutors in the southern city of Trani who earlier this month opened a criminal probe over suspected aggravated fraud and market manipulation, the sources said.

The Italian probe - one of a series of investigations in Europe, the United States and Japan - is focusing on Euribor, Libor's counterpart in euros and the base for mortgage rates in the country. The probe was started following complaints filed by consumer groups Adusbef and Federconsumatori.

The two groups said in a joint statement that documents, computer material and emails were seized at Barclays Milan offices "with the aim of looking for evidence that Barclays also manipulated Euribor, as it did with Libor, with a negative impact on mortgage rates paid by Italians."

Barclays declined to comment.

The judicial sources told Reuters neither Barclays nor any other bank had been put under formal investigation by the Trani prosecutors, who have made a speciality of high-profile investigations of international financial institutions.

The office is investigating the big ratings agencies, Moody's, Standard and Poor's and Fitch over their downgrades of Italy's sovereign rating.

Adusbef and Federconsumatori estimate 2.5 million Italian households may have been hurt by the alleged lending rate manipulation, estimating the total financial damage at 3 billion euros.

"Those responsible for financial manipulations will have to pay for their mistakes," Adusbef's president Elio Lannutti told Reuters.

DEUTSCHE PROBE CLEARS MANAGEMENT

Forty-three banks, including Italian lenders Intesa Sanpaolo, UniCredit, Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena and UBI Banca, sit on the Euribor panel, which is hosted by the European Banking Federation.

In Germany, Deutsche Bank said the initial findings of an internal probe into the rigging of rates had found no wrongdoing by management board members.

"Based on current findings, no current or former member of the management board was in any way inappropriately involved in the incidents surrounding interest rates," the bank's supervisory board chairman Paul Achleitner said in a letter to employees.

The bank said the probe had shown that "a small number of employees" had engaged in behaviour which did not meet the standards of the bank, without being more specific.

Three people close to the investigation told Reuters last week that the internal probe found former traders may have been involved in colluding to manipulate global benchmark interest rates but there was no indication of failure at the top of the bank.

With the threat of more banks possibly facing fines and lengthy legal battles, UBS said it had appropriate provisions for all litigation.

Specifically, UBS, which has previously admitted probes into the yen and Swiss franc Libor and euroyen Tibor, has secured leniency from some justice authorities in return for cooperating with probes into the setting of Libor.

UBS signalled its exposure to Libor probes is limited to the three reference rates, and not others such as the Euribor, where several banks are said to be cooperating with EU antitrust regulators.

[Alie]

I find it interesting that this last page has changed the theme to massive high profile arrests, instead of resignations. This is a major qualitative difference. The lampooning of those who said this will happen will continue for a time though. This thread is not one of the more viewed threads and that is a shame. Sabrina has kindly charted what are significant shifts on this planet with regards to the elite. To be sure, these arrests are of the small fish, the sacrificial lambs so to speak. It is precisely these lambs that provide cover for the real problem. The wolves in sheep clothing hiding amongst them. As the wolves are also out in the open, but camouflaged, they are not the ultimate problem either. One must cross moats and scale walls to get to the castle keep. Right now bodies are being tossed into the moats, a few more and we can cross over and begin scaling the walls.

Have torches and pitchforks handy.:whistle:

I am saddened that this thread is not more viewed. Saddened by the statement it makes and dynamics it reveals.

Well one thing Modwiz --- those of us who are regulars on this thread have a VERY WELL Rounded view thanks to Sabrina. Great minds think alike.

[Sabrina]

http://the2012scenario.com/2012/08/is-coca-cola-being-thrown-out-of-bolivia-on-december-21-2012/#more-137793

Is Coca-Cola Being Thrown Out of Bolivia on December 21, 2012?


Stephen: This story has become more bizarre as the day has evolved. And although it may yet prove to be another Icelandic situation (where possibly misleading reports suggested one thing – that mortgage forgiveness had been declared – but the local government could, or would, not confirm that this was the case) something tells me this one may have some underlying thread of truth to it…

First up, True Activist, see Story 1 below (Thanks to Les), reported that Coca-Cola was being ‘told’ to leave Bolivia by December 21, this year.

According to that report, the country’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, David Choquehuanca, announced this was a decision which had been made to celebrate the end of the Mayan calendar – signifying the end of capitalism.

Then, in an surprising move, Forbes.com also ran a similar story, in great detail. Also quoting Mr Choquehuanca, and running a large photo of him. See Story 2 below.

Then, later today, The Huffington Post – Story 3 – came out with an opposing story saying that the Bolivian government had said that this view – that Coca Cola would leave Bolivia by December 21 – was the Foreign Minister’s personal wish and/or that this had been taken ‘out of context’. Interestingly, The Huffington Post story also linked the Mayan calendar to ‘the end of the world” and the word ‘apocalypse’.

Yet, something tells me that there could very well be some substance to the first two stories – in light of the ever-rising world consciousness and the forward-thinking ways of the BRICS group (which includes many South American countries) but that this ‘news’ wasn’t supposed to have been announced yet. Or, at least, ‘someone’ didn’t want it to be announced.

The reason I say this, is because the Foreign Minister still has his job and he doesn’t appear to have been admonished by his party, or his leader, who has gently responded that the original story from the Foreign Minister is simply: ‘his personal wish”… Fascinating,

And so, I have included all three stories for you to read. Whatever is the truth, it is intriguing that both sides of this story have now been picked up and spread very quickly right around the world. In both alternate and mainstream media.

P.S. Please also remember that Mayan calendar researcher and author, Carl Calleman, believes that the Mayan calendar ended on October 28 last year; while many others believe it finishes on December 21 this year.

three articles from True Activist, Forbes and Huffington Post at the link...

[Sabrina]

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/toronto-police-sued-1-4-million-wrongful-arrest-illegal-detention-sexual-assault-2010-g20-summit-article-1.1128219

3 August Canada

Toronto police sued for $1.4 million for wrongful arrest, illegal detention and sexual assault during 2010's G20 summit

A group of protestors filed a litany of allegations against the Toronto police, including the charge that they profiled anyone wearing black and women with hairy legs.

The Toronto police face massive injustice allegations that, if proven true, could cost the force more than a million dollars.
A group of protestors is suing the Toronto police for $1.4 million for wrongful arrest, illegal detention and sexual assault. The group of seven protestors arrested at a G20 summit in 2010 accused the police of profiling people with black clothing or backpacks, as well as women with hairy legs. Their attorney submitted a 44-page statement detailing the group's many allegations against the Toronto police.

[Sabrina]

Banking woes...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19107542

3 Aug UK

RBS boss admits banks became 'detached from society

Banks became "detached from society" and still need to reconnect with their customers, the chief executive of Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has admitted.

In an interview with the BBC's Today programme, Stephen Hester said the industry was "coming down to earth with a bump" following recent scandals.

He added that the UK could not afford "blasting it to smithereens" because of the vital role banks played.

However, he also said further problems at the banks may be discovered.

Mr Hester was speaking after RBS reported a half-year loss of £1.5bn.

The bank also confirmed on Friday that it would put aside £125m to pay compensation to customers affected by the recent breakdown in its computer systems.

Account holders at RBS and its NatWest and Ulster Bank subsidiaries faced disruption for up to two weeks in June after a software upgrade at the bank.

more at link

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19074674

1 Aug France

Societe Generale profits hit by eurozone debt crisis

French bank Societe Generale has posted a sharp fall in second quarter profits as the economic slowdown across Europe hit its investment banking division.

SocGen's share price has taken a beating in the past year

Net profit was 433m euros ($533m; £340m), down 42% on the 747m euros the bank made a year earlier. This was well below analysts' expectations.



Underlying revenue fell 7% to 6bn euros, largely due to a 28% fall in investment banking revenue.

The eurozone debt crisis has hit profits at many of Europe's top banks.

more at link

and

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19059303

31 July Switzerland

Facebook share issues hit UBS results

UBS lost $356m on Facebook's initial public offering after its stake plunged 39% in value


Swiss bank UBS lost 349m Swiss francs ($356m) due to problems with the launch of Facebook shares, more than halving its profit.

UBS blamed the Nasdaq exchange's "gross mishandling" of the flotation and said it would be seeking compensation.

more at link

and

3 Aug

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-03/draghi-heads-toward-fed-style-qe-bond-purchase-plan-euro-credit.html

Draghi Heads Toward Fed-Style QE Bond-Purchase Plan: Euro Credit

The European Central Bank is edging toward a bond-buying program that investors say could end up printing money, echoing efforts by the Federal Reserve and other central banks to fix a credit crisis nearing its sixth year.

ECB President Mario Draghi yesterday left open the question on whether the bank would neutralize future bond purchases, a step it has taken with all of its interventions to date. He also said the size of the new program would be “adequate to reach its objective” of curbing Italian and Spanish borrowing costs, a contrast with the “limited” scope of the previous approach.

“You shouldn’t assume that we will not sterilize or sterilize,” he told reporters in Frankfurt. Spanish and Italian bonds slumped as Draghi steered clear of spelling out all the full details of his plan, which is being resisted by Germany’s Bundesbank. Spain’s 10-year borrowing cost jumped 17 basis points to 7.33 percent at 8:17 a.m. London time.

“Bit by bit over the past two years, the ECB and all of the euro-region governments have been capitulating,” said Neil Williams, chief economist at Hermes Fund Management, which oversees 29.3 billion pounds ($46 billion) of assets, including government bonds. “I sense from Draghi’s comments he is inching toward QE and now trying to get other ECB members to sign that off. It seems to me inevitable.”
The Fed bought $2.3 trillion of mortgage and Treasury debt from 2008 to 2011 in two rounds of so-called quantitative easing to cap borrowing costs. The ECB has bought about 220 billion euros ($268 billion) of European government debt through the Securities Market Program it announced in May 2010, though it sterilized those purchases by taking the cash back as deposits to avoid stoking inflation, and hasn’t used the SMP since March.

Bundesbank Objections
Draghi said “risk premia” in the bond market “need to be addressed in a fundamental manner,” and details of the plan would be fleshed out in coming weeks in consultation with governments. “It is clear and it is known that Mr. Weidmann and the Bundesbank have their reservations about programs that buy bonds,” Draghi said, referring to Jens Weidmann, head of the German central bank.
The ECB said July 31 that it drained 211.5 billion euros in seven-day term deposits to neutralize the liquidity created by its government bond purchase program. About 72 banks submitted bids totaling 463 billion euros, up from 397.5 billion euros at a previous operation. The marginal rate on the term deposits was 0.02 percent.

“It does seem that the ECB is inching closer towards pushing the button on some version of QE, though details are still somewhat hazy,” said Craig Veysey, head of fixed income at Principal Investment Management Ltd. in London, part of Sanlam Group, which oversees $72 billion.

‘Pyrrhic Victory’
Draghi said that any bond purchases would focus on short- dated securities, leading Spanish and Italian notes to outperform. The yield difference between Spain’s two-year notes and 10-year bonds widened 17 basis points to 254 basis points, the most since May. The so-called spread between Italian two- year and 10-year securities reached 276 basis points, the most since March.
Spain’s two-year yield is 4.77 percent, down from as high as 7.15 percent on July 25, though up from a one-year average of 3.77 percent.
ECB purchases would “encourage heavier issuance at the front of the Spanish and to a lesser extent Italian curves,” said Marc Ostwald, a strategist at Monument Securities in London. That risks “exacerbating already burgeoning refinancing issues in the next couple of years, thus quite possibly a pyrrhic victory,” he wrote in a research note.

Moral Hazard
Draghi said countries would have to request help from the European Financial Stability Facility, the euro area’s temporary bailout fund, as a “necessary condition, but it’s not a sufficient condition” for help in curbing bond yields. That would produce a memorandum of understanding ensuring governments don’t shirk their economic responsibilities, according to Mohit Kumar, head of European fixed-income strategy at Deutsche Bank AG in London.

“You can definitely say the argument for not doing the Fed-style QE has weakened now,” Kumar said. “It’s all about moral hazards. The ECB was reluctant to do a Fed-style bond purchase because it’s concerned the approach will reduce pressure on troubled peripheral countries to reform. Now an MOU is required before the ECB can intervene and it’s likely to keep pressure on these countries.”
more at link

[Sabrina]

Sorry now think this is old, but can't delete...

[Mozart]

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-08-02/bofa-says-libor-probe-draws-u-dot-s-dot-subpoenas-on-submissions


Excerpt:


Bank of America Corp. (BAC), the second- biggest U.S. bank, received formal inquiries from investigators pressing their probe into the possible rigging of a key international lending benchmark.

The bank received subpoenas and requests for information from the U.S. Department of Justice, Commodity Futures Trading Commission and U.K. Financial Services Authority, the firm said yesterday in a filing.

[Sabrina]

Now I wonder how this will impact on everything?

http://2012indyinfo.com/2012/08/03/mayan-tablets-released-by-mexican-government/

Mayan Tablets Released by Mexican Government


This is really good news. Because just recently at a recent conference, Dr

. Nassin Haramein gave a presentation with others on previously classified Mayan tablets found by the Mexican government. The government has now released some of the information for humanity, concluding that the events depicted in the tablet could either be an event from the past or an event to take place in the future.The information which has been protected for 80 years was expected to reveal the Mayan beliefs in future catastrophes and wisdom characterized as “shocking,” also the information about Mayan contact with extraterrestrials has been awaited, this has now been verified.

I believe this is very important for humanity, not just for Mexico. And considering that this information has been protected for 80 years, and how important it really is for people to understand the series of events that are coming, and the consequences for all of us.” This is what they stated before the announcement to release this new information. (Raul Julia-Levy)

When asked if the release will involve aliens, mystical elements or doomsday scenarios that have fueled the popular imagination, scientist`s declined to elaborate on that point.

“I’m not allowed to speak about that,” he said. “Everything is going to come out in time, but I can’t comment on aliens or on 2012.

“I can just say that the Mexican government is preparing to tell humanity and the world things that are critical for us, for the way we live, for the way we’ve been handling the planet.” This he said then, now it`s very much verified.

full story and pix at link

[Sabrina]

http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/arxiv/pdf/1107/1107.5728v2.pdf

The network of global corporate control
Stefania Vitali1, James B. Glattfelder1, and Stefano Battiston1⋆
1 Chair of Systems Design, ETH Zurich, Kreuzplatz 5, 8032 Zurich, Switzerland,
⋆corresponding author, email: sbattiston@ethz.ch

Abstract
The structure of the control network of transnational corporations affects global market com- petition and financial stability. So far, only small national samples were studied and there was no appropriate methodology to assess control globally. We present the first investigation of the architecture of the international ownership network, along with the computation of the control held by each global player. We find that transnational corporations form a giant bow-tie struc- ture and that a large portion of control flows to a small tightly-knit core of financial institutions. This core can be seen as an economic “super-entity” that raises new important issues both for researchers and policy makers.
Introduction
A common intuition among scholars and in the media sees the global economy as being domi- nated by a handful of powerful transnational corporations (TNCs). However, this has not been confirmed or rejected with explicit numbers. A quantitative investigation is not a trivial task because firms may exert control over other firms via a web of direct and indirect ownership rela- tions which extends over many countries. Therefore, a complex network analysis [1] is needed in order to uncover the structure of control and its implications. Recently, economic networks have attracted growing attention [2], e.g., networks of trade [3], products [4], credit [5, 6], stock prices [7] and boards of directors [8, 9]. This literature has also analyzed ownership networks [10, 11], but has neglected the structure of control at a global level. Even the corporate governance litera- ture has only studied small national business groups [12]. Certainly, it is intuitive that every large corporation has a pyramid of subsidiaries below and a number of shareholders above. However, economic theory does not offer models that predict how TNCs globally connect to each other. Three alternative hypotheses can be formulated. TNCs may remain isolated, cluster in separated coalitions, or form a giant connected component, possibly with a core-periphery structure. So far, this issue has remained unaddressed, notwithstanding its important implications for policy making. Indeed, mutual ownership relations among firms within the same sector can, in some cases, jeopardize market competition [13, 14]. Moreover, linkages among financial institutions have been recognized to have ambiguous effects on their financial fragility [15, 16].

full article at link.....

I'd have to have a few glasses (or bottles) of pinot grigio to take it on board - but reckon it is to do with the unearthing of what's really going, reaching academic levels as well... phew...

¤=[Post Update]=¤

http://www.redicecreations.com/article.php?id=20936


More on James Holmes and Libor...

[Sabrina]

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/feds-gold-being-audited-us-treasury

The Fed's Gold Is Being Audited... By The US Treasury

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 08/02/2012


When we started reading the LA Times article reporting that "the federal government has quietly been completing an audit of U.S. gold stored at the New York Fed" we couldn't help but wonder when the gotcha moment would appear. It was about 15 paragraphs in that we stumbled upon what we were waiting for: "The process involved about half a dozen employees of the Mint, the Treasury inspector general's office and the New York Fed. It was monitored by employees of the Government Accountability Office, Congress' investigative arm." In other words the Fed's gold is being audited... by the Treasury. Now our history may be a little rusty, but as far as we can remember, the last time the Fed was actually independent of the Treasury then-president Harry Truman fired not one but two Fed Chairmen including both Thomas McCabe as well as the man after whom the Fed's current residence is named: Marriner Eccles, culminating with the Fed-Treasury "Accord" of March 3, 1951 which effectively fused the two entities into one - a quasi independent branch of the US government, which would do the bidding of its "political", who in turn has always been merely a proxy for wherever the money came from (historically, and primarily, from Wall Street), which can pretend it is a "private bank" yet which is entirely subjugated to the crony interests funding US politicians (more on that below). But in a nutshell, the irony of the Treasury auditing the fed is like asking Libor Trade A to confirm that Libor Trader B was not only "fixing" the Libor rate correctly and accurately, but that there is no champagne involved for anyone who could misrepresent it the best within the cabal of manipulation in which the Nash Equilibrium was for everyone to commit fraud.

Far more importantly, for all those financial novices who fail to grasp the simplest relationship between assets and liabilities, the allegation expounded by the "conspiracy theorists", as the LA Times calls them, has never been that the gold at the NY Fed is not there. It is by all means there: after all what safer place to keep it than 80 feet below the Federal Reserve itself, the same Fed which has exclusive access to the 1000+ strong Federeal Reserve Police whose "primary duty is to provide force protection to Federal Reserve facilities. Secondary responsibilities, depending on the particular location, may include liaison work with other law enforcement agencies and/or investigative work related to administrative matters."



And not only the gold belonging to the US: it is well known that the bulk of Europe's sovereign gold is also contained deep under downtown Manhattan: we wish them all the best when they attempt to repatriate the physical when they need it, such as the day after the EUR finally collapses.

No - what the "conspiracy theorists" allege is that claims existing in paper format on the physical gold held under Liberty 33 are orders of magnitude greater than the actual physical gold these claims supposedly have recourse to. Indeed, this too was a conspiracy theory until the failure of MF Global proved it to be a conspiracy "fact" and the entire asset-liability rehypothecation daisy-chain threatened to begin unwinding in November of 2011, at which point forced delivery of hard assets would expose the entire facade of the modern financial system to be a hollow sham.

So unless the Treasury will also conduct a full "audit" of every single paper trail and every physical bar is mapped to all of its existing obligors, then the entire operation is absolutely meaningless and simply a waste of taxpayer money. Because the physical gold may well be there (and furthermore it is the gold at Ft. Knox that was questionable; never the gold held by the Fed, but who cares about details). The problem is if the paper claims on this gold are far greater than the actual deliverable physical gold for that moment when the latest attempt to kick the can down the rehypothecated road finally fails.

Of course, none of the this was addressed in the simplistic LA Times narrative whose sole purposes is to "frame" the issue for those uninformed and on the fence that, look officer, America is proactively doing something to address all those tinfoil hat nut job gold hoarders' allegations that the Fed actually is not in possession of its gold.

Here is what was addressed:

The Treasury Department has refused to disclose what the audit has revealed so far, saying the results will be announced by year's end. But as one former top Fed official said recently, the testing may finally prove that "Goldfinger didn't sneak in at night" and take the gold.

"The calls for audits are saying, 'We don't trust the government for the last 200 years,'" said Ted Truman, a former assistant Treasury secretary and Fed official. He called perennial questions about the country's reserves "the gold bug equivalent of the birther movement."

The Treasury's auditing operation, including drilling, is a first for the New York Fed. The department's inspector general previously audited and tested only gold it keeps under heavy guard at Ft. Knox, West Point and the U.S. Mint in Denver. These three locations hold 95% of the country's bullion.

In New York, about $21 billion in U.S. gold is locked inside the Fed's vault. It's stored alongside bullion from three dozen other countries and organizations such as the International Monetary Fund. All told, about 23% of the world's official gold reserves are stored in the central bank's vaults.
Of course, what attempt at framing would be complete with an actual quite vivid description of the frame.

The process involved about half a dozen employees of the Mint, the Treasury inspector general's office and the New York Fed. It was monitored by employees of the Government Accountability Office, Congress' investigative arm.

The bars were first weighed on a small electronic scale, then transferred to a table mounted with a long, thin drill used to burrow into the gold, said a person familiar with the operation who was not authorized to speak publicly.

Workers were careful to collect any stray gold bits, the source said. Based on the market price of about $1,600 per troy ounce, the Treasury removed more than $110,000 worth of gold samples.

A Mint spokesman said about 1 to 1.5 grams of each sample is destroyed in the assaying process, with the remaining granules returned to the government.
Gasp: will someone think of the sacrifices. Oh wait, that is precisely what one is supposed to think of. And none of what actually matters.

At this point, the Times piece almost grasps what the real issue is, once again courtesy of Ron Paul:

"If the gold is there and everything is in order, they should welcome an audit," Paul said in an interview.
He said he doesn't suspect that anyone has replaced the gold bars with fakes. He's more interested in examining paperwork that would show whether the gold has been used in any transactions that were never disclosed to the public, such as loans to other governments.

He is not alone. In Germany, there have been calls by some politicians to "repatriate" the country's foreign gold reserves and return to a gold standard as the euro common currency faces an uncertain future.

Philipp Missfelder, a prominent German legislator in the country's ruling Christian Democratic Union party, visited the New York Fed in February seeking to inspect his country's gold.

Missfelder was not given access to Germany's gold bars, though it's unclear why, according to German magazine Der Spiegel. He declined to comment.
The LA Times' conclusion redirects however to more important things. Such as the Fed's current role of preserving "ze price stabeeleetee."

These days the New York Fed focuses on more pressing roles: implementing the country's monetary policy by expanding or tightening the money supply. It played a central role in propping up the financial system in 2008.
And so forth. The whole piece can be found here in its entirety.

One thing which will not be found after the jump, however, is this rather extensive explanation of a topic we touched upon: in essence how under the guise of the Fed "gaining its independence" in 1951, the Fed lost all of it.

Below we repost our article from April in which we explained every nuance of the tortured relationship between the Fed, the Treasury, and the US presidency, which finally hits a screeching crescendo in 1951... and afterwards was silent.

From Zero Hedge

Who Is Lying: The Federal Reserve Or... The Federal Reserve? And Why Stalin "Lost"

When one thinks of the early 1950's, things that often come to mind are fries and milkshake, muscle cars, Little Richard, and greased hair. Things that rarely come to mind are that the US and China were openly at war over a little piece of land called Korea, that the Treasury market did not exist, that short and long end rates were "fixed" by the Fed at 0.125% and 2.5% respectively, even as inflation was at the highest it has ever been in the post war period at over 20%. What absolutely never comes to mind, is that on March 3, 1951, the world as we know it changed forever, after a little noted event known as the Fed-Treasury Accord of March 3, 1951 took place, and mutated the role of the Federal Reserve, which set off on a path that would ultimately lead to the disastrous economic state the world finds itself in today.

Oh and another thing that never comes to mind, is that while the current iteration of the Fed, various recent voodoo economic theories, and assorted blogs, all claim that excess bank reserves are never an inflationary threat, it is precisely two Federal Reserve chairmen's heretic claims that reserves will light an inflationary conflagration, that forced then president Truman to eliminate not one but two Fed Chairmen, and nearly result in the "independent" Federal Reserve being subsumed by the Treasury to do its monetization and market manipulation/intervention bidding. Which then begs the question: who is telling the truth about the linkage of reserve accumulation to inflation - the Fed of 1951, or every other Fed since, now firmly under the control of the Treasury-banker syndicate. Because they can not both be right.

Why is March 3, 1951 such an important date? Because, more than anything, the confluence of events that led to the "Accord" signed on this day have extensive parallels to our current situation, as the attached paper by the Federal Reserve of Richmond shows in exquisite detail, yet 100% in reverse.

In a nutshell what happened in the late 1940s and early 1950s was that in the aftermath of WWII, and the outbreak of the Korean war, America found itself in a very odd situation... one never really encountered until today. The country had soaring inflation - as in real inflation, not just core inflation measured by hedonic adjustments and excluding all those thing that actually do go up in price. More importantly, it had the 1950's version of ZIRP - only then it was called a peg, in this case of 0.375%, and subsequently 0.125% on short end Treasurys, and 2.5% on long-dated paper. In other words, the monetary situation in 1951 was one where both the short and long end of the curve were artificially boosted (think ZIRP and Twist), just so holders of Treasury paper (at that time only insurance companies as banks were not allowed to invest in TSYs) did not experience losses and get further "demoralized" in addition to the war that Truman was currently waging.

In fact, the following quote from none other than Truman is as idiotic, yet as valid today, as it was 61 years ago:

[T]he Federal Reserve Board should make it perfectly plain. . . to the New York Bankers that the peg is stabilized....I hope the Board will...not allow the bottom to drop from under our securities. If that happens that is exactly what Mr. Stalin wants. (FOMC Minutes, 1/31/51, p. 9)
And this:

The FOMC met with President Truman late in the afternoon of Wednes- day, January 31.17 Truman began by stating that “the present emergency is greatest this country has ever faced, including the two World Wars and all the preceding wars.. . . [W]e must combat Communist influence on many fronts.. . . [I]f the people lose confidence in government securities all we hope to gain from our military mobilization, and war if need be, might be jeopardized.”
This is arguably the earliest recorded iteration in modern history of a "the world will come to an end unless you don't do what I tell you" type of threat uttered by a member of the administration (ahem Hank Paulson) to a governing body. We will skip commenting on the supreme irony that according to Truman, Stalin would win if the US did not engage in the same central planning that ultimately brought the Soviet empire down.

Yet what is so very different about this date in history, is that while it was the Treasury pushing tooth and nail for endless bond pegging by the Fed (apparently nobody had thought of QE back then yet, because it would have been all the rage), the body warning about the potential threat of runaway inflation from a surge in reserves, as well as the dangers associated with central planning was... The Federal Reserve.

Huh !!??

The same Fed that can not withhold its exuberance in encouraging ZIRP, Twist, LSAP, selling of Treasury Puts, and every other form of market intervention known to man, warning the president these very same actions would lead to ruin? And not only that but Truman being forced to get rid of not just Fed veteran Marriner Eccles (after whom the building in which centrally planned schemes are hatched every single day in yet another supreme irony), but also his successor Thomas McCabe who also refused to follow the precepts of central planning... who in turn was replaced by a Treasury muppet, or someone who will gladly monetize US debt whenever needed, at which point the scene for the final outcome was set.

That is impossible you say. Oh, not only is it impossible but it gets much better.

Because not only did the two veteran Fed chairmen warn against the state's incursion into central planning, but they explicitly said something which the Fed, or at least its modern versions, have rejected over and over, especially during congressional committees: that a build of bank reserves is the surest way to spark hyperinflation.

But....but....but.... this is what fringe tin-foil hat blogs allege.... not Fed chairmen who between them have over 20 years of tenure.

Well, here are the facts:

“We have marched up the hill several times and then marched down again. This time I think we should act on the basis of our unwillingness to continue to supply reserves to the market by supporting the existing rate structure and should advise the Treasury that this is what we intend to do—not seek instructions” (FOMC Minutes, 8/18/50, p. 137).

[Fed member] Sproul would state the idea that a central bank controls inflation through the monetary control made possible by allowing market determination of the interest rate: "[T]he Committee did not in its operations drive securities to any price or yield....[M]arket forces had been the determining factor, and that only in resisting the creation of reserves had the committee been a party to an increase in interest rates. That...was the result of market forces, and not the action of the Committee. (FOMC Minutes, 3/1/51, pp. 125–26)"
In response to Truman's ceaseless demands for pegging interest rates even as inflation was spiking over 20%, NY Fed president Sproul said that...

...this “would make the Federal Reserve System a bureau of the Treasury and, in light of the responsibilities placed in the System by the Congress, would be both impossible and improper” (FOMC Minutes, 1/31/51, p. 23).
In other words, pegging (i.e., ZIRP, Twist, LSAP)... is "impossible and improper"... is unconstitutional another word for it?

In retrospect perhaps we were a little too rought on Mr. Martin, who despite being a Treasury puppet, had these words to say:

In his speech accepting an appointment to the Board of Governors, Martin (1951, p. 377) said:

"Unless inflation is controlled, it could prove to be an even more serious threat to the vitality of our country than the more spectacular aggressions of enemies outside our borders. I pledge myself to support all reasonable measures to preserve the purchasing power of the dollar."
There are those who claim the Fed has become the bankers' puppet. It was not always so. In fact, the bankers loathed the Fed... Until the "Accord"

The banking community contributed to the Fed’s isolation by refusing to support its position. On February 2, the Board had met with the Federal Advisory Council, which represents the views of large banks. At that meeting, Eccles accused bankers of a lack of “courage and realistic leadership” (Board Minutes, 2/20/51, p. 389).

The Executive Committee refused to withdraw the FOMC’s letter to the President. Furthermore, it wrote a defiant letter to Senator O’Mahoney. The initial substantive paragraph began with the famous quote from John Maynard Keynes: “[T]hat the best way to destroy the Capitalist System was to debauch the currency” (FOMC Minutes, 2/14/51, p. 87).
It just gets better, as Marriner Eccles puts it into overdrive:

"We favor the lowest rate of interest on government securities that will cause true investors to buy and hold these securities. Today’s inflation. ... is due to mounting civilian expenditures largely financed directly or indirectly by sale of Government securities to the Federal Reserve.. . . The inevitable result is more and more money and cheaper and cheaper dollars." (FOMC Minutes, 2/7/51, p. 60)
Yet punchline #1:

[We are making] it possible for the public to convert Government securities into money to expand the money supply....We are almost solely responsible for this inflation. It is not deficit financing that is responsible because there has been surplus in the Treasury right along; the whole question of having rationing and price controls is due to the fact that we have this monetary inflation, and this committee is the only agency in existence that can curb and stop the growth of money.. . . [W]e should tell the Treasury, the President, and the Congress these facts, and do something about it....We have not only the power but the responsibility....If Congress does not like what we are doing, then they can change the rules. (FOMC Minutes, 2/6/51, pp. 50–51)
And #2 and final:

Governor Eccles and Representative Wright Patman, who was a populist congressman from Texarkana, Texas, went head-to-head:

Patman: Don’t you think there is some obligation of the Federal Reserve System to protect the public against excessive interest rates?

Eccles: I think there is a greater obligation to the American public to protect them against the deterioration of the dollar.

Patman: Who is master, the Federal Reserve or the Treasury? You know, the Treasury came here first.

Eccles: How do you reconcile the Treasury’s position of saying they want the interest rate low, with the Federal Reserve standing ready to peg the market, and at the same time expect to stop inflation?

Patman: Will the Federal Reserve System support the Secretary of the Treasury in that effort [to retain the 2 1/2 percent rate] or will it refuse?. . . You are sabotaging the Treasury. I think it ought to be stopped.

Eccles: [E]ither the Federal Reserve should be recognized as having some independent status, or it should be considered as simply an agency or a bureau of the Treasury. (U.S. Congress 1951, pp. 172–76)
And there you have it folks, clear as daylight, every aspect of the tension of the "independent" Fed brought to the surface. Because the few men who dared to stand up against Truman, the doctrine of central planning, "pegging" Treasury prices, and the banking cartel whose sole prerogative has always and only been cheap and easy money, all got their just deserts:

Fed president #1:

Eccles also reported in his memoirs that shortly before this event he had completed a letter of resignation to the President. He then decided to postpone his resignation. Eccles had been Chairman of the FOMC from its creation in 1935 until 1948. He did not intend to leave Washington with the Federal Reserve under the control of the Treasury. According to a Truman staff member, Truman had failed to reappoint Eccles as Board Chairman in 1948 to show him “who’s boss” (Donovan 1982, p. 331).
And Fed president #2...

While in the hospital, Snyder conveyed to Truman the message that he felt he could no longer work with McCabe. Without a working relationship with the Treasury, McCabe could not function as Chairman of the Board of Governors. McCabe sent in a bitter letter of resignation, but resubmitted a bland version when asked to do so by the White House. McCabe, however, conditioned his resignation on the requirement that his successor be acceptable to the Fed.
As a reminder Snyder was the Secretary of the Treasury.

And whom did Truman replace McCabe with?

On March 15, the President appointed William McChesney Martin to replace McCabe.
Martin was undersecretary of the Treasury: the same institution that wanted all objectors to central planning scrapped. His position? Quote the Fed:

Truman and Snyder were populists who believed that banks, not the market forces of supply and demand, set interest rates. Truman felt that government had a moral obligation to protect the market value of the war bonds purchased by patriotic citizens. He talked about how in World War I he had purchased Liberty Bonds, only to see their value fall after the war.
Yet by keeping bonds pegged at ridiculously low prices during the late 1940s, and early 1950s, inflation exploded.

And that is what marked the beginning of the end, as while the Fed may have gained its independence, the US presidency, acting on behalf of the banks and populism (to keep capital losses to a minimum) made it all too clear anyone who steps out of line would be fired.

Call it a Stalinist putsch.

Actually hold on, did we say Stalin lost? Perhaps we may need to revise that. And while we got closure on that, we are still confused: is the real seed of inflation in reserves?

"Forced by the rate peg issue to make a stand on the role
of a central bank in creating inflation, Eccles expressed the nature of a
central bank in a fiat money regime. It was not private
speculation or government deficits that caused inflation, but rather
reserves and money creation by the central bank." [The Treasury-Fed Accord: A New Narrative Account, Richmond Fed, Robert L. Hetzel and Ralph F. Leach]
Ok, now we get it.

And should we listen to the Fed or the... Fed?

Read the full absolutely must read Rchmond Fed narrative of the 1951 accord here. We can only hope someone in Congress can ask Bernanke for his take on the allegations made by the man responsible for the name of the current Fed headquarters.

[Sabrina]

Think we could agree with that one.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/9450646/Banks-face-wrenching-times-warns-RBS-chief.html

4 Aug UK

Banks face 'wrenching times' warns RBS chief

RBS chief executive Stephen Hester has warned banks face "wrenching times" in the next few years.

Banks face “wrenching times” after the spate of scandals that have hit lenders this year, according to Stephen Hester, chief executive of Royal Bank of Scotland.

Announcing a £1.5bn pre-tax loss for the first half of the year, Mr Hester said the “go-go year pre-crisis” had left the bailed-out bank and other major lenders with a host of problems they have still yet to deal with fully. “We turn over rocks and find new things we have to deal with,” said Mr Hester, as he pointed to the continuing costs of clearing up legacy problems and compensating customers for past scandals.
“We are in a chastening period for the banking industry,” he said. “The consequences of the sector’s past over-expansion are still being accounted for, probably with some way still to go.”

Mr Hester hit back at suggestions that RBS, which is 82pc owned by taxpayers after taking a £45.5bn state rescue package, should be fully nationalised.

“If there was a political decision to make loans to riskier borrowers ... there are cheaper ways than buying back RBS,” he said.
more at link

[Sabrina]

http://beforeitsnews.com/economy/2012/08/this-is-exactly-what-happened-days-before-911-at-10-am-the-stock-exchange-trading-went-off-the-charts-video-2444664.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

Todays Stock Market Activity Is EXACTLY What Happened Days Before 911, – Video (1 AUg)

By Josey Wales

Today Stock Exchange trading went off the charts with 2000% increases instantly. This is EXACTLY what happened 2 days before 911. It's happening again!

The stock market was already on edge because of the financial crisis in Greece. Images of mobs demonstrating in Athens were fueling an underlying panic. There's a growing fear that a financial collapse in Greece could trigger a wave of financial trouble across Europe (and possibly even the world).

Early in the morning, some stocks swung wildly on unusually high trading volume, after what appeared to be technical miscues. The New York Stock Exchange said it was investigating unusual trades in 140 stocks.

Here are some of the stocks that had astronomical activity at 10AM this morning for no reason. I don't know what the abbreviations stand for, but I do know that at the top of the list is the US Government: This is the same group that increased 800% 1 day before 911 and made BILLIONS OF 911.

Kass also provides a list of stocks that are seeing WAY abnormally high volume compared to normal.
1973% GOV US Equity <- Same govt. funds that made billions off 911 !
Who's increase was 800% 2 days before 911.
1063% PL US Equity
747% MTZ US Equity
672% EXG US Equity
578% N US Equity
518% BG US Equity
420% HOG US Equity
407% TRN US Equity
401% PIR US Equity
388% PPO US Equity
316% KRO US Equity
314% DDD US Equity
305% DOLE US Equity
298% JWN US Equity
262% HLF US Equity
248% MCP US Equity
248% NOK US Equity
247% FRX US Equity
238% FSL US Equity
237% LH US Equity

wnX92IgCgpw


Unusual Option Activity

Listed below are options with unusually high volume for the most recent trading session compared with average daily volume. The relative level of activity is expressed in the daily volume ratio, which represents the current day's volume divided by the average daily volume for the past month.

As Of 12:00 P.M. EDT Wednesday, August 01, 2012


Unusual Call Option Activity (intraday) Unusual Put Option Activity (intraday)
Data provided by SchaeffersResearch.com


http://www.schaeffersresearch.com/streetools/WSJ_Volume_exp_intraday.aspx?criteria=2

more at link

[Sabrina]

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-08-02/post-crisis-iceland-is-test-site-for-too-big-to-fail-prevention#p1

3 AUg

Iceland was brought to the brink of bankruptcy when its biggest banks failed four years ago. Now, the site of the world’s most spectacular financial collapse is becoming a pioneer in banking reform.

“We’ve been burned by this and that’s why we have to look very closely at what we need to do to prevent it happening again,” Economy MinisterSteingrimur J. Sigfusson said in an interview. “Icelanders are more interested in taking greater steps than small steps when it comes to regulating banking.”

His party, the junior member in Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir’s coalition, has submitted a motion to parliament to stop banks using state-backed deposits to finance risky investments. The move puts Iceland on course to become the first western nation since the global financial crisis hit five years ago to force banking conglomerates to split their business.

It’s a proposal that’s gaining traction elsewhere. Even Sanford “Sandy” Weill, whose 1998 creation of New York-based Citigroup Inc. (C) (C) triggered the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act that paved the way for financial behemoths, now says investment banks should be separated from deposit-taking banks. Opponents including JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) (JPM) Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon say diverse businesses are needed to spread risk across divisions and stay competitive.

The Icelandic lawmaker who presented the motion, Alfheidur Ingadottir, says the best way to stop banks creating asset bubbles is to pass laws akin to the 1933 Glass-Steagall Act, which separated commercial and investment banking in the U.S. for more than six decades.

Forced Breakup
The law would force Arion Bank hf, Landsbankinn hf and Islandsbanki hf -- state-engineered successors to the banks that failed -- to break up their operations. Investment banking now makes up less than 5 percent of business at the banks, whose deposits are backed by the Icelandic state. Before the crisis, the ratio was as high as 33 percent at Iceland’s biggest lender, said David Stefansson, an economist at Arion.

Sigfusson, whose ministry oversees the financial industry, wants a “partial, or even complete, separation of commercial and investment banking,” he said. “It’s a way to prevent the riskier parts of banking being mixed with regular day-to-day banking and shouldered by regular customers or taxpayers,” he said.

The government has found support inside Iceland’s banking industry. The head of the island’s biggest investment bank says breaking up financial conglomerates is the most effective crisis prevention tool and one that would have prevented the nation’s meltdown.

Ruinous
“Giving banks too much of a free ride with deposits -- money they don’t need to repay if something goes wrong -- isn’t such a great idea,” Straumur Investment Bank hf Chief Executive Officer Petur Einarsson said in an interview.

Einarsson says Europe should look to Iceland to get a sense of how much damage an overgrown banking system can wreak.

“Europe is today feeling the pain of the same disease Iceland caught in 2008,” he said. “The changes that need to be made should benefit the depositors and businesses served by these financial institutions, rather than the institutions themselves.”

The excesses of Kaupthing Bank hf, Glitnir Bank hf and Landsbanki Islands hf proved ruinous for Iceland’s economy. The banks grew to about 10 times the nation’s total economic output before defaulting on $85 billion in 2008, forcing the government to impose capital controls and to resort to an international bailout.

Risks Overlooked
Kaupthing’s balance sheet ballooned by a factor of 85 between 2000 and 2007 to peak at 5.3 trillion kronur ($44 billion), compared with Iceland’s gross domestic product last year of $13.5 billion. The bank, Iceland’s biggest before it was put under state control in October 2008, opened offices in Luxembourg, New York and Dubai. Its size and complexity relative to the economy made proper risk analysis difficult. Moody’s Investors Service rated the bank A1, its fifth-highest grade, until the day the lender was seized by the state.

The financial regulator also missed the red flags. Iceland’s three biggest banks all had capital adequacy ratios of more than 10 percent of their risk-weighted assets as of the end of June 2008, the Financial Supervisory Authority said in August the same year. All three lenders passed FSA stress tests in a report published two months before they failed.

[Sabrina]

http://www.politico.com/blogs/click/2012/08/roseanne-barr-still-running-for-president-131016.html

3 Aug US

Roseanne Barr still running for president

Comedian Roseanne Barr didn’t win the Green Party nomination for president, but she’s still got her eye on the White House, the LA Times reports:

She announced Thursday that she will run for president on the Peace and Freedom Party ticket. Her running mate, Barr said in a news release, will be Cindy Sheehan, whose son,U.S. Army Spec. Casey Sheehan, was killed in Iraq in 2004. In August 2005, the Gold Star mother mounted a lonely antiwar protest outside President George W. Bush’s ranch in Crawford, Texas.

"The American people are sick and tired of this 'lesser evil’ garbage they get fed every election year,” Barr said via the news release. “Both the Democrats and the Republicans do the same evils once they’re in office. I’m here to tell the voters: if you want to tell the government and the two domineering parties that you’re sick and tired of all their evil, register in the Peace and Freedom Party and vote for me and Cindy.”

In the release, Sheehan, who was vilified by the right for her Crawford vigil, said she was honored to be selected as Barr’s running mate. “I am excited about the chance to infuse the message of socialism with the heart and soul that is missing from political discourse,” she said.

[Sabrina]

More on the audit of the Fed (see Zero Hedge story above, from LA Times story):

http://rt.com/usa/news/ny-fed-audit-gold-839/

Where’s the gold? NY Fed undergoes first-ever audit

A massive trove of gold kept under lock and key five stories under Manhattan at the New York Federal Reserve has been undergoing its first audit in history. It could put conspiracy theories - for example, that the gold is a sham - to sleep for good.

According to the official record, the US government keeps billions of dollars in gold stored beneath the New York Fed's Italian Renaissance fortress around the block from Wall Street.

But conspiracy theorists claim that the gold stock may have been stolen years back in a dramatic caper, that it's been used for backdoor deals with foreign governments, or even that it's been removed and replaced with gold-painted metal bars.

And as many know, the stash has caught the attention of some politicians, most notably Texas Representative Ron Paul.
For years, Paul has called for an independent audit of not only the New York Fed, but of the Federal Reserve Bank as a whole.

But the government hasn't been eager to grant his wish.

In 1981, when Paul served on the Gold Commission – a panel formed by Congress to look into expanding gold's role in the US financial system – he argued for full gold audits to be carried out on an annual basis.

He has proposed legislation for an exhaustive review of all the gold kept on US soil, which includes bullion owned by various foreign governments in addition to America's.

"If the gold is there and everything is in order, they should welcome an audit," Paul said, as quoted by The Los Angeles Times.
Now, things seem to be moving in Paul's direction, at least at the New York Fed – which is by leaps and bounds the largest by assets, and most influential of America's 12 reserve banks.

The US government has been quietly carrying out an audit of all the American-owned gold at the New York Fed. The process involves drilling small holes in about ten per cent, or roughly 350, of the bars to make sure they're pure.

About a half dozen Mint, Treasury Inspector General's Office and New York Fed employees took part in the audit. It's being monitored by the Government Accountability Office, the branch of Congress that wields investigative powers.

Other than that, Treasury officials have thus far refused to provide any details about the operation or its findings. They only say that the results will be announced towards the end of the year.

The New York Fed has also refused to comment.

But one anonymous Fed official, apparently speaking in the direction of conspiracy theorists, quipped recently that the audit will show that "Goldfinger didn't sneak in at night" and take off with the gold.

Though the gold kept at Fort Knox, West Point and the US Mint in Denver, Colorado, have all been audited and tested in the past, the remaining 5 per cent – or about $21 billion – of America's gold, held at the New York Fed, has never been exhaustively checked out.
Taking into consideration the gold owned by other nations, the New York Fed's vaults hold about 23% of the world's official gold reserves.
And even if the audit shows that the gold's all there, it's not likely to satisfy many, including Paul.

He claims he's not concerned with whether the gold is real or fake, but with the paperwork that would outline what it's been used for. Many suspect deals that were never made public, like loans to foreign governments.

The US stopped backing dollars with gold in 1971, bringing an end to the Gold Standard. Today, the gold in vaults across the country carries little weight, so to speak.

To that, Paul suggests that Washington simply get rid of it.
"I would just as soon they sell the gold," he's said. "And then we would find out if they really had it.

[Sabrina]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/03/sec-glitch_n_1738957.html?ref=topbar

3 Aug US

SEC Head Mary Schapiro: Stock Market's Software Glitch 'Unacceptable'

WASHINGTON (AP) — The head of the Securities and Exchange Commission says the agency is reviewing what caused a software glitch that threw the stock market into turmoil Wednesday, calling it "unacceptable."

SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro says technical problems like the one caused by Knight Capital Group illustrate how investor confidence can be shaken. The technical problem briefly put trading of dozens of stocks into chaos.

While the markets must rely on computers, regulators and market officials must still try to reduce the chances of technical errors and limit their impact when they occur, she said.

Schapiro said some of the trading controls put in as a result of the May 6, 2010 "flash crash" helped to limit the impact of Knight's error Wednesday.

[Sabrina]

Another bankers behind bars petition out of the US"

BANKERS BEHIND BARS - Petition To Put Bankers In Jail Passes 350,000 Signatures In Two Days

http://dailybail.com/home/bankers-behind-bars-petition-to-put-bankers-in-jail-passes-3.html

¤=[Post Update]=¤

US - Barofsky: Geithner Said Housing Policies Were "Foaming The Runway For The Banks"



g5uMtZgL1As

[Sabrina]

One American view of it all.....

http://www.blacklistednews.com/Spain_And_Italy_Are_Toast_Unless_Germany_Allows_The_ECB_To_Print_Trillions_Of_Euros/20826/0/38/38/Y/M.html

Spain And Italy Are Toast Unless Germany Allows The ECB To Print Trillions Of Euros

¤=[Post Update]=¤

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/9450986/Debt-crisis-SandP-downgrades-15-Italian-banks.html

3 Aug Italy

Debt crisis: S&P downgrades 15 Italian banks
Ratings agency Standard & Poor's took ratings action on a range of Italian banks tonight, including downgrading 15 financial institutions, citing increased credit risk for the country's economy and banks.


"With Italy facing a potentially deeper and more prolonged recession than we had originally anticipated, we think Italian banks' vulnerability to credit risk in the economy is rising," S&P said in a statement.

"In this context, the combined effect of mounting problem assets and reduced coverage of loan loss reserves makes banks more vulnerable to the impact of higher credit losses particularly in the event of deterioration in the collateral values of assets," it said.
Among the rating agency's moves, S&P cut Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena to BBB-minus from BBB, just one notch above junk.
Banca Carige fared less well, losing its BBB-minus investment grade rating in a cut to BB-plus.

S&P also cut Dexia Crediop, the Italian public financing arm of bailed-out Franco-Belgian bank Dexia, to B-plus from BB-minus.

Other banks saw their ratings affirmed, including Mediobanca, Intesa Sanpaolo and UniCredit.

[Sabrina]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-19124808

4 Aug Afghanistan

Afghan parliament votes to sack key ministers



The Afghan parliament has passed a vote of no confidence in two of its most senior ministers and demanded that they be replaced.

The interior and defence ministers were criticised for failing to prevent cross-border shelling from Pakistan and security lapses that resulted in the assassinations of senior officials.

They have also been questioned by MPs over allegations of corruption.

The vote is a blow to President Hamid Karzai's administration, observers say.

Mr Karzai's office said he would make a decision on Sunday about the future of Interior Minister Besmillah Mohammadi and Defence Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak.

The president has the power to keep them in their posts for another month. In the past, he has retained his ministers for even longer.

Speaking ahead of the vote, Mr Wardak said he had responded to cross-border attacks by sending more troops to the north-eastern border, and had deployed long-range artillery and ammunition.

But parliament passed a measure to remove him by a vote of 146 to 72.

A separate vote of no-confidence in Mr Mohammadi was passed by 126 to 90.

The international community appears to have lost two key Afghan figures with whom they have been dealing the most at what is a critical time, says the BBC's Aleem Maqbool in the Afghan capital, Kabul.

Nato-led forces are looking to withdraw from the country by the end of 2014.

¤=[Post Update]=¤

4 Aug Spain

Spanish former leaders decline leaving bonuses

(AFP) – 3 hours ago
MADRID — More than 60 senior figures from Spain's previous Socialist administration have declined their end-of-term payouts, officials said Saturday, saving cash-strapped Spain nearly five million euros.

Out of 85 people who were entitled to the compensation, 64 declined payments, for savings of 4.76 million euros ($5.89 million), the finance ministry said in a statement.

Ex-prime minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero started the practice and most of his former government followed suit. The payouts are for 80 percent of a lawmaker's salary for up to two years.

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's Conservative government has since passed laws preventing outgoing high officials from collecting such payments.

Recession-choked Spain is trying to slash its public deficit from 8.9 percent of gross domestic product last year to 6.3 percent this year, then down to 4.5 percent in 2013 and 2.8 percent the year after that.

It has introduced a swingeing series of austerity measures and plans to save 102 billion euros by 2014.
Spain's economic crisis has pushed its unemployment rate to almost 25 percent.

[Sabrina]

Bit of a misjudgement by Boris perhaps, unless they're all clones together, or he'd heard Rupe was due to be beamed up at the 4 Aug fly past...

:)

http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/08/04/boris-johnson-rupert-murdoch-and-the-arrogance-in-the-mayors-choice-of-guest/


Boris Johnson, Rupert Murdoch and the arrogance in the mayor’s choice of guest


Amid the jubilant celebrations enjoyed this morning, as Great Britain’s Olympic rowing team continued to build on their legacy of success, equally poignant and breathtaking albeit for different reasons, was London mayor Boris Johnson’s choice of guest at last nights Olympic swimming finals.

While the Leveson inquiry is just concluding its investigation into the government over its alleged inappropriate dealings with the more powerful elements of the media, the London mayor and budding Tory leader last night attended the Olympic swimming finals with none other than Rupert Murdoch and his wife Wendy Deng.

This displays a level of arrogance and contempt, not simply a unique subsidiary of the character of Boris Johnson – we are after all used to that – but rather a gesture which is indicative of the state of play in domestic politics.

One would think that even the most prudent of political tacticians, given the furore that has built during the course of the last year over the behaviour, judgement, and actions of senior government officials, would have advised Johnson against this move.

We can only conclude however, that weighing up the options, Boris Johnson decided it was more beneficial to tickle Murdoch’s tummy rather than worry about how this move might be judged and perceived, and what it might say about the attitude of politicians moving forward.

If condemning politicians over intimacy with business leaders should be the order of the day, at least on a superficial level, then Johnson inviting Murdoch as his guest last year is like inviting the wolf to dinner. He clearly isn’t expecting the public to be up in arms about this, and probably doesn’t care. Why should he? He was recently re-elected by Londoners who once again opted for ’brand Boris’ and the corporate city love fest – the interests of which Johnson is ultimately a poster pin up for – that he has come to represent.

Equally distasteful is the fact that today marks the one year anniversary of the beginning of the London riots, riots which as they happened were not enough to immediately draw Mr Johnson away from his holiday. Johnson inviting Murdoch as a guest of honour at the Olympics is an insult. To do so on the back of the anniversary of riots which permanently scarred one of London’s poorest boroughs adds insult to injury. What’s worse is that we continue to accept this as the norm. When will we demand more from elected representatives in all aspects of political life?

[Sabrina]

Defections rather than resignations and we are getting the 'spun' story on this as well no doubt....

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-19146380

6 Aug

Syria Prime Minister Riad Hijab defects


Syrian Prime Minister Riad Hijab has defected from President Bashar al-Assad's government to join "the revolution", his spokesman says.

Mr Hijab was appointed less than two months ago and his departure is the highest-profile defection since the uprising began in March 2011.

State-run TV said he had been sacked.

Riad Hijab, who is said to have fled with his family, is a Sunni Muslim from the Deir al-Zour area of eastern Syria which has been caught up in the revolt.

Early reports said Mr Hijab had defected to Jordan, but Jordanian state TV later denied this. By Monday afternoon, Mr Hijab's whereabouts were still unknown.

'Freedom and dignity'
Earlier, his spokesman Mohammed el-Etri told al-Jazeera TV that he was in "a safe location".

"I address you today at this grave hour where the country is living under the brunt of genocide and barbarian brutal killing against unarmed people who are simply demanding freedom and a dignified life," ran Mr Hijab's statement read by his spokesman.

"Today I declare... that I have defected from the terrorist, murderous regime and [am] joining the holy revolution. And I declare that from today I am a soldier of this holy revolution."

Mr el-Etri later told the BBC that the Syrian regime was "now in its last throes" and that it had been dealt "a fatal blow" by Mr Hijab's defection...............................................


Unconfirmed reports suggested that two other cabinet ministers had also deserted and there were claims that a third, Finance Minister Mohammad Jalilati, had been arrested while trying to flee.

But Syrian state TV said Mr Jalilati was still in his office working as usual, and it broadcast what it said was a phone interview with him denying reports that he had been detained.


Mohammed el-Etri: "This defection was in the pipeline for two continuous months through a trusted cell close to the prime minister"
Last month, Syria's ambassador to Iraq, Nawaf Fares, deserted to the opposition. Like Mr Hijab, he was also from Deir al-Zour. Brig Gen Manaf Tlas, who was considered close to President Assad, defected in July.

Thirty other generals have crossed into Turkey so far and Turkish news agency Anatolia reported on Monday that another general had fled with five high-ranking officers and more than 30 soldiers.
full story at link

and another view:

http://www.veteransnewsnow.com/2012/08/05/obama-does-syriana/

CIA, Mossad on Syria front line’

It took Reuters quite a while to be allowed to report that US President Barack Obama had approved an intelligence finding [1] letting the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) loose in its support for the weaponized “rebels” fighting for regime change in Syria.

full story at link

[Sabrina]

hmmmm wonder what the real story is on this one and who the real terrorists and drug kingpins are?


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/9456638/Standard-Chartered-exposed-US-to-terrorists-with-250bn-in-Iran-transactions.html

6 Aug

Standard Chartered 'exposed US to terrorists' with $250bn in Iran transactions

Standard Chartered has been accused of leaving the US financial system vulnerable to terrorists, drug kingpins and corrupt regimes by "scheming" with the Iranian government to conduct secret transactions worth $250bn (£160bn) spanning almost a decade.

When an executive in the US highlighted the risk that staff could face criminal liability for defying sanctions, it is claimed that the group executive director in London said “You f---ing Americans. Who are you to tell us, the rest of the world, that we’re not going to deal with Iranians.”

Benjamin Lawsky, superintendent of the New York State Department of Financial Services, has launched an investigation into Standard Chartered Bank for "apparent grave violations of law and regulation".

"For almost ten years, SCB schemed with the Government of Iran and hid from regulators roughly 60,000 secret transactions, involving at least $250 billion, and reaping SCB hundreds of millions of dollars in fees," the statement said.

"SCB’s actions left the U.S. financial system vulnerable to terrorists, weapons dealers, drug kingpins and corrupt regimes, and deprived law enforcement investigators of crucial information used to track all manner of criminal activity."

The watchdog has called on the lender to explain the apparent violations and demonstrate why its license to operate in the state of New York should not be revoked. It claims that for nearly a decade the bank moved "at least $250 billion" though its New York branch on behalf of Iranian clients, including the Iranian central bank, that were subject to sanctions and then "covered up" evidence of the deals.

full story at link

[Sabrina]

http://americankabuki.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/benjamin-fulford-dog-barks-but-caravan.html#more

Benjamin Fulford's take on it 7 August

¤=[Post Update]=¤

http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/forum.cgi?read=248234

dinarguru - Geithner to give speech at 9 am Eastern, "large global change in the worlds economic status"

Posted By: hobie [Send E-Mail]
Date: Monday, 6-Aug-2012 03:43:01
Hi, Folks -

Might be something interesting, or might be "business as usual" :) - however, found at dinarguru.com:

=====

8-5-2012 Intel Guru BOBGETZ6 I understand...Timothy Geithner is supposed to make a speech tomorrow around 9:00 AM EST. Supposedly, it is to be about the looming global financial crisis, a large global change in the worlds economic status, etc. This should be something to watch, if he says anything that gives real information rather than the typical politico speak.

[Sabrina]

http://www.renegadeeconomist.com/news/how-the-bbc-is-misleading-the-public-about-the-financial-crisis.html

3 Aug

How the BBC is misleading the public about the financial crisis

More than 99% of the general public think that money works as a system of tokens (real or electronic) that get passed from person to person as trade is carried out.

They assume that the total amount of it would remain constant were it not for occasional money printing by government. Money could indeed work this way had governments chosen such a system, but in reality it works completely differently. Bear this in mind as when you read the following.

Here I present two tables, the first contains things the BBC say that are either false or misleading, and the second is a table of important things they don't say but should.

see tables at link

[Sabrina]

http://www.auditthefed.com/

Audit the Fed cosponsors:

http://www.auditthefed.com/cosponsors/

¤=[Post Update]=¤

GDM9_xC38cE

[Sabrina]

http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/276-74/12740-ludicrous-times-op-ed-forgets-entire-year-of-wall-street-history


Ludicrous Times Op-Ed Forgets Entire Year of Wall Street History
By Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone
02 August 12


It was riotous, side-splitting comedy last week when Sanford Weill, the onetime head of Citibank, went on CNBC to announce that he thought it was time to break up the big banks.

Why this was funny: Through his ambitious (and at the time not yet legal) decision to merge Citibank, Travelers, and Salomon Brothers into one giant wrecking ball of greed, self-dealing and global irresponsibility called Citigroup, Weill more or less single-handedly created the Too-Big-To-Fail problem. You know, the one currently casting that thick, black doomlike shadow over all humanity which, if you look out your window, you can see floating over all our heads this very minute.

Nonetheless, Weill came out last week against Too Big to Fail banks. "I’m suggesting," he told astonished reporters on a live CNBC interview, "that they be broken up so that the taxpayer will never be at risk…. What we should probably do is go and split up investment banking from banking."

The interview became an instant YouTube classic. The very funniest part, I thought, was the response of Squawk Box host Andrew Ross Sorkin, the single most credulously slobbering financial reporter on the planet this side of Maria Bartiromo. Even he was so shocked by Weill’s comments that he lost his voice – "I’m speechless," he said.

At about the 1:20 mark of the clip, just after Weill offered his incredible opinion about the need to break up the banks, any sensible reporter would have pounced. Some version of, "Dude, are you high? You invented Too Big To Fail!" would have been the proper response – followed hopefully by a spirited lunge across the set to beat Weill repeatedly about the neck and head with a Swingline stapler, until he screeched out a tearful apology to every last living soul on earth.

Instead, Sorkin took another tack:

"Okay, so then the question becomes – Glass-Steagall," Sorkin said. "You’re almost referring to bringing back Glass-Steagall, in some respects."

Now, what Sorkin actually meant to say here was, "Hey, asshole, we had to repeal Glass-Steagall just to make your Citigroup merger legal, remember? And now you’re pontificating, telling us we need to bring it back? Are you joking?"

Instead, Sorkin triple-qualified the question, first by not bringing up Weill’s role in the repeal of Glass-Steagall directly, then by saying that Weill had merely "almost" and "in some respects" uttered probably the most obnoxious and enraging comments made on television by a Wall Street executive in the years since the crisis.

The rest of the tape was similarly incredible. Particularly amazing was that Weill seemed genuinely surprised by the idea that Too-Big-To-Fail had anything to do with him, like it had never occurred to him that he might be criticized for what he was saying.

Anyway, what happened after Weill's outburst was similarly fascinating. The significance of Weill’s comments, of course, is that even a man such as Sandy Weill now says the Too-Big-To-Fail model is unsustainable. If even Sandy Weill knows it by now, who else needs convincing?

This should have been a debate-ender, a signal that we can all move past the arguing phase and get to the more daunting logistical task of breaking up mega-firms like Citigroup, Bank of America, and J.P. Morgan Chase.

But it didn’t turn out that way. The dug-in stalwarts in the major financial outlets, much like Japanese soldiers still swearing allegiance to the emperor from Pacific island bunkers years after Hiroshima, came out blasting Weill for, in essence, kowtowing to (probably communist) popular opinion. The Wall Street Journal put it this way:

Mr. Weill finds himself suddenly welcome in the company of editorialists who, since the Libor scandal, have been renewing their clamor for bankers to be imprisoned, if not executed. He's become their new hero.

The inherent Stalinism of those who crave to put bankers in jail for things that aren't crimes is not unlike that of the original Stalinist – who understood that nothing of substance has to change if you've got enough scapegoats.

How the Wall Street Journal can bring up the LIBOR scandal – both a textbook case of antitrust crime and more or less the ultimate example of insider trading, with banks trading against their own secret, non-disclosed manipulations of interest rates – and lump it in with things that supposedly "aren't crimes" is beyond mind-boggling. People can and do go to jail in America for smoking marijuana or selling food stamps for rent money, but apparently it reeks of Stalinism to even suggest that even one person should go to jail for manipulating an $800 trillion market. Moreover Weill, far from simply being one of the last people on earth to admit the obvious truth about Too-Big-To-Fail banks, has instead just crossed over into the Stalinist camp.

But the Wall Street Journal didn’t even win the prize for most preposterous response to the Weill episode. That award went to former Treasury advisor and semi-disgraced financier Steve Rattner, who wrote a truly incredible piece in the New York Times editorial page about why Weill is wrong.

Rattner’s piece, entitled, "Regulate, Don’t Split Up, the Big Banks," admitted that Weill’s comments "shook the New York-Washington axis."

"It was as if John D. Rockefeller had proposed the breakup of Standard Oil," Rattner wrote.

But he went on to say that Weill’s musings were "an ill-advised distraction." The reasons he gave for believing this are astounding. And what's astounding is not just that he has these opinions, but that his "reasons" got past the Times editors, who should have blanched at publishing such gross inaccuracies.

Here is the crux of Rattner’s argument:

A bit of recent history: none of the institutions that toppled like dominoes in 2008 — the investment banks Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers, the mortgage-finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the insurance company American International Group — were commercial banks.

So the bank merger frenzy that Mr. Weill set off in the late 1990s was not the proximate cause of the financial crisis.

There are so many things wrong with this passage, it’s hard to know where to start. But let’s take the most obvious problem: He’s lying!

Not just some, but many of the institutions that "toppled like dominoes" in 2008 were giant commercial banks of the TBTF type. Does Rattner remember Washington Mutual, which was only the sixth-largest commercial bank in America when it collapsed in 2008? How about Wachovia, the fourth-largest?

More to the point, does he not remember all of the other commercial banks that required massive federal bailouts to avoid "toppling like dominoes" that year?

Weill’s entire argument, remember, isthat these big banks should be broken up so that the taxpayer doesn’t have to rescue them. And Weill should know, because his Frankensteinian creation, Citigroup, required a $45 billion federal bailout and hundreds of billions more in federal guarantees.

Actually the total outlay for Citigroup was $476 billion in cash and guarantees – they were the biggest single bailout recipient, if you’re counting, with another classic post-Glass-Steagall creation, Bank of America, bringing up the rear with $336 billion in cash and guarantees.

All of the major commercial banking giants received massive amounts of federal aid. Chase, depending on how you look at things, either received just $25 billion or about twice that, if you include tax breaks and inducements to buy Washington Mutual and Bear Stearns. The story is similar with Wells Fargo, which took $25 billion in TARP money and also accepted enormous tax breaks in return for its "help" in buying Wachovia.

Rattner wrote some other crazy things. He said, "it is wrong to think we can shrink [banks] to a size that eliminates the 'too big to fail' problem without emasculating one of our most successful industries."

One could go on at length in answering this ludicrous passage, pointing out for instance how insane it is for Rattner to call TBTF banking "one of our most successful industries" when the business is now known all over the world to be so totally corrupt that nobody was even surprised when they found out that global interest rates were being manipulated. Or when basically the entire banking industry has been downgraded to near-junk status thanks to the widespread perception that their balance sheets are a travesty of phony accounting and unrealized losses.

But this would just be beating a dead horse. These arguments have been made over and over again. Even Sandy Weill is making them now. But everybody knowing the truth and everybody doing something about it are two different things, as we’ll likely spend the next years, or even decades, finding out.

[Sabrina]

6 aug

EVERYONE FOR THEMSELVES: Wall Street Banks Are Throwing Each Other Under The Bus In LIBOR-Gate

Is there anyone on the Street who didn't see this coming?

Ever since Barclays paid a huge settlement for manipulating the LIBOR last month, investigators have been looking into manipulation at all major Wall Street banks.

But this hasn't been a time for solidarity (which is weird on the Street). Instead, Azam Ahmed and Ben Protess of The New York Times report, "banks are emphasizing that 'we're not as bad as the next guy."

In short: It's kill or be killed. Here's how we know — for one thing, the bank lawyers aren't helping each other (from the Times):
With the rate investigation, institutions are not sharing information or even discussing the case with rivals, according to lawyers involved in the matter. In part, they do not want to appear to have close ties with their rivals, since such cozy relationships are part of the government's inquiry.

"There is no information-sharing among banks unlike the past 15 years of federal investigations," said a lawyer involved in the case.
Every bank is saying that, unlike Barclays, none of their C-level execs were involved in manipulation and everyone (from JP Morgan to Deutsche Bank) is cooporating with officials — and cutting deals, of course.

In trying to work out a deal, the British bank (Barclays) offered information on the multiyear scheme with Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Société Générale and Crédit Agricole, according to government and bank officials...

...UBS moved swiftly to strike an immunity deal with government authorities. In its inquiry, the Swiss bank uncovered that one of its former traders, Thomas Hayes, had apparently worked with employees at Deutsche Bank, HSBC and the Royal Bank of Scotland to influence rates and make profits, according to bank officials and court documents...

Citigroup is also said to be forthcoming as well.

Got that everyone? Friends just aren't friends anymore.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/report-wall-street-banks-are-selling-each-other-out-in-the-libor-probe-2012-8#ixzz22o9h4HqI

[bluestflame]

they must hear the lamp posts calling thier name

[modwiz]

they must hear the lamp posts calling thier name

I hear it too. :ear:

[Taurean]

Standard Chartered shares dip on laundering allegations


EVERYONE FOR THEMSELVES: Wall Street Banks Are Throwing Each Other Under The Bus In LIBOR-Gate

Here we go.

Who's next ?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19159286

Let's see what the likes of JP Morgan's got hid in the closet.

[Alie]

Well documented article about Banks: ===> Links are missing (which are important)

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2012/08/big-banks-worse-than-you-think.html

Stunning Crimes of the Big Banks: Worse than Your Wildest Imagination
Posted on August 1, 2012 by WashingtonsBlog

Preface: Not all banks are criminal enterprises. The wrongdoing of a particular bank cannot be attributed to other banks without proof. But – as documented below – many of the biggest banks have engaged in unimaginably bad behavior.
You Won’t Believe What They’ve Done …

Here are just some of the improprieties by big banks:

• Funding the Nazis
• Laundering money for terrorists
• Financing illegal arms deals, and funding the manufacture of cluster bombs (and see this and this) and other arms which are banned in most of the world
• Launching a coup against the President of the United States
• Handling money for rogue military operations
• Laundering money for drug cartels. See this, this, this and this (indeed, drug dealers kept the banking system afloat during the depths of the 2008 financial crisis)
• Engaging in mafia-style big-rigging fraud against local governments. See this, this and this
• Shaving money off of virtually every pension transaction they handled over the course of decades, stealing collectively billions of dollars from pensions worldwide. Details here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here
• Artificially suppressing gold prices
• Charging “storage fees” to store gold bullion … without even buying or storing any gold . And raiding allocated gold accounts
• Committing massive and pervasive fraud both when they initiated mortgage loans and when they foreclosed on them (and see this)
• Pledging the same mortgage multiple times to different buyers. See this, this, this, this and this. This would be like selling your car, and collecting money from 10 different buyers for the same car
• Cheating homeowners by gaming laws meant to protect people from unfair foreclosure
• Committing massive fraud in an $800 trillion dollar market which effects everything from mortgages, student loans, small business loans and city financing
• Manipulating the hundred trillion dollar derivatives market
• Engaging in insider trading of the most important financial information
• Pushing investments which they knew were terrible, and then betting against the same investments to make money for themselves. See this, this, this, this and this
• Engaging in unlawful “frontrunning” to manipulate markets. See this, this, this, this, this and this
• Engaging in unlawful “Wash Trades” to manipulate asset prices. See this, this and this
• Otherwise manipulating markets. And see this
• Participating in various Ponzi schemes. See this, this and this
• Charging veterans unlawful mortgage fees
• Helping the richest to illegally hide assets
• Cooking their books (and see this)
• Bribing and bullying ratings agencies to inflate ratings on their risky investments

The executives of the big banks invariably pretend that the hanky-panky was only committed by a couple of low-level rogue employees. But studies show that most of the fraud is committed by management.

Indeed, one of the world’s top fraud experts – professor of law and economics, and former senior S&L regulator Bill Black – says that most financial fraud is “control fraud”, where the people who own the banks are the ones who implement systemic fraud. See this, this and this.

But at least the big banks do good things for society, like loaning money to Main Street, right?
Actually:

• The big banks no longer do very much traditional banking. Most of their business is from financial speculation. For example, less than 10% of Bank of America’s assets come from traditional banking deposits. Instead, they are mainly engaged in financial speculation and derivatives. (and see this)
• The big banks have slashed lending since they were bailed out by taxpayers … while smaller banks have increased lending. See this, this and this
• A huge portion of the banks’ profits comes from taxpayer bailouts. For example, 77% of JP Morgan’s net income comes from taxpayer subsidies
• The big banks are looting, killing the economy … and waging war on the people of the world
• And our democracy and republican form of government as well

We can almost understand why Thomas Jefferson warned:
And I sincerely believe, with you, that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies ….

John Adams said:
Banks have done more injury to religion, morality, tranquillity, prosperity, and even wealth of the nation than they have done or ever will do good.

And Lord Acton argued:
The issue which has swept down the centuries and which will have to be fought sooner or later is the people versus the banks.

[Sabrina]

These are August energy forecasts, and will have an influence on the unveiling of the world-wide financial and political (and just general) corruption in my opinion. We have to take on board how strong our own energy is now, and envision what we want for the world.


http://danamrkich.blogspot.com.au/2012/08/august-2012-monthly-visions-solar-flare.html

http://leeharrisenergy.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/august-energy-forecast-dreams-of-past.html

[Sabrina]

More on the Standard Charter story - well the American spin on it anyway.... the story behind the story?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/9457878/Standard-Chartered-rejects-US-Iran-transaction-claims.html

7 Aug


Standard Chartered rejects US Iran transaction claims

Standard Chartered has rejected US claims that it “schemed” with Iran to conduct secret transactions worth $250bn (£160bn), insisting that "99.9pc of the transactions" complied with regulations.

The bank's London listed shares plunged 24pc on Tuesday after New York’s top financial regulator claimed “flagrantly deceptive actions” by the British bank left the US “vulnerable to terrorists, weapons dealers, drug kingpins and corrupt regimes”.
Standard Chartered

In a statement issued on Tuesday, Standard Chartered said that it "strongly rejects the position and portrayal of facts" by the regulator, and that "99.9pc of the transactions relating to Iran" complied with regulations.

The bank said it does not believe the order issued by the New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) presents "a full and accurate picture of the facts".

Standard Chartered said it had voluntarily approached all the relevant US agencies in January 2010, including the DFS. It informed them that it was reviewing all "historical US dollar transactions and their compliance with US sanctions".

The review focused on transactions relating to Iran in the period 2001-2007 and "their compliance with the U-turn framework established by the US authorities to enable ongoing US dollar trade with Iran by other countries".

The review was conducted by external counsel and external consultants and Standard Chartered waived its attorney-client and work product privileges to ensure that all the US agencies would receive all relevant information.

Standard Chartered said it gave regular updates and presentations to the DFS and the other agencies on the results of its investigation, including several thousands of pages of documents and interview notes, plus analysis of approximately 150 million payment messages.

full story at link

¤=[Post Update]=¤

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/top-finance-minister-in-clash-with-osborne-over-credit-rating-8010309.html

7 Aug UK


Top finance minister in clash with Osborne over credit rating
Fears of blow for Chancellor as deputy plays down importance of credit status

Speculation grew yesterday that George Osborne's economic credibility could be about to suffer a stunning blow as his deputy sought to downplay the importance of the UK's vaunted AAA credit rating.

Danny Alexander, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, told the BBC that the UK's top-notch status "is not the be all and end all". That was in sharp contrast to the Chancellor's emphasis in recent years on the overriding economic importance of Britain retaining its AAA status.

In opposition, Mr Osborne said keeping the gold-plated credit rating was one of the "benchmarks" against which he wanted his economic record to be judged.

The words of Mr Alexander, pictured, were interpreted in some quarters as the Government preparing the ground for a highly embarrassing downgrade of the UK by one of the major agencies.

The country's AAA status has come under pressure over the past years as the recovery has stalled and public borrowing forecasts have risen as a result. Major rating agencies put the UK on negative watch earlier this year, implying that they might strip Britain of its AAA status. Although Standard & Poor's gave the all clear last month, Moody's still says the UK is at risk of a downgrade. And Fitch is expected to give its verdict in the coming months.

However, most City analysts believe that the economic impact of the UK losing its AAA status would be insignificant. "It wouldn't be the end of the world. It would already be priced in by the markets," said Andrew Goodwin, senior economic adviser to the Ernst & Young Item Club. "It's more of an issue of national psyche and national pride".

When the United States was downgraded from AAA status last year by Standard & Poor's in the wake of bitter partisan wrangling in Congress over the national debt ceiling, Washington's costs of borrowing fell as investors disregarded the agency's analysis and continued to plough their money into US government bonds.

Yet a UK credit downgrade would generate still more political embarrassment for Mr Osborne, who has come under fire for his radical deficit reduction strategy which critics argue has helped to plunge the UK economy back into recession. In the second quarter of 2012 the UK economy contracted by 0.7 per cent according to the Office for National Statistics.

more at link..
yeah right as they say... they are turning on each other...

[Sabrina]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/aug/06/financial-crisis-25-people-heart-meltdown

7 Aug

Financial crisis: 25 people at the heart of the meltdown – where are they now?

In 2009 the Guardian identified 25 people – bankers, economists, central bankers and politicians – whose actions had led the world into the worst economic turmoil since the Great Depression. On the fifth anniversary of the credit crunch, what are they doing?

Central bankers

Alan Greenspan, chairman US Federal Reserve 1987-2006
A disciple of libertarian icon Ayn Rand, Greenspan became chairman of the Fed just in time to save the global economy from the 1987 stock market crash from becoming a full-blown disaster. He went on preside over the boom years of the 90s and lead the US economy through the aftermath of the September 11 attacks and was widely referred to as an "oracle" and "the maestro".

But Greenspan's super-low interest rates and consistent opposition to regulation of the multitrillion-dollar derivatives market are now widely blamed for causing the credit crisis. Under Greenspan's tenure the derivatives market went from barely registering to a $500 trillion industry, despite billionaire investor Warren Buffett warning that they were "financial weapons of mass destruction".

His rock-bottom rates encouraged Americans to load up on debt to buy homes, even when they had no savings, no income and no job prospects.

These so-called sub-prime borrowers were the cannon fodder for the biggest boom-bust in US history. The housing collapse brought the global economy to its knees.

He was given an honorary knighthood in 2002 for his "contribution to global economic stability", but in 2008, at a Congressional hearing investigating the causes of the financial crisis, Greenspan finally admitted he "made a mistake in presuming" that financial firms could regulate themselves.

"You found that your view of the world, your ideology was not right, it was not working?" Henry Waxman, the committee chairman, said.

"Absolutely, precisely," Greenspan replied. "You know, that's precisely the reason I was shocked, because I have been going for 40 years or more with very considerable evidence that it was working exceptionally well."

After he quit the Fed, in 2006, Greenspan joined Pimco, the world's largest bond investor, as a special consultant. Pimco's co-founder Bill Gross said Greenspan had helped make the firm "billions of dollars'' in his role as a consultant.

Gross said Greenspan's "brilliance" was a "big money saver for us''. "He's made and saved billions of dollars for Pimco already,'' Gross said in 2008.He has also advised Deutsche Bank and hedge fund billionaire John Paulson.

Greenspan has also found time to criticise current Fed chairman Ben Bernanke's programme of quantitative easing. "I've stayed away from commenting on Fed policy," he said on US TV earlier this month. "I will say this, however, that the data do show that the expansion of assets has had very little impact on the economy, for an important reason, that we've created a major increase in the asset side of the Fed balance sheet and a very large trillion and a half increase in excess reserves."


Mervyn King, governor of the Bank of England

At his first meeting chairing the Bank's monetary policy committee (MPC) interest rates were cut to an historic postwar low of 3.5%. King's ambition as governor was to make the Bank "boring". If only that had been the case.

He was slow to react to the crisis and initially refused to follow Greenspan in pumping cash into the system. The Treasury select committee (TSC) said he should have noticed that the housing bubble was becoming unstable and should have been "more pro-active" to damp it down.

Just the other week King finally admitted that the financial crisis was the result of "major mistakes" by policymakers and not just the fault of greedy bankers.

At the government's Global Investment Conference in London in the buildup to the Olympics he said: "We saw this going into the crisis, we kept meeting at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), but we did nothing to solve it collectively, and I don't think that this was a problem that could have been solved individually."

More recently, King had to face the TSC to explain why the Bank failed to spot the Libor interest rate-fixing scandal that pre-dated the credit crunch and last month Bob Diamond stepped down as chief executive of Barclays after King let it be known Diamond no longer had the confidence of the Bank.

In the shake-up of regulation that followed the financial meltdown, the governor of the Bank of England has emerged with more power than ever. However, King is due to stand down next summer, with former cabinet secretary Sir Gus O'Donnell and deputy governor Paul Tucker the favourites to replace him.

Politicians


Bill Clinton, former US president

Politicians' current plan to help prevent another financial crisis is to ringfence banks' risky "casino banking" divisions from the more pedestrian high street banking departments. 13 years ago Clinton repealed the Glass-Steagall Act, which had done just that. Clinton's move, which came after fierce lobbying from bankers, heralded the birth of superbanks and primed the sub-prime pump.

He also signed the Commodity Futures Modernization Act, which exempted credit-default swaps from regulation. Around the same time Clinton also beefed up President Carter's 1977 Community Reinvestment Act – forcing lenders to take a more sympathetic approach to poor borrowers trying to get on the housing ladder.


Gordon Brown, former prime minister

Brown's big boast as chancellor was that he had "abolished Tory boom and bust". He hadn't. His prime ministerial tenure was spent presiding over the biggest bust since the Great Depression.

In his last big speech before becoming prime minister just before the crisis began he praised bankers for their role in bringing in a "new golden age for the City of London".

To tempt foreign bankers to work in the City he backed low taxes for non-doms and "light-touch" regulation that meant they could get away with a lot more in London than elsewhere.

Brown is now working on projects to improve child poverty levels and education, worldwide, with organisations such as the United Nations.


George W Bush, former US president

The meltdown happened on Bush's watch. While Clinton got the ball rolling with sub-prime lending, Bush failed to bring in much tighter regulation, bar the Sarbanes-Oxley Act brought in after the Enron scandal. And he didn't do a lot to stop the boom in lending to "Ninjas" [no income, no job applicants].

Nouriel Roubini, the economist who earned the nickname Dr Doom for his prediction that the crisis was about to hit, blames Bush. Obama "inherited a mess", Roubini has said. "We're lucky that this Great Recession is not turning into another Great Depression."

Bush is in self-imposed political exile and has been notable for his absence in Mitt Romney's campaign to become the next Republican president. "He is enjoying his life in Texas. He's not seeking the limelight. And he is really focused on the Bush Center," his spokesman said recently. He has "no plans to endorse, at least not at present," the spokesman added.

The former president has written a book, Decision Points, about the 14 biggest decisions of his presidential career. The former president was paid $7m for 1.5m copies.


Senator Phil Gramm

"Some people look at sub-prime lending and see evil. I look at sub-prime lending and see the American dream in action," Gramm told a Senate debate in 2001.

Another dynamite quote. "When I am on Wall Street and I realise that that's the very nerve centre of American capitalism and I realise what capitalism has done for the working people of America, to me that's a holy place."

It was Gramm that had fought hardest for deregulation and helped write the law that enabled the creation of financial giants such as Citigroup and Bank of America.

He remains unrepentant. Just a couple of weeks ago Gramm, who went on to work for Swiss investment bank UBS until earlier this year and is now a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, said: "I don't see any evidence that allowing them to affiliate through holding companies had anything to do with the financial crisis nor has anybody ever presented any evidence to suggest that it did."

Sandy Weill, however, a man with hands-on experience of running a too-big-to-fail bank as the former chairman and chief executive of Citigroup, begs to differ. Last week Weill said: "What we should probably do is go and split up investment banking from banking, have banks be deposit takers, have banks make commercial loans and real-estate loans and have banks do something that's not going to risk the taxpayer dollars, that's not too big to fail."

Weill added: "The world changed with the collapse of the housing market and the real-estate bubble … so I don't think it's right anymore (to have huge investment and retail banking combines)."

Wall Street/Bankers


Abby Cohen, Goldman Sachs senior strategist

Bear market? Cohen appears not to have heard of the term.

She made a name for herself in the late 1990s by being the bullest of the bulls during the dotcom bubble, and it's hard to remember when she hasn't been bullish since.

She's still a bull now. "If we were to look just at fair-value estimates over the next year to three, we think that returns that are roughly 8-10% on the stock market are sensible," she told Bloomberg last week.


Kathleen Corbet, former CEO, Standard & Poor's

The credit rating agencies, of which S&P is the biggest, gave triple A ratings to the mortgage-backed securities that turned toxic and were accused of conflict of interest because the bond issuers were paying them for the ratings. As one S&P analyst wrote in an email, "[A bond] could be structured by cows and we would rate it."

Another analyst emailed a colleague: "Let's hope we're all wealthy and retired by the time this house of cards falters."

Corbet resigned amid a wave of criticism in 2007. She has since set up a company to invest in tech, energy and, of course, financial services companies. She has a tumblr, but is yet to actually blog.


Maurice "Hank" Greenberg, former chief executive AIG insurance group

While AIG was taking a multibillion-dollar bailout from the US Treasury and the Fed after its massive credit default business went sour, 100 AIG execs where spending $444,000 on a golf and spa retreat in California. "Have you heard of anything more outrageous?" said Elijah Cummings, a Democratic congressman, said. "They were getting their manicures, their facials, pedicures, massages, while the American people were footing the bill."

Greenberg, now 87, has now started over – and is running C V Starr & Co, a private equity firm named after AIG's founder Cornelius Vander Starr. Hank's son Scott is helping tap up sovereign wealth funds and the ultra-wealthy for cash for buyout deals expected to last a decade.


Andy Hornby, former HBOS boss

The former wunderkind of British business who came top of his 800-strong class at Harvard and rose to become a board director of Asda by the age of 32 was the man running HBOS when it had to be rescued by Lloyds. His reputation took a knocking from the FSA, with the regulator finding HBOS guilty of "very serious misconduct" in the run up to its taxpayer bailout and rescue by Lloyds. But he's still a busy man. After HBOS's demise he was installed as chief executive of Alliance Boots (he quit last year with no payoff) and is currently chief executive of bookies Coral and non-executive chairman of online and mail order pharmaceuticals business pharmacy2U.


Fred Goodwin, former RBS boss

Fred "the shred" was stripped of his knighthood earlier this year as public anger over his role in causing the financial crisis reached boiling point. Goodwin, who has been dubbed "the world's worst banker", brought Royal Bank of Scotland to its knees via a series of over-ambitious acquisitions. A string of 20 takeovers transformed RBS into a global leader but Goodwin wasn't satisfied and just before the financial crisis struck he led a $100bn takeover of Dutch bank ABN Amro.

RBS went on to record the biggest annual loss in UK corporate history and had to be bailed out by the government to the tune of £45.5bn. It is now 82%-owned by the state.

Goodwin hit the headlines again recently when he was blamed for a crisis at Scotland's biggest architecture firm, RMJM, where he was an adviser. About 80 staff left the firm after a battle over unpaid fees.


Steve Crawshaw, former B&B boss

What would the fictional Mssrs Bradford and Bingley say? The two bowler-hatted gents represented good, old-fashioned prudent banking. B&B's downfall can perhaps be traced to a single moment of arrogance in 1995 when it splashed out more than £1,000 for Stan Laurel's bowler hat to display at its head office.

Steven Crawshaw bought the specialist lender Mortgage Express from Lloyds TSB, which catered for the self-employed, those seeking second-home finance and buy-to-let mortgages. The loans earned the nickname "liar loans" because the applicant didn't have to prove they had a regular income. When the wholesale money market collapsed, so did B&B, as it couldn't finance the loans. Eventually, B&B was nationalised, a few weeks after Crawshaw stepped down with heart problems. He left with a pension worth £105,318 a year.

He has apparently retired to the Yorkshire countryside, and his only public role appears to be chairing the advisory board of the School of Management at Bradford University.


Adam Applegarth, former Northern Rock boss

Applegarth transformed Northern Rock from a sleepy Newcastle building society into the nation's fifth-largest mortgage provider. But the business collapsed and images of customers queuing up outside Northern Rock to rescue their savings have became the dominant memory of the financial crisis.

In the five years running up to the bank's disaster, he was paid around £10m. During the 18 months immediately before, he cashed in shares worth £2.6m.

He collected a £760,000 payoff despite the TSC savaging his conduct at the bank. It was also later revealed that he was having an affair with a junior colleagues during the crisis.

In 2009 Applegarth started his first job post-Northern Rock, advising US private equity firm Apollo Management. He is no longer listed as part of the team on the company's website. But remains in the post advising the firm's European Principal Fund on buying up distressed debt.

He has also reportedly set up a company, Beechwood Property Management, with his son Greg. But there is very little publicly available information about the company.


Dick Fuld, chief executive Lehman Brothers

"The Gorilla of Wall Street", as Fuld was known, steered Lehman deep into the business of sub-prime mortgages. Lehman took the loans and packaged them up into (soon-to-be toxic) bonds which they sold to investors.

Fuld is said to have raked in almost $500m in pay and bonuses during his tenure as chief executive, but the 66 year old insisted to Capitol Hill that he actually only earned $300m. During the testimony, Fuld was asked if he wondered why Lehman Brothers was the only firm that was allowed to fail. "Until the day they put me in the ground, I will wonder," he said.

A lot of Americans might have been stung by the collapse in property prices in the wake of the crisis. Not Dick, in November 2008 Fuld transferred the ownership of his $100m Florida mansion to his wife. They had bought it four years earlier for $13.5m.

In 2009 Fuld joined US hedge fund Matrix Advisors. A year later he joined broker Legend Securities, he left the firm earlier this year.


Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin

Cioffi and Tannin are two of a very small group that have faced financial penalty for their role in causing the crisis. The pair, who ran Bear Stearns hedge funds that went bankrupt in 2007, were accused by the SEC of misleading investors about the risks of sub-prime loans.

This summer the pair agreed to pay$1.05m to settle the charges. US District Judge Frederic Block described the fine as "chump change". Their investors lost $1.6bn.

"I certainly would have liked my career to have ended differently," Cioffi said in a 2010 interview.


Lewis 'Lew' Ranieri, 'godfather' of mortgage finance

Ranieri wanted to be an Italian chef, but his asthma stopped him working in smoky kitchens. Instead he moved into trading via Salomon Brothers mailroom and pioneered the mortgage-backed bonds immortalised in Liar's Poker.

In 1984 Ranieri boasted that his mortgage-trading desk "made more money than all the rest of Wall Street combined". But when sub-prime borrowers started missing payments, the mortgage market stalled and bond prices collapsed. Investment banks, overexposed to the toxic assets, closed their doors and investors lost fortunes.

"I do feel guilty," Ranieri said in an interview in 2009. "I wasn't out to invent the biggest floating craps game of all time, but that's what happened."

He blames Wall Street for misusing his brainchild to construct "affordability products" that homeowners really couldn't afford.


Joseph Cassano, AIG financial products

Cassano has been dubbed "patient zero" of the global economic meltdown. He ran the AIG team that sold credit default swaps in London that led the company into bankruptcy and a massive bailout. Democratic senator John Sarbanes said Cassano "single-handedly brought AIG to its knees".

After the bailout Cassano refused all media interviews and had not spoken about the crisis until he was called before the US congress financial crisis inquiry commission in July 2010. "I think there would have been few, if any, realised losses on the CDS contracts had they not been unwound in the bailout," he said, adding: "my perspective diverges in important ways from the popular wisdom".

Cassano, who used to live in an opulent townhouse behind Harrods, has since moved back to Westport, on Long Island Sound, where he is apparently unemployed, and uncontactable.


Chuck Prince, former Citi boss

Just when the sub-prime crisis was starting to take hold in the summer of 2007, Prince told the FT he didn't expect the brewing crisis to hurt his bank. "As long as the music is playing, you've got to get up and dance. We're still dancing," he said. Shortly afterwards the music stopped and Citi racked up more than $45bn of writedowns.

Recently, Sandy Weill said handpicking Prince to be his successor was "one of the major mistakes that I made".

Last year Price said: "If we want a better outcome, supervisors and business leaders had better do something different this time around."

He hasn't been heard from again since.


Angelo Mozilo, Countrywide Financial

Mozilo popularised the notion that practically anyone could have a massive mortgage, even if they didn't have a job. Countrywide was the world's biggest sub-prime lender before it was rescued from bankruptcy by Bank of America.

The SEC investigated Mozilo over fraud and insider dealing charges, but in the end he agreed to pay a $67.5m fine and accept a lifetime ban from serving as a company director. The fine represents just over a 10th of Mozilo's estimated net worth of $600m. The SEC's director of enforcement said: "Mozilo's record penalty is the fitting outcome for a corporate executive who deliberately disregarded his duties to investors by concealing what he saw from inside the executive suite – a looming disaster in which Countrywide was buckling under the weight of increasingly risky mortgage underwriting, mounting defaults and delinquencies, and a deteriorating business model."

Earlier this year, Mozilo, who was known as "the orange one" for his effervescent tan, hit the headlines again when Congress released a report into how Countrywide used its "VIP program" – which offered favourable terms to influential figures – to influence Washington policymakers.

Mozilo and his wife Phyllis sold their LA home for $2.9m earlier this year. The LA Times described it as "Georgian Colonial-style two-storey" property, sitting above the second fairway at the Sherwood Country Club, complete with "a cherry-finished library-office, five bedrooms, six bathrooms and an oversized four-car garage". The couple still own a string other luxury homes in southern California.


Stan O'Neal, former boss of Merrill Lynch

Another casualty of the thirst for CDOs. By June 2006, Merrill had amassed $41bn in sub-prime CDOs and mortgage bonds, according to Fortune.

O'Neal, who had Merrill security guards hold a lift at all times for his exclusive use, was booted out (with a $161.5m golden parachute) and Bank of America snapped Merrill up less than a year later.

There were rumours O'Neal was going to join Vision Capital, a hedge fund run by two visually impaired managers, but the role never materialised. Vision was later investigated by the SEC.


Jimmy Cayne, former Bear Sterns boss

While Bear Sterns was going bust Cayne was playing bridge in Detroit. He's quite an accomplished player and has won several rounds of the North American Bridge Championships. But he was less good at running Bear Sterns, with CNBC naming him one of the "worst CEOs of all time".

Bear Sterns was sold to JP Morgan for $10 a share, compared with the $133.20 a share it was trading at before the crisis. Cayne, who had a big stake in the company, lost about $1bn.

Cayne has now disappeared from the corporate public eye, but it is still possible to play him at bridge online.

Others


Christopher Dodd, former chairman Senate banking committee

Dodd pushed back against calls for tighter regulation on Fannie Mae and Freedie Mac, while receiving $165,000 in campaign donations from … Fannie and Freddie.

The Dodd-Frank Act, which aims to reform Wall Street, is named after him and financial services committee chairman Barney Frank. But Dodd disagrees with proposals to split up big banks' investment banking and high-street divisions. "[The idea that] breaking up these institutions is going to solve the problem, I think it's frankly too simplistic an approach," he said last week.


Geir Haarde, prime minister of Iceland 2006-2009

Haarde is the only politician to have been found guilty by a court of helping to cause the crisis. Earlier this year an Icelandic court found Haarde guilty of failing to hold emergency cabinet meetings in the run up to the crisis. Haarde fell from power after the country's three biggest banks collapsed, the country's economy went into meltdown, and the government was forced to borrow $10bn (£6.3bn) to prop up its economy.

During the trial, he said: "None of us realised at the time that there was something fishy within the banking system itself, as now appears to have been the case.

The American public
It wasn't just the bankers who were greedy. The men and women on the street took out billions of dollars of loans they knew they couldn't afford. American families' wealth has fallen by 38.8% between 2007 and 2010, according to the latest three-yearly data from the Fed. The collapse in house prices, which was caused by Americans' failure to keep up repayments on loans they couldn't afford, caused US families median net worth to decline from $126,400 in 2007 to $77,300 in 2010.


John Tiner, FSA chief executive 2003-07

He once had a reputation for being the luckiest man in the City. Without a university degree, he worked his way up to the top of accountant Arthur Andersen – and left nine months before it collapsed under the weight of fraud and false accounting at its client Enron.

In July 2007 he quit as chief executive of the Financial Services Authority with praise ringing in his ears (his leaving party reportedly cost the regulator £20,000). But the praise quickly evaporated, not least for the FSA's inadequate stewardship of Northern Rock, which was slammed in an internal report.

Tiner, who has a personalised T1NER numberplate, then joined colourful entrepreneur Clive Cowdery at insurance buyout vehicle Resolution. They bought Friend's Provident life insurance group but then the deals dried up and last week the group revealed it could no longer return cash, as expected, to shareholders.

[foreverfan]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHtLy3AfpMI

[Sabrina]

http://occupycorporatism.com/audit-the-fed-threatens-the-secrecy-of-the-federal-reserve-bank/

7 Aug US

Audit the Fed Threatens the Secrecy of the Federal Reserve Bank

Senator Ron Paul, author of the legislation called Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2012 (HR459) that will subject Ben Bernanke and the privately-owned Federal Reserve Bank to a monetary audit policy has seen much support from his peers on Capitol Hill. The House of Representatives passed 327 – 98 on a vote last week which exceeded the necessary 2/3rd majority.

Bernanke, trying to deter the US Congress from digging into the private matters of the Fed, told House lawmakers that this legislation would allow a “nightmare scenario” of political meddling in monetary policy making. How pretentious of this head of the global Elite banking cartel to say that American representatives would be fumbling idiots meandering about in the matters of private shareholders being forced to disclose their agendas regarding our money system.

Paul, who is pushing for “transparency” in America’s relationship with the Fed, said that Americans are “sick and tired of what happened in the bailout and where the wealthy got bailed out and the poor lost their jobs and they lost their homes.”

Back in March, Bernanke lectured at the George Washington University in a propaganda stunt to reaffirm to the younger generations that the Federal Reserve is necessary and integral to the US monetary future. Bernanke claimed that “a central bank is not an ordinary commercial bank, but a government agency.”

By fabricating the factual need of the Fed as a cornerstone of our currency system, Bernanke tried to coerce the public on the benefits of the Fed. Dennis Kucinich said that “it’s time that we stood up to the Federal Reserve that right now acts like some kind of high, exalted priesthood, unaccountable to democracy.”

Paul wants to show the American public that their hard-earned money is going into off-shore accounts to support the global central banking cartels and fund their agendas. The focus is on the 2007 – 2009 “recession” that has laid the groundwork for hyper-inflation in the near future.

The Audit legislation will direct the Government Accountability Office (GAO), which is an independent congressional agency, to oversee a full review of the Fed’s monetary policy while conducting an audit of them and their decisions will be turned over to the Federal Open Market Committee.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, co-author of the NDAA, is now decrying that his tried to bring a similar legislation to the House back in 1995. Reid asserts: “I have sponsored legislation that would call for an audit of the Federal Reserve System. I offer that amendment every year. Every year the legislation gets nowhere. I think it would be interesting to know about the Federal Reserve. I think we should audit the Federal Reserve.”

Reid went on to say: “It’s taxpayer’s money that’s being used there but we don’t do that. Senator Dorgan has spoke out on the secrecy of the Federal Reserve System. He’s spoken out on the Federal Reserve more than anyone that I know in either body. But even though there is no entity in the world that controls our lives more than the Federal Reserve System, his speeches go unnoticed I’m sorry to say.”

It is Reid’s contention (and quite rightly) that the Fed “effect government, because of the money that government’s borrow.” Since the US government allows this privately-owned bank to sell them their currency instead of printing it themselves as is allowed by the US Constitution, give the Fed and central banking cartels rule over the American public through the ruse of taxation and the bull-dog collection agency known as the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). It appears that although Reid was once in support of this type of legislation, he is clearly not today as he has stated emphatically that the bill will be killed in the Senate.

Because of the central banking cartel’s takeover of the American people in 1913 with the signing of the Federal Reserve Act; which led to the monetary enslavement we are witnessing today as well as the transformation of America from a Constitutional Republic into a nation of serfs who are tied to the conspiratorial endeavors of the global Elite.

Obama has made it clear that he believes the legislation is a “really, really bad idea.”

In the words of Timothy Geithner, former US Treasury Secretary, asserted that an audit of the Fed is a “line that we don’t want to cross” and that if the American people successfully audit the Fed it would be “problematic for the country.”

As former head of the New York Federal Reserve, Geithner is doing a good job supporting the supposition Bernanke would like us all to believe – that somehow the central bank that caused this economic mess will be the only force to get us out. However, liberating the American public from debt slavery is not in the best interest of the privately owned bank. It is doubtful that the saving grace will befall from Bernanke or his laky, Geithner.

None of this true.

It is the opposite – that the central banker need the American public to survive and without us, they will perish.

A revolutionary thought is that we could just create an alternative monetary system, stop using the Fed’s fiat currency and liberate ourselves from feudal slavery.

That reality could happen tomorrow, if only with the accord of the American public that we are truly tired of being debt slaves to a system that is no more based in fact than the paper the US dollar is printed on.


fXOHSy6YkTE

[Sabrina]

More on the Standard Charter story -


http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/markets/article-2185163/CITY-FOCUS-Standard-Chartered-battle-reputation.html

8 Aug

CITY FOCUS: Standard Chartered in battle over reputation

Standard Chartered began the fight to salvage its reputation yesterday when chairman Sir John Peace flew to New York to face regulators as the bank held crisis talks in London with worried shareholders.

Sir John boarded a plane as shares in Standard Chartered fell by as much as 25pc, wiping £6bn off the value of the company.
The sell-off followed dramatic allegations by the New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) on Monday that Standard Chartered illegally laundered £160bn for Iran, exposing the US financial system to ‘weapons dealers and drug kingpins’.............................

Should Standard Chartered’s version of the facts prove true, the wrongdoing would be relatively modest compared with the money laundering admitted by HSBC last month, for which the bank expects to be fined £450m. Sources close to the bank claimed it is almost inconceivable that it will lose its banking licence. John Mann MP, a member of the Treasury Select Committee, yesterday called for Parliament to launch its own investigation into money laundering, but he said US regulators are guilty of an anti-British bias.

He said: ‘Drug money from Colombia and Mexico is being routinely laundered through US banks, but the US authorities are choosing to highlight British banks rather than their own wrong doings.’

full story at link

and



http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/sns-rt-us-standardchartered-iran-conspiracytheoriesbre877-20120807,0,4079946.story

8 Aug

Some in UK see conspiracy in U.S. attack on Standard Chartered

LONDON (Reuters) - A threat by a New York regulator to strip Standard Chartered Plc of its state banking license and its description of the British bank as a "rogue institution" that hid $250 billion in Iranian transactions, has touched a nerve with some in London.

Several of the bank's top shareholders and a leading opposition lawmaker have questioned whether U.S. authorities are seeking to undermine London as a global financial centre.

They note Standard Chartered is the third British bank to be ensnared in U.S. law enforcement probes in recent weeks. The New York state's Department of Financial Services said the bank hid the transactions that generated hundreds of millions of dollars in fees over nearly a decade.

The accusation comes after Barclays Plc agreed in June to pay $453 million to settle U.S. and British probes that it rigged Libor, a global lending benchmark.

A month later, a U.S. Senate panel issued a scathing report that criticized HSBC Holding's efforts to police suspect transactions. It said HSBC did regular business in countries tied to drug cartels, terrorist funding and tax cheats.

"I think it's a concerted effort that's been organized at the top of the U.S. government. I think this is Washington trying to win a commercial battle to have trading from London shifted to New York," said John Mann, a member of parliament's finance committee who also called for a parliamentary inquiry.

Mann, from the centre-left Labor party, has become a public scourge of London bankers' greed and immorality during the financial crisis. But he told Reuters he saw "anti-British bias" behind "disproportionate publicity that's given to British banking problems, as opposed to American banking problems".

"This is a political onslaught," he said.

However, there are signs that U.S. regulators themselves are not in lockstep.

Sources told Reuters that U.S. federal regulators feel angry and blindsided by the way the New York banking regulator took action against Standard Chartered, including the publication of embarrassing communications from senior executives of the bank.

The U.S. Treasury Department declined to comment on the views from London. A spokesman for the U.S. embassy in London also declined to comment on Mann's remarks.

But a number of British fund managers holding shares in Standard Chartered also expressed consternation about the New York broadside and questioned what it might mean.

A British executive at an institution, which ranks among the top 25 shareholders in Standard Chartered, saw a politically motivated move by U.S. officials irked by the major role London plays in the global financial industry.

"Are we starting to see an anti-London bias in U.S. regulatory activities?" the executive asked. "Oh yes. Is there any subtle form of banking sector protectionism going on? Yes."

Another British investment official at a top 20 shareholder in the bank suggested U.S. politics might be an element in the threat by the New York regulator to pull Standard Chartered's state banking license.

"I wonder if this has more to do with the point we are at in the U.S. election cycle or if this is just an accident of the U.S. legislative system in terms of timing," the investor said.

Skepticism in Britain of U.S. motives was not universal, however. An executive at a top 10 investor in Standard Chartered said he was reviewing his shareholding and that the depth of the issues needed to be acknowledged by the City of London.

"London is looking like a pretty disreputable place at the moment," he said. "Rather than fall into the British them-versus-us-mindset, let's really bang our chests and figure out just how dirty London really is as a place to do business."


and

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/why-nar-will-never-be-prosecuted-facilitating-money-laundering

This Is Why The NAR Will Never Be Prosecuted For Facilitating Money Laundering
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 08/07/2012 16:41 -0400




Over the past month America's ever vigilant law enforcers have taken to task not one but two foreign (domestic bank lobbies are sufficiently large to make Congress muppets perfectly eager to look the other way as noted previously) banks: HSBC and now Standard Chartered, for money laundering. Yet, when it comes to the true elephant in the room, which is not foreign and is fully domestic, they continue to ignore events such as this one just described by the Wall Street Journal: "A Florida home that originally listed for $60 million has sold for $47 million, a record for a single-family house in Miami-Dade County. The home, in Indian Creek Village, had been on the market since early 2011, when construction was still being completed. The asking price was reduced to $52 million this year." And the punchline: "The identity of the buyer, a foreigner who purchased the home in the name of a U.S.-based limited-liability company, couldn't be learned." In other words a foreigner who may or may not have engaged in massive criminal activity and/or dealt with Iran, Afghanistan, or any other bogeyman du jour at some point in their past, and is using US real estate merely as a money-laundering front perhaps? Sadly, we will never know. Why? As explained before, it is all thanks to the National Association of Realtors - those wonderful people who bring you the existing home sales update every month (with a documented upward bias every single time) - which just so happens is the only organization that actively lobbied for and received an exemption from AML regulation compliance. In other words, unlike HSBC, the NAR is untouchable, even if it were to sell a triplex to Ahmedinejad on West 57th street.

As a reminder, here is where the NAR stands on the issue of its most generous clients possibly being some of the worst criminal known to man, courtesy of Elanus Capital:

Many of you reading this will undoubtedly have spent time in an international bank and been forced to sit through countless hours of “know your client” and AML training. Fascinating to note that the National Association of Realtors lobbied for and received a waiver from such regulation. That’s right, realtors actually went to the U.S. government and said: we want to be able to help foreign business oligarchs and other nefarious business people launder money through the real estate markets of the United States – and prevailed.

Here's their official position:

"NAR supports continued efforts to combat money laundering and the financing of terrorism through the regulation of entities using a risk-based analysis. Any risk-based assessment would likely find very little risk of money laundering involving real estate agents or brokers. Regulations that would require real estate agents and brokers to adopt anti-money laundering programs may prove to be burdensome and unnecessary given the existing ML/TF regulations that already apply to United States financial institutions."

Hat’s off to the NAR – that is some serious doublespeak. My translation: We’ll support you as long as we don’t have to support you.
If after skimming the above, readers are still confused what the reason is for the luxury segment of the US housing market continuing to rise in price even as all other segments of the quadruplicate US housing market as explained here languish, we suggest rereading it as many times as necessary.

Some more on where the world's criminal come to launder their cash, with the express permission of the NAR and the US government:

The high-end market in South Florida has picked up in recent months, with a number of sales well above the $10 million mark. The previous county record was broken in March when another home on Indian Creek sold for nearly $40 million to hedge-fund manager Edward S. Lampert, according to local brokers. In May, a South Beach penthouse apartment owned by the family that controls the Birkenstock shoe company sold for $25 million, a record price for an apartment, according to local brokers.

But why does the NAR and the government ignore the fact that some of the biggest marginal buyers are precisely those peope who HSBC and Std Chartered are being punished for transacting with? Why because by laundering their blood money, they are allowing the Fed and Congress to say that "housing has bottomed" and the US economy is now improving.

Readers should now be quite clear why the various segments of the US regulatory and enforcement authority will perpetually turn a blind eye to the one true transgressor when it comes to encouraging money laundering on US soil - the NAR, and its massive lobby - and instead will scapegoat this bank in London, or that bank in Hong Kong.

At least until such time as no readily available scapegoats are available, and the cannibalization begins.

[Sabrina]

Yet more on Standard Charter - what does this really mean as Sorcha Faal would say?? :)

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/08/us-standardchartered-iran-idUSBRE8750VM20120808

Exclusive: Regulators irate at NY action against StanChart

(Reuters) - The Treasury Department and Federal Reserve were blindsided and angered by New York's banking regulator's decision to launch an explosive attack on Standard Chartered Plc over $250 billion in alleged money laundering transactions tied to Iran, sources familiar with the situation said.

By going it alone through the order he issued on Monday, Benjamin Lawsky, head of the recently created New York State Department of Financial Services, also complicates talks between the Treasury and London-based Standard Chartered to settle claims over the transactions, several of the sources said.

Lawsky's stunning move, which included releasing embarrassing communications and details of the bank's alleged defiance of U.S. sanctions against Iran, is rewriting the playbook on how foreign banks settle cases involving the processing of shadowy funds tied to sanctioned countries. In the past, such cases have usually been settled through negotiation - with public shaming kept to a minimum.

In his order, Lawsky said Standard Chartered's dealings exposed the U.S. banking system to terrorists, drug traffickers and corrupt states.

But the upset expressed by some federal officials, who were given virtually no notice of the New York move, may provide ammunition for Standard Chartered to portray the allegations as coming from a relatively new and over-zealous regulator.

But, given the content of the order - which described Standard Chartered as a "rogue institution" that "schemed" with the Iranian government and hid from law enforcement officials some 60,000 secret transactions over nearly 10 years - the bank may need to come up with a strong defense.

Lawsky did not respond to several requests for comment on Tuesday.

A spokesperson for the Federal Reserve said it had been working closely with various prosecutorial offices on matters involving Iran and other sanctioned entities, but could not comment on ongoing investigations.

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said the government takes alleged violations of sanctions "extremely seriously" and the Treasury remains in close contact with federal and state authorities on the matter. The Treasury declined to add to that comment.

SHARES SINK

New York's attack on Standard Chartered's integrity, and a threat to revoke its state banking license, wiped $17 billion off the bank's market value on Tuesday.

Shares in Standard Chartered slumped to a 3-year low of 10.92 pounds in London on Tuesday before closing down 16.4 percent at 12.28 pounds. The stock has fallen by a quarter since news of the New York action on Monday.

The loss of a New York banking license - effectively a permit to conduct transactions worth hundreds of billions of U.S. dollars — could be a death knell for a global bank like Standard Chartered. The 160-year-old bank said it has been in talks with U.S. authorities over its Iran transactions since early 2010 and the sudden accusations by New York were a shock.

In a statement on Monday, the bank said it was "engaged in ongoing discussions with the relevant U.S. agencies. Resolution of such matters normally proceeds through a coordinated approach by such agencies. The Group was therefore surprised to receive the order from (the New York bank regulator) given that discussions with the agencies were ongoing."

Lawsky's move also undercut the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), which has made a priority of enforcing economic sanctions against Iran. The surprise left the office's leader, David Cohen, the undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, scrambling to come up with a response, sources said.

NO QUIET DEAL

Standard Chartered, which sought the advice of one of New York's top law firms, had hoped that coming clean and turning over internal records to federal regulators would yield a settlement, sources said.

Those records also were turned over to New York's bank regulator, which last year was combined with an insurance agency to create the new financial watchdog headed by Lawsky, a former prosecutor and aide to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.

Lawsky's aim, according to the sources, was to cast more light on a bank's alleged transgressions. His agency, these people said, wasn't interested in a quiet pact of the sort reached by federal authorities in recent years.

In 2010, for example, Barclays Plc paid $298 million in a settlement with regulators including the Treasury Department's sanctions regulator and the Manhattan district attorney's office. The bank, in settlement documents, said it cooperated in the probe.

Barclays, like Standard Chartered, was advised by Sullivan & Cromwell, known as the go-to New York law firm for banks facing regulatory scrutiny. The Barclays settlement, while receiving news coverage, was a fairly bland document that listed the bank's transactions but few insider details, such as emails. Other banks, including Credit Suisse and ING, have settled in much the same way with U.S. regulators.

HUGE GULF

One area of sharp disagreement between Lawsky and Standard Chartered is just how much in illicit funds is involved. The bank put the value of Iran-related transactions that did not comply with regulations at less than $14 million. Lawsky estimated them at $250 billion.

The regulator said Standard Chartered moved money through its New York branch on behalf of Iranian financial clients, including the Central Bank of Iran and state-owned Bank Saderat and Bank Melli, that were subject to U.S. sanctions - generating hundreds of millions of dollars in fees.

At the center of concern were alleged "U-Turn" transactions, involving money moved for Iranian clients among banks in Britain and the Middle East and cleared through Standard Chartered's New York branch, but which neither started nor ended in Iran.

While the United States imposed economic sanctions on Iran in 1979, these so-called "U-Turn" transactions were outlawed only in November 2008 amid Treasury Department concerns they were being used to evade sanctions, and that Iran was using banks to fund nuclear and missile development programs.

Lawsky's order alleged that even as some banks exited the U-Turn transactions, Standard Chartered hustled to "take the abandoned market share."

David Proctor, who worked for Standard Chartered from 1999 until 2006 and who oversaw the Iran business briefly in 2006 when he was CEO in the United Arab Emirates, said the rules on dealing with Iran were unclear.

"At the time (May 2006), ... the key question was to try and understand exactly what counted as a U-turn transaction," he said. Proctor, who now provides advice for banks with BAS Consulting in Singapore, said Standard Chartered now has to help clear up what actually happened. "Banks these days don't have a choice," he said. "You have to be transparent."

BACK FROM HOLIDAY

As part of a review the bank sought to give to regulators, Standard Chartered hired Promontory Financial Group, a Washington D.C. consulting firm run by Eugene Ludwig, who served as U.S. Comptroller of the Currency from 1993-98. Promontory was hired to review Standard Chartered's transactions tied to Iran. The bank's review ultimately settled on the figure of less than $14 million for improper transactions.

Lawsky's agency also received the Standard Chartered internal review, according to people familiar with the situation. But the new regulator had little interest in a settlement that didn't yield embarrassing details about Standard Chartered's activities, these people said.

Earlier this year, Standard Chartered representatives met with Lawsky's office to argue that the illicit transactions were a technical violation, according to one source. Lawsky's investigators weren't convinced, this person said.

The bank, which must appear before the New York regulator on August 15, has said Lawsky's interpretation of the U-turn exemption is "incorrect as a matter of law."

Standard Chartered Chief Executive Peter Sands scrambled back from vacation to help the bank plan a defense and limit damage to its reputation.

The bank has hired two prominent law firms - Sullivan & Cromwell in New York and Slaughter and May in London - to represent it in its dealings with various U.S. authorities over transactions linked to Iran. Among the Sullivan & Cromwell partners working for Standard Chartered is Rodgin Cohen, one of the best-known U.S. corporate lawyers, a person familiar with the matter said. Sullivan & Cromwell has represented other non-U.S. banks probed for allegedly ignoring U.S. sanctions against countries.

ATTACK ON LONDON?

The broadside against Standard Chartered has touched a nerve in Britain, where some investors, and at least one lawmaker, have alleged it might be part of a plot by U.S. authorities to undermine London as a banking center.

Standard Chartered is the third British bank to be ensnared in U.S. law enforcement probes in recent weeks. Barclays in June agreed to pay $453 million to settle U.S. and British probes that it rigged the Libor benchmark, and, a month later, a U.S. Senate panel issued a scathing report criticizing HSBC's efforts to police suspect transactions, including Mexican drug traffickers.

"I think it's a concerted effort that's been organized at the top of the U.S. government. This is Washington trying to win a commercial battle to have trading from London shifted to New York," said John Mann, a member of parliament's finance committee who also called for a parliamentary inquiry.

Mann, from the centre-left Labour party, has become a public scourge of London bankers' greed during the financial crisis. But he told Reuters he saw "anti-British bias" behind "disproportionate publicity that's given to British banking problems as opposed to American banking problems".

A British executive at an institution which ranks among Standard Chartered's top 25 shareholders also saw a politically motivated move by U.S. officials irked by the major role London plays in the global financial industry, attracting big investments from major U.S. banks like JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.

"Are we starting to see an anti-London bias in U.S. regulatory activities?" the executive asked. "Oh yes. Is there any subtle form of banking sector protectionism going on? Yes."

[Sabrina]

http://newsandinsight.thomsonreuters.com/Legal/News/2012/07_-_July/Goldman_to_pay_$26_6_mln_in_mortgage_debt_class-action/

Goldman to pay $26.6 mln in mortgage debt class-action

July 31 (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs Group Inc has agreed to pay $26.6 million to settle a lawsuit by investors who claimed they were misled into buying securities backed by risky loans from the now-defunct subprime mortgage lender New century Financial Corp.

Investors led by the Public Employees' Retirement System of Mississippi claimed that Goldman's boilerplate disclosures for the $698 million GSAMP Trust 2006-S2 were false and misleading by failing to reveal how New Century had ignored its own underwriting standards and used inflated appraisals.

They also faulted Goldman's due diligence for failing to find the problems when it bought New Century loans and packaged them into securities for the 2006 offering. New Century went bankrupt the following year.

Goldman spokeswoman Tiffany Galvin declined to comment.

The case is one of many in which investors sought to hold banks responsible for allegedly misleading them about the quality of mortgage securities that they sold.

Bank of America Corp's Merrill Lynch unit settled one such case for $315 million, while Wells Fargo & Co settled another for $125 million.

Goldman's settlement calls for the Wall Street bank to pay $21.3 million to investors, or just $20 million if Dutch pension fund Stichting Pensionenfonds ABP, which has separately sued Goldman, were to chose not to join the class. Another $5.3 million would go toward legal fees and other expenses.

The settlement requires approval by U.S. District Judge Harold Baer in Manhattan.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs said that when the lawsuit began in February 2009, investors had received more than $396 million of principal and interest on the GSAMP securities, while $177 million was outstanding and the rest had been written off.

Noting that Goldman was "aggressively challenging damages," which they said could range from "near zero" to $320 million, the lawyers called the proposed settlement "extremely beneficial" in light of this range and the risk of litigation.

Baer had awarded class-action status in February, rejecting Goldman's arguments that some of the investors were "highly sophisticated" and might even have had "storm warnings" about New Century's practices.

Goldman in 2010 agreed to pay $550 million to settle U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission fraud charges over a collateralized debt obligation it sold, Abacus 2007-AC1 CDO.

The case is Public Employees' Retirement System of Mississippi v. Goldman Sachs Group Inc et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 09-01110.

[Sabrina]

http://americankabuki.blogspot.co.uk/

FDIC and Fed issue "Notice of Proposed Rulemaking"
to adopt Basel III


Thanks to Les for this information:

FDIC and Fed issue "Notice of Proposed Rulemaking" to adopt Basel III

Last week, the FDIC and the Fed issued a "Notice of Proposed Rulemaking" to adopt the Basel III capital requirements. If this new rule is adopted as proposed, gold would shift to a zero-risk weighting for purposes of calculating bank capital by the year 2015. Such a move would eventually place gold at the heart of global currency and payment systems -- seemingly a shift back towards a gold standard.

This action is a strong confirmation that gold's primary trend will likely continue.

http://www.fdic.gov/news/board/2012/2012-06-12_notice_dis-b_mem.pdf

http://www.federalreserve.gov/aboutthefed/boardmeetings/risk-based_leverage_capital_requirements_FR_final_draft_20120607.pdf

http://www.treasury.gov/initiatives/fsoc/Documents/2012%20Regulatory%20Developments;%20Council%20Activities.pdf

http://www.kpmg.com/US/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/dodd-frank-series/Documents/dodd-frank-beyond-newsletter-june-2012.pdf

[Sabrina]

http://www.veteransnewsnow.com/2012/08/07/the-two-faces-of-a-police-state-sheltering-tax-evaders-financial-swindlers-and-money-launderers-while-policing-the-citizens/

7 Aug US

The Two Faces of a Police State: Sheltering Tax Evaders, Financial Swindlers and Money Launderers while Policing the Citizens

Overwhelming documentation supports the notion that the US police and judicial system has totally broken down when it comes to enforcing the law of the land regarding crimes among the financial, banking, corporate elite.

by James Petras

Introduction

Never in the history of the United States have we witnessed crimes committed on the scale and scope of the present day by both private and state elites.

James S. Henry is a leading economist, attorney and investigative journalist..

An economist of impeccable credentials, James Henry, former chief economist at the prestigious consulting firm McKinsey & Company, has researched and documented tax evasion. He found that the super-wealthy and their families have as much as $32 trillion (USD) of hidden assets in offshore tax havens, representing up to $280 billion in lost income tax revenue! This study excluded such non-financial assets as real estate, precious metals, jewels, yachts, race horses, luxury vehicles and so on. Of the $32 trillion in hidden assets, $23 trillion is held by the super-rich of North America and Europe.

A recent report by a United Nations Special Committee on Money Laundering found that US and European banks laundered over $300 billion a year, including $30 billion just from the Mexican drug cartels.

New reports on the multi-billion dollar financial swindles involving the major banks in the US and Europe are published each week. England’s leading banks, including Barclay’s and a host of others, have been identified as having rigged the LIBOR, or inter-bank lending rate, for years in order to maximize profits. The Bank of New York, JP Morgan, HSBC, Wachovia and Citibank are among scores of banks, which have been charged with laundering drug money and other illicit funds according to investigations from the US Senate Banking Committees. Multi-national corporations receive federal bailout funds and tax exemptions and then, in violation of publicized agreements with the government, relocate plants and jobs in Asia and Mexico.


full story at link

[Sabrina]

YH0_JQW--gc

[ThePythonicCow]

http://beforeitsnews.com/economy/2012/08/this-is-exactly-what-happened-days-before-911-at-10-am-the-stock-exchange-trading-went-off-the-charts-video-2444664.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

Todays Stock Market Activity Is EXACTLY What Happened Days Before 911, – Video (1 AUg)

By Josey Wales

Today Stock Exchange trading went off the charts with 2000% increases instantly. This is EXACTLY what happened 2 days before 911. It's happening again!


Aha -- I should have checked your thread earlier. We have gotten involved in a discussion of this report on another thread, and were having trouble tracking down the original report. You already had the report and the link, days ago :). See various posts by Carmody, gripreaper, Bill Ryan, myself and others here (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?36083-Mitchell-Coombes-Does-he-really-have-access-to-insider-info&p=534653&viewfull=1#post534653) for the present discussion.

[Sabrina]

Very interesting on the Standard Chartered story ...


http://hat4uk.wordpress.com/2012/08/08/revealed-why-the-standard-chartered-scandal-is-different/

8 Aug


REVEALED: Why the Standard Chartered scandal is different

Benjamin Lawsky – Eliot Ness or New York commercial agent?

SCB charges: DSK-style grab at Dollar trading?

Standard Chartered heads for takeover territory

Leaks & rivalry between State and Fed authorities

What Labour MP John Mann calls “a concerted effort to win the commercial battle to have trading from London shifted to New York” is beginning look only partly correct. Over the last 24 hours, Slog sources and reports in several MSM titles suggest that geopolitical deals, domestic political victimisation, Wall St games, and internecine US governmental rivalries are also involved.

In and around the corridors of Standard Chartered Bank’s senior management floor, people are in something of a daze. There is, I’m told, a genuine befuddlement as to why SCB has suddenly had such serious charges launched against it…and why the near-legendary CEO Peter Sands has been seemingly caught on the hop by them.

Standard Chartered does not in any way fit the profile of the Wicked Investment Bank: although most of its British contemporaries have been bailed out, Sands has guided this august institution to huge profits in the worst of all times. But as the senior management stresses, Standard Chartered does not have an investment bank. No derivative paper trails, silly sovereign debtors, or dodgy tax haven products for them, we are told: astute investment flair and loyal, grateful clients are the basis of their undoubted success. Hmm.

“I simply can’t believe it,” said one such client yesterday, “in no way do these severe accusations reflect the bank I’ve known for over twenty years.”

It wasn’t just that New York state Monday evening threatened to revoke SCB’s licence – and charge the bank with a cool $250 billion worth of secret transactions with Iran. It was the concerted way in which NYS wound up the media into a frenzy of bile. Standard Chartered had, said the prosecutor’s office, been “operating as a rogue institution”, conducting in excess of 60,000 illegal deals with the Ayatollahs in Tehran, some of which – it charged – had “exposed the United States to extreme danger from terrorists”.

In a 27-page order, the Superintendent of Financial Services Benjamin Lawsky of DFS said that “grounds exist for revocation of Standard Chartered Bank’s licence to operate in the State of New York and that interim measures must be taken to protect the public interest.” In turn, the order accused Standard Chartered of being ‘motivated by greed.’

And ‘thinking’ opinion in New York was quick to jump on the wagon:

“It’s not going to be helpful that the management team was basking in the glory saying that they weren’t hit by compliance scandals,” said Gary Greenwood at Shore Capital. “It doesn’t look good as they probably ought to have known this was going on.”

The real rogue here is Lawsky and his office. Effectively, Standard Chartered is being perped…and the commentariat already has Sands down as guilty.

Having studied the DSK case from the outset, I’m getting a very strong feeling of deja vu on this one.

Here are some facts worth noting:

1. Standard Chartered’s U.S. dollar clearing business is the seventh largest in the world.

2. Lawsky’s filing is compelling, but he jumped the gun – why? The Treasury Department’s Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence is normally ruthless in such cases. These are very, very powerful guys. For them not to have pursued it anywhere as aggressively as a vastly less well wartered provincial regulator – particularly when Iran is now the designated Enemy Satan – is, shall we say, somewhat malodorous.

3. Standard Chartered shares have fallen by a quarter since news of the New York action on Monday. If that continues, they are soon going to be a takeover target. (see Pt 1 above)

4. Although I began this investigation Monday evening BST, this morning Reuters reports that ‘Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Controls (OFAC) has been blind-sided and angered’ by Lawsky’s action. Yesterday (Tuesday), a solid source in New York throughout the DSK case told me that there were “huge doubts about this case in my circle. I doubt very much if Standard Chartered is completely pure in all this, but there are all kinds of politics behind it – foreign and domestic, by the way”.

5. SCB notes that ‘In January 2010, the Group voluntarily approached all relevant US agencies, including the DFS, and informed them that we had initiated a review of historical US dollar transactions and their compliance with US sanctions…The Group waived its attorney-client and work product privileges to ensure that all the US agencies would receive all relevant information.’ This I know to be an entirely accurate assertion. In fact, I am told that OFAC had the same information flow as New York State, but did diddly-squat about it for two years or so. Why?

6. A trend is appearing over time in these suddenly emerging cases (almost all of which involve British owned or HQ’d banks) that suggests the Federal authorities were telling the media that banks were cooperating when they weren’t. It isn’t rocket science from there to assume that the deals, fines and plea bargains mélange was in operation: there must have been a lot of “OK guys, we know – and you know that we know – so, we can hit you hard, and save alot of money and be much more pleasant on the pain issues…or we can hit you so hard that your heart will stop. Whaddya think?”

A City source this morning: “I think they [SCB] were caught napping because the Feds had told them it was cool and then up pops some bloke in New York and they weren’t expecting it”. Also confirmed by this in the Reuters article: ‘Standard Chartered, which sought the advice of one of New York’s top law firms, had hoped that coming clean and turning over internal records to federal regulators would yield a settlement, sources said.’

Fair enough. But what was Lawsky’s motive for doing that?

7. A West Coast US banking source insists that there was a leak from Federal to New York State authorities: “No question in our minds about that. Some spoiling tactics are in play here, and somebody well-briefed in the Government wanted the truth out in the open.” Why – bruised ethics? Or geopolitical pour encourager les autres? Possibly connected: the Reuters piece quotes ‘a Federal Reserve spokesman’ as saying his employer ‘had been working closely with various prosecutorial offices on matters involving Iran and other sanctioned entities, but could not comment on ongoing investigations.’

8. It seems clear that some form of domestic internecine war is going on about this in the US: one New York contact says that there is “the odd Eliott Ness nut prepared to reveal sleaze at the federal level”. For me, this is given added weight by the venom, and the detailed examples of malfeasance, offered this time compared to, for example, the Barclays case. Standard Chartered, for example, puts the all-up total of Iran-related anti-sanction grubby stuff at less than $14 million. Lawsky says bollocks, it was $250 billion. That’s not exactly a consensus of estimates.

So there we have it: plenty of speculation and a reasonable amount of logic behind it. Labour MP and anti-bank activist John Mann says, “I think it’s a concerted effort that’s been organized at the top of the U.S. government. This is Washington trying to win a commercial battle to have trading from London shifted to New York.”

He could be right: but it still doesn’t explain Lawsky’s pre-emptive strike. However, I’ve been saying for months that the US financial and political elites are looking for culprits and alibis for the Tsunami of crap soon to descend on all of us. There is now overwhelming evidence of attempts from Obama downwards to finger EU sloth and British malpractice as the ‘root cause’ of America’s ‘torpedoed recovery’. It’s bollocks, but it will play well in November. Reuters again:

‘A British executive at an institution which ranks among Standard Chartered’s top 25 shareholders also saw a politically motivated move by U.S. officials irked by the major role London plays in the global financial industry, attracting big investments from major U.S. banks like JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.

“Are we starting to see an anti-London bias in U.S. regulatory activities?” the executive asked. “Oh yes.” “Is there any subtle form of banking sector protectionism going on?” “Yes.”‘

This is yet another one to watch. Stay tuned.

[Sabrina]

http://the2012scenario.com/2012/08/containment-of-africas-leaders-and-despots-continues-now-in-mainstream/#more-138742


Containment of Africa’s Leaders and Despots Continues – Now in Mainstream
Stephen: We’ve seen several ‘powerful’ African leaders literally disappear off the radar lately, as they have been moved into Containment.

First up, former Egyptian Vice President, Omar Suleiman ‘moved on’ in a Cleveland hospital in July: http://the2012scenario.com/2012/07/containment-continues-former-egypt-vp-dies-in-cleveland/. Then there has been a number of Congolese and other ‘rebel’ leaders who’ve been tried, jailed or simply removed from their posts.

But what is most interesting this week is that, in a nation where it is often said that ‘leaders rule for life’, the ‘disappearances’ of Africa’s many rogue powerbrokers are increasingly being covered or noted by mainstream media.

And even more intriguing – as seen in the first of the two stories below, regarding Ethiopia’s Prime Minister who has been ‘missing’ for seven weeks now after a long reign of fear – is that what we know of as containment, is suddenly being described by mainstream journalists as an “information blackout”. Which, I suppose, is a ‘containment’ of sorts, isn’t it?

This first story, and the second story below from Associated Press, both include an overview of other newly ‘missing’ African leaders. I have posted them both to show how wide and necessary the reach of containment is across the African continent – and how mainstream media outlets are finally ‘on to it’. Thanks to sage for research help.

Story 1: Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi Not Seen for Seven Weeks
Addis Ababa mute on whereabouts of PM – latest African leader believed to be unwell but subject of information blackout

By Afua Hirsch, The Guardian -0 August 8, 2012

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/08/ethiopia-meles-zenawai-not-seen

He hasn’t been seen in public since the G8 summit in Mexico, and since then Ethiopia’s prime minister, Meles Zenawi, has even missed the African Union summit held in his own capital city, Addis Ababa.

Zenawi, 57, usually a conspicuous figure at meetings of African and international heads of state, has now been missing for more than seven weeks, amid growing incredulity.

Government sources in the secretive African nation say that Meles – who was seen looking frail before his disappearance – is resting but well, but more than one eyebrow has been raised at the reasons for his absence. “The Prime Minister is on vacation recovering from illness,” an Ethiopian government source told the Guardian. “There has been a lot of ill-meant speculation about his health.”

But there have been numerous reports that Meles traveled to Europe for medical treatment, prompting debate about its success as his recovery period continues unabated. Some media reports have claimed Meles visited the Saint-Luc hospital in Belgium, while the Egyptian state information service reported that Meles underwent surgery in Germany, prompting a cable of good wishes from President Mohamed Morsi.

The Ethiopian press – regarded as one of the least free in Africa – has also reported that Meles is recovering from medical treatment. Experts say there is widespread confusion as to the fate of the prime minister, even within the secretive ruling party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).

“It is a mystery what has happened to Meles and not even his own ministers know his fate,” an exiled Ethiopian source said. “Media in Ethiopia have been getting it wrong and have now dropped the story altogether.” Some analysts have claimed that Meles will not return to power at all, after a senior member of the TPLF, Sibhat Nega, stated that the party was working on a power succession and that the regime could continue in the event of “individuals” dying or leaving the government.

The death of president John Atta Mills in Ghana last month led to a rare broadcast on Ethiopian state TV on how to mourn the death of a leader, which has also fuelled speculation that Meles’s health may be further deteriorating. It is not the first time that an African government has failed to confirm the illness or death of a leader in office, prompting periods of mysterious absence.

A century ago Emperor Menelik II, the founder of modern imperial Ethiopia, was buried in 1913 without any public announcement after he had been incapacitated by a stroke for several years, leaving the administration of the country in the hands of a specially appointed council.

More recently, the late Nigerian president Umaru Yar’Adua was neither seen nor heard from for almost six months – apart from one phone interview with the BBC – between travelling to Saudi Arabia for medical treatment, and his eventual death in May 2010.

Earlier this year news of president Bingu wa Mutharika of Malawi’s death was leaked to the press, but not confirmed by the government for 24 hours, prompting fears of a power struggle and nearly triggering a constitutional crisis before he was eventually succeeded by the current president, Joyce Banda.

The tendency to shroud the sickness and deaths of leaders has been repeatedly criticised for destabilising often fragile democracies and triggering secretive succession crises. There have been a flurry of searches and social media interactions on the fate of Meles by Ethiopians – including a popular #WhereIsMeles hashtag on twitter, but his absence from government is of concern to donors, who pump almost $4bn (£2.6bn) of aid into Ethiopia every year.

It is thought that deputy prime minister and foreign minister, Hailemariam Desalegn, is temporarily in charge, alongside other members of the ruling party. But one diplomatic source in Addis Ababa said that no western government was sure as to the whereabouts or fate of the Ethiopian leader.

Meles, who came to power in 1991 following a 30-year war that toppled the Soviet-backed regime of former president Mengistu Haile Mariam, has long been popular with donors for his record of delivering growth to Ethiopia, whose economy has been growing at an estimated 9% per year for almost a decade.

Ethiopia receives hundreds of millions of dollars in aid and support from the US, which welcomes its peacekeeping and military intervention in neighbouring conflicts in Somalia and Sudan. But Meles is viewed by many as a dictator who has stifled democracy and used draconian methods to silence dissent. The Committee to Protect Journalists, which regularly condemns the trial and imprisonment of journalists in Ethiopia, says that one newspaper – the weekly Feteh – was ordered by the government to block dissemination of 30,000 copies reporting on the prime minister’s whereabouts.

“The ban on Feteh’s latest issue illustrates the depth of repression in Ethiopia today and authorities’ determination to suppress independent coverage of the prime minister,” said Tom Rhodes of the CPJ. “Every citizen has a right to be informed about the wellbeing of their leader and the conduct of their government.”

Background story link: Meles Zenawi: Ethiopia’s pragmatic philosopher-king or cruel despot?

Story 2: Sick African Leaders Tout Health Until the End
Stephen: Obviously, judging by the last quote at the end of this story, the power of the Light will always win. Even if these leaders don’t want to ‘give’ it away.


Ghana’s John Atta Mills

By Krists Larson and other Associated Press writers -Rukmini Callimachi in Dakar, Senegal and Laura Burke in Accra, Ghana – August 8, 2012

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/sick-african-leaders-tout-health-end-16957671#.UCMJIaPYwVB

DAKAR, Senegal August 8, 2012 (AP) – The rumors started to swirl around Ghana in June: President John Atta Mills was ill, maybe too sick to seek re-election, and he was going abroad to seek medical treatment. Some radio stations went so far as to prematurely report his death.

Eager to deny the speculation, Atta Mills jogged at the airport upon his return in a display of his vigor. The following month, though, the 68-year-old was dead. Many lined up in the capital, Accra, where his body was laid in a casket draped in the national colors of red, yellow and green on Wednesday to pay their respects before his burial Friday.

In a part of the world where presidents traditionally have ruled for life, Atta Mills is only the latest West African leader to show that “routine checkup” can be the code word for much graver troubles.

Many longtime rulers in the region have feared coups or power grabs if they were perceived as vulnerable. Though even in a mature democracy like Ghana, those around Atta Mills still tried to protect his image of strength until the very end.

“I think it’s a little bit about power — when you taste it and you really don’t want to give it up whether you’re sick or healthy,” says Kwame Tufour, 36, who owns an energy company in Ghana. “I think it kind of got to his head.”

Political calculation certainly plays a part in an election year, as there can be repercussions if a party’s standard bearer is seen as weak, said J. Peter Pham, director of the Africa program at the Washington-based Atlantic Council.

While Ghana is an exception as a stable democracy, Pham said earlier strongmen in the region tended to concentrate power in their own hands until their deaths.

“You didn’t vote for a party with a platform if you voted at all,” he said. “Leadership was viewed and functioned as the figure that you followed.”

Speculation on leaders’ health isn’t unique to West Africa — 88-year-old Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe insists he’s “fit as a fiddle” despite reports he’s battling prostate cancer. Few regions, though, can cite as many examples.

Only hours before the death of Gabon President Omar Bongo — at one time the world’s longest-serving president — his prime minister described him as “alive and well.”

And Nigeria’s late President Umaru Yar’Adua grew so weak while in office he once had to be carried off a runway by a soldier during a state visit to Togo, according to a book by his former spokesman. The military officer assigned to Yar’Adua apparently draped traditional robes over his arm to conceal what was happening.

State-run television was told to only film one side of his face when the other side was swollen, according to the book by Olusegun Adeniyi.

The National Assembly ultimately voted extra-constitutionally to empower then-Vice President Goodluck Jonathan to serve as acting president for Nigeria.

The health and undisclosed illness of late Guinean strongman Lansana Conte also was a topic of national debate for years before his 2008 death. Rumors of his death surfaced periodically, including in 2003 when he was forced to go on TV to deny them.

The week before he died, the editor of a local paper was arrested after publishing a picture of the frail leader struggling to stand up. A spokesman for the president went on TV to assure the nation that Conte was not ill.

The newspaper was ordered to print a photograph of Conte, showing him in good health.

In Ghana, opposition newspapers in the weeks before Atta Mills’ death had started questioning whether the president was healthy enough to seek a second term in December.

The late Ghanaian leader was apparently in a coma for at least a day — possibly two — before he died, said a government official in neighboring Ivory Coast who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.

The official said the Ghanaians did such a good job hiding it that even the intelligence services of Ghana’s closest allies were not aware of his state of health.

Eugene Oppong, 40, a driving instructor, said Ghanaians had started to notice recently that Atta Mills had grown lean, spoke with a raspy voice, and frequently took sips of water while giving speeches.

Still, Oppong said Atta Mills was right to stay in office until his death, and he called speculation about the president’s health before his death disrespectful.

“So far as you still have your power and you’re alive, you don’t need to give your power to someone else,” he said.

¤=[Post Update]=¤

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/08/10/uk-banking-libor-reform-idUKBRE8790B620120810

10 Aug


Libor rate overhaul launched by FSA


(Reuters) - Libor benchmark interest rates are no longer "fit for purpose" and must be changed or replaced, Britain's regulator said on Friday as he set out proposals to restore their credibility.

The initial review by the Financial Services Authority is the first concrete step to reforming Libor after a rigging scandal that has implicated global banks and hurt the reputation of regulators on both sides of the Atlantic.

"The existing structure and governance of Libor is no longer fit for purpose and reform is needed," the FSA's managing director, Martin Wheatley, said.

"It's completely untenable that we can go forward without some level of regulatory change," Wheatley added.

The future of other benchmarks - for everything from oil and gold to stock prices - was also under scrutiny, he told a Bloomberg News event.

The London Interbank Offered Rate, known as Libor, sets prices for everything from credit card payments to complex derivatives, but its credibility has been damaged since it emerged that it had been manipulated by the big banks that set it.

Wheatley's review was ordered after British bank Barclays was fined more than $450 million for rigging Libor. Lenders such as Royal Bank of Scotland also face fines.

In his proposals, Wheatley makes clear alternative benchmarks to Libor should be used in some cases while the calculation of the rates themselves needs to be done differently to make it harder to fiddle.

"The short and medium term focus has to fix Libor and then there is a broader question about whether there are better rates going forward," Wheatley said.

"Ultimately it's a market solution as to what is used. Our responsibility is to make sure that widely used benchmarks have integrity."

Benchmarks would be based less on judgment and more on actual trades, he suggests. Banks could also be obliged to contribute to setting Libor to widen participation.

Until now, membership of the Libor rate setting panel has been the preserve of a small group of banks, which volunteer daily estimates for the rates at which they would borrow different currencies for different periods.

CONTRACTS LINKED

It was impossible to replace Libor straight away because so many contracts were linked to it and it might not be possible to replace completely because alternatives are not perfect, Wheatley told Reuters on Thursday.

Basing benchmarks on actual trades would raise the problem of what to do when there were no trades for a specific rate, but Wheatley suggested that could be addressed through "interpolation" from more frequently traded rates.

The industry will have until September 7 to respond to Wheatley's review with final recommendations to be made by the end of next month. Some of those are expected to be enshrined in a new law next year, with changes to bank practices introduced earlier.

Wheatley expects London to continue with "something called Libor" -- probably based on a narrower range of currencies and periods -- while other financial centres set up their own versions with the market deciding which ones to use.

Bank of England Governor Mervyn King told fellow central bankers in July that radical reforms of the Libor system were needed and called a meeting in September to discuss it.

The tougher regulation for benchmark interest rates could be extended to stock market indices and benchmarks for commodity prices such as oil and gold, Wheatley said. Although stock indices are based on trades, the others are often set by panels and less transparent.

There was no timeline for any reform of these other benchmarks and such changes would likely need to be agreed at the global level, he said.

Supervision of Libor could be handled by a "college of supervisors" from across the world with Britain in the chair, Wheatley said.

This may not satisfy other regulators, however.

There have been calls in the United States for a locally supervised alternative to Libor. The European Union has floated the idea of the European Central Bank regulating Euribor, the euro-denominated rate.

Thomson Reuters, parent company of Reuters, calculates and distributes Libor rates on behalf of the British Bankers' Association.

Wheatley cast doubt on the banking body's future oversight role in Libor setting.

"It still remains an open question as to whether, from an industry perspective, it's still the best body to continue with that function," he said.

The BBA said on Friday the "absolute priority" was to provide a reliable benchmark which has the confidence of all.

[Sabrina]

Some interesting reporting coming out of Reuters at the moment:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/10/us-banks-recoveryplans-idUSBRE87905N20120810

10 Aug

Exclusive: U.S. banks told to make plans for preventing collapse

(Reuters) - U.S. regulators directed five of the country's biggest banks, including Bank of America Corp and Goldman Sachs Group Inc, to develop plans for staving off collapse if they faced serious problems, emphasizing that the banks could not count on government help.

The two-year-old program, which has been largely secret until now, is in addition to the "living wills" the banks crafted to help regulators dismantle them if they actually do fail. It shows how hard regulators are working to ensure that banks have plans for worst-case scenarios and can act rationally in times of distress.

Officials like Lehman Brothers former Chief Executive Dick Fuld have been criticized for having been too hesitant to take bold steps to solve their banks' problems during the financial crisis.

According to documents obtained by Reuters, the Federal Reserve and the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency first directed five banks - which also include Citigroup Inc,, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase & Co - to come up with these "recovery plans" in May 2010.

They told banks to consider drastic efforts to prevent failure in times of distress, including selling off businesses, finding other funding sources if regular borrowing markets shut them out, and reducing risk. The plans must be feasible to execute within three to six months, and banks were to "make no assumption of extraordinary support from the public sector," according to the documents.

Spokespeople for the five banks declined to comment. The Federal Reserve also declined to comment.

Recovery plans differ from living wills, also known as "resolution plans," which are required under the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform law. Living wills aim to end bailouts of too-big-to-fail banks by showing how they would liquidate themselves without imperiling the financial system.

"Recovery plans are about protecting the crown jewels," said Paul Cantwell, a managing director at consulting firm Alvarez & Marsal. "It's about, 'How do I sell off non-core assets?' The priority is to the shareholders. A resolution plan is about protecting the system, taxpayers and creditors."

The recovery plans are being used as part of regulators' ongoing supervisory process. In Britain, recovery and resolution plans have both been part of the living will requirements for large banks.

Mike Brosnan, senior deputy comptroller for large banks at the OCC, said the regulator continuously evaluates contingency planning at the banks and savings associations it supervises.

"Recovery plans required of the largest banks are helpful in ensuring banks and regulators are prepared to manage periods of severe financial distress or instability affecting the banking sector," he said.

This summer, nine global banks submitted living wills to the Fed and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, and regulators released the public portion of the documents.

The recovery plans requested in 2010, meanwhile, have received little publicity. The names of the banks required to submit them have not been previously disclosed, and Reuters obtained them only through a Freedom of Information Act request.

The Fed supplied Reuters with the letters requesting plans from banks, but not the banks' actual plans because they were deemed confidential supervisory information. The regulator said it was withholding 5,100 pages of information.

MOVING FURTHER FROM DISASTER

Five years after the financial crisis, concerns remain about whether blow-ups at big banks could lead to another round of taxpayer bailouts. Trading losses have cost JPMorgan nearly $6 billion so far, and scandals such as the alleged rigging of an international interest rate benchmark have only highlighted the risks lurking inside big banks.

These disasters have damaged banks' reputations, but not their balance sheets. Most are still profitable, and in recent years the five banks have improved their capital bases and liquidity. They also have been subjected to annual Federal Reserve stress tests that measure whether the banks have sufficient capital to weather severe economic scenarios.

Bank of America and Citigroup, in a sense, have already been executing the kind of moves called for in the recovery plans. Both have been selling off non-core operations and assets to streamline their sprawling businesses, after receiving multiple bailouts during the financial crisis.

Bank of America in June 2011 told Fed officials that it could shed branches in some parts of the country if it needed to raise capital in an emergency, a person familiar with the matter said in January. The proposal was part of a series of options provided to the Fed, including issuing a tracking stock for Bank of America's Merrill Lynch operations.

But just because the bank proposed selling branches does not mean it's a desirable move or highly probable, the person said. In the past year, Bank of America has shown progress in building capital without such actions. Its Tier 1 common capital ratio increased to 11.24 percent of risk-weighted assets as of June 30 from 8.23 percent a year earlier.

Tier 1 refers to a bank's core capital and has been the main focus of regulators in assessing a bank's capital adequacy.

MENTIONED IN PASSING

The banks' chief risk officers, and in the case of Citigroup, Chief Executive Vikram Pandit, received letters in May 2010 instructing them on what to include in the recovery plans. The requests stemmed from January 2010 crisis management meetings held by regulators. The letters sent to the five banks were nearly identical.

Each plan was to address severe financial stress at the firm, as well as "general financial instability." The plans should be capable of being executed ideally within three months, but no longer than six months, the documents said.

The plans should "make appropriate assumptions as to the valuations of assets and off-balance sheet positions," the documents said.

Recovery plans have been mentioned in public before, but only in passing. In testimony to Congress in July 2010, Fed Governor Daniel Tarullo said the "largest internationally active U.S. banking organizations" were working on recovery plans. The initiative stemmed from work led by the Financial Stability Board, a body that coordinates the work of international financial regulators, he said.

In a presentation in March, JPMorgan Chase said it had a recovery plan in place and said it was ordered by regulators. The presentation was organized by Harvard Law School and was closed to the media at the time, but is available online. (here)

(Reporting By Rick Rothacker in Charlotte, North Carolina; Additional reporting by David Henry in New York; Editing by Leslie Adler)

[Sabrina]

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/business/a/-/business/14513165/bankwest-insolvent-before-sale/

10 Aug Australia

Bankwest 'insolvent' before sale


Bankwest was "essentially insolvent" and had made high-risk investments through the global financial risk era before it was sold to the Commonwealth Bank, a Senate inquiry has been told.

The inquiry, into the post-GFC banking outlook, was also told claims the Commonwealth deliberately sought to liquidate Bankwest customers to cut the purchase price were "absolutely wrong".

The Commonwealth bought WA-based Bankwest in October 2008 from beleaguered Scottish bank HBOS for $2.1 billion.

Complaints were later made that the Commonwealth unfairly terminated Bankwest loans and liquidated customers' assets though their businesses could have been saved.

Commonwealth Bank officials were under fire at yesterday's hearing, with WA Liberal senator Alan Eggleston saying it appeared the CBA engaged in a "brutal, systemic" approach to its customers.

WA Labor senator Mark Bishop said it was clear the Commonwealth was aware of some of the problems inherent with Bankwest before it bought it.

"It's not unremarkable that CBA initiated a root and branch review of the loan portfolio," he said. "I would find it remarkable if you did not after buying a business that was essentially insolvent to the extent you paid half the going price."

But CBA senior officer David Cohen said a review of Bankwest loans after it was bought showed it was at particular risk going into the global financial crisis.

"What we do know from history is that typically, in economic downturns, sectors such as commercial property, hospitality and tourism often suffer most," he said.

"Bankwest's commercial loan portfolio was heavily weighted towards those sectors."

The Commonwealth came under fire for its handling of complaints from the public. But Mr Cohen said suggestions it wrote off loans for little reason were not true.

He said there was no commercial advantage to put borrowers in default because both parties lost.

There have been claims that the Commonwealth had a "clawback" deal with HBOS which reduced the purchase price by putting Bankwest commercial loans into default.

Mr Cohen said any loans that became distressed after the purchase became a liability for Bankwest and CBA had no right to recoup related losses from HBOS.

Bankwest will present evidence to the committee today.

[Sabrina]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/09/jpmorgan-chase-libor-subpoenas_n_1760015.html

JPMorgan Chase Libor Subpoenas Coming From Everybody In The World

Pretty much everybody in the world with subpoena power has hit JPMorgan Chase with requests for information in the Libor-rigging scandal.

The biggest U.S. bank revealed the extent of its involvement in the probe in a filing Thursday morning with the Securities and Exchange Commission, saying regulators in the U.S., U.K., Canada, Switzerland and more had asked it for information:

JPMorgan Chase has received subpoenas and requests for documents and, in some cases, interviews, from the DOJ, CFTC, SEC, European Commission, UK Financial Services Authority, Canadian Competition Bureau, Swiss Competition Commission and other regulatory authorities and banking associations around the world.
That's a whole lot of subpoenas. For the uninitiated, "DOJ, CFTC, SEC" refer to the Justice Department, Commodity Futures Trading Commission and Securities and Exchange Commission. "Libor" stands for "London Interbank Offered Rate," a short-term interest rate that affects borrowing costs for homeowners, companies and borrowers throughout the world, along with about $350 trillion in credit derivatives. Despite its importance, the rate has apparently been manipulated constantly for years, in what may be the biggest financial scandal of all time.

JPMorgan -- which said it was cooperating with the investigations -- has also received requests for information about its involvement in setting Euribor and Tibor, the European and Japanese versions of Libor, respectively.

The bank made a similar disclosure in its previous quarterly filing in May.

JPMorgan has been identified as one of 16 banks in the U.S., the U.K. and Europe under investigation for manipulating Libor. Barclays has already agreed to pay $450 million in fines in the case, admitting its traders pushed Libor higher and lower to either gain advantage in derivatives trades or make the bank look healthier. Other banks will likely soon follow, and regulators are building criminal cases against individual traders and maybe banks, too.

Previously, Bank of America and Citigroup have said that they, too, have gotten subpoenas in the Libor case, though they mentioned fewer regulatory agencies than JPMorgan did.

JPMorgan also said it was the subject of a large and growing number of lawsuits coming out of the Libor mess. State and local governments, for example, are suing banks for keeping Libor too low, hurting the value of interest-rate swaps they bought to protect against rising rates.

9 AUg

[Sabrina]

http://the2012scenario.com/2012/08/cnbc-stand-in-reporter-admits-financial-system-changeover-theyre-going-to-put-the-old-system-in-a-coma/#more-139056


CNBC Stand-In Reporter Admits Financial System Changeover: “They’re Going to Put the Old System In a Coma”!
From the CNBC show Squawk Box – August 10, 2012

http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000108212

Stephen: This IS amazing! A stand-in finance reporter for CNBC, Kevin Ferry from Kronus Futures Management – after being told, bizarrely, by Squawk Box host Joe Kernen, twice, “whatever you do don’t screw this up” – has just disclosed that the current financial system and, importantly, the Libor, is about to be overhauled.

After saying that a Pandora’s Box is going to be opened up in the Libor area (in reference to the separate story posted below on the subpoenas now heading JP Morgan Chase’s way) Kevin Ferry told Joe Kernen – and the rest of us: ” I think what they’re going to do, Joe, is basically put the old system in a coma, and work to devise something that’s a little bit better, and it’s going to be tricky.”

Separately, I have personally heard from several different sources in the past two days, that big things are about to happen this coming week with regards the world’s financial system. A good weekend indeed!

(video at link)

Read the full transcript below:

We’re just seconds away from import price data for July, and Kevin Ferry is standing by at the CME in Chicago.

Don’t screw this up because you don’t normally do it. Usually it’s Santelli so whatever you do, don’t screw this up, Kevin. No pressure.

Import prices down 0.6. that’s actually weak. We were looking for it to come back on to the high side after a big oil moved down last time. small revision the Dow 2.4 from 2.7. year over year, you’re still looking at prices falling out of bed, Joe, down 3.2% year over year. wow.

Also, when we were corresponding earlier, Kevin, you wanted me to ask you something that Ii didn’t really understand that was compelling. what was that?

Oh, well i was just noticing that there are Libor subpoenas raining down on the New York branches of these foreign banks today, so i think you really have to watch the BBA is now saying they are going to go into overhaul mode, so as if we don’t have enough things going on, you’re going to start opening up a Pandora’s box here in the Llibor sector of the market.

I see. What would the implications be for Libor, do you think?

Well, I think what they’re going to do, Je, is basically put the old system in a coma, and work to device something that’s a little bit better and it’s going to be tricky. I’m a Merck guy. I cut my teeth in the euro/dollar pit but watch the new general collateral futures at the new york stock exchange, I think that’s where the interest is going to go.

Doug Dachille joins in:

So what are they going to do with the euro/dollar futures and all the outstanding notion of principal of contracts linked to Libor? Is everybody going to convert their Libor interest rate swaps to cost of fund funds or Fed fund basis swaps or some other index?

Are you asking me? I’ve asked that question as high as I could ask it and I get blank stares, so I don’t think you can violate the open interest in the contracts of over two decades.

What I find fascinating, we had somebody talking about oil earlier today and everybody uniformly agrees that there’s market manipulation by a fairly strong cartel of people that have, in that case, that cartel ha the exact same directional exposure to know that when prices go up, they all make money and when prices go down, they all lose money.

In the Libor space it’s not clear that every bank has exactly the same Libor exposure. so it’s not clear that that cartel in setting Libor and manipulating it actually is as powerful as the cartel that manages oil prices, yet I don’t hear any outrage of people routinely trading commodity derivatives and commodity futures as much as I hear the outrage over euro/dollar futures and Libor-based interest rate swaps.

Maybe it’s a perception thing, Everybody assumes that’s what goes on when you trade commodity futures, but nobody ever really thought that was going on when you were trading euro/dollar futures.

Right, well let’s go out for a drink sometime.

I knew you guys would be, you’re like soul mates. I just got you started.

Thank you, Kevin, Doug. thank you, have a good weekend. you, too.

[Sabrina]

Hidden technologies becoming unhidden ... are one of the big game changers for everything of course - so worth supporting this IMO...

http://www.avaaz.org/en/petition/Global_disclosure_of_civilizations_and_technologies_of_a_nonEarth_origin_including_6000_patented_tec hnologies/?fFFbrab&pv=2

Avaaz.org

Global disclosure of civilizations and technologies of a non-Earth origin, including 6000+ patented technologies


Why this is important

This is a peaceful call to the leaders of the world to act in honour and integrity to those who have elected them, to the people of our planet, and to the planet herself as living, breathing system.

The truth can no longer be hidden, as most around the world are now aware that there are civilizations beyond Earth, and that a number of them have been interacting with numerous governments for many years but at least since the mid-1900's. There are hundreds (and very likely a thousand or more) of accounts from people in respected and credible positions from a wide spectrum of official and civilian operations worldwide that have revealed what they know. It is now time to reveal all of this information to the world, as our galactic families are now making themselves known worldwide anyway.

As well, technologies and information have been kept hidden from the world, for the profit and control of smaller, privileged groups and individuals. These 6000+ patents for suppressed technologies can easily create new, Earth-friendly industries that can clean the air, water and provide abundance for all upon this planet.

In a spirit of peace, of Light and of love to all, we ask you all to honour your oaths, and release your love of power to find the power of love in your hearts and serve all of humanity and our planet! It is time to create a New Gaia, one with abundant beauty and prosperity for all!

[Sabrina]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/10/carl-levin-goldman-sachs_n_1765408.html?utm_hp_ref=business

11 Aug US

Carl Levin: Goldman Sachs Decision Shows Either 'Weak Laws Or Weak Enforcement'


US Senator Levin asked for Goldman criminal probe in 2011

* Justice Department was 'thorough and impartial' -Goldman

WASHINGTON, Aug 10 (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department's decision not to prosecute Goldman Sachs Group Inc for its subprime mortgage trades resulted from either "weak laws or weak enforcement," the senator who asked for a criminal investigation of the firm said on Friday.

A day after the department announced its decision, Democratic Senator Carl Levin reiterated in a written statement the criticisms he lodged against Goldman beginning more than two years ago. He called the firm's actions "deceptive and immoral."

Goldman said it did nothing wrong in its marketing of mortgage securities, including one known as Abacus that was the subject of televised hearings before Levin's investigative subcommittee in 2010. The hearings focused on whether Goldman was wrong to sell products that it disparaged internally.

Levin said he is still convinced Goldman was in the wrong.

"It misled investors by claiming its interests in those securities were 'aligned' with theirs while at the same time it was betting heavily against those same securities, and therefore against its own clients, to its own substantial profit," he said on Friday.

Goldman settled a related civil investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for $550 million in July 2010 without admitting wrongdoing.

On Friday, Goldman spokesman Andrew Williams said the firm continues to stand by its actions.

"As the DOJ stated, it has 'not hesitated to investigate and take enforcement action when the evidence and facts support doing so.' We believe that their examination has been thorough and impartial," Williams said in a statement.


DODD-FRANK AND 'VIGOR'

In April 2011, Levin asked for a criminal probe on the day that he and Republican Senator Tom Coburn released a 639-page report on the financial crisis.

The unsigned Justice Department statement on Thursday on its decision not to prosecute said that "the burden of proof to bring a criminal case could not be met based on the law and facts as they exist at this time."

To critics, the department's decision was another example of the inability of prosecutors to pinpoint blame for a financial crisis that pushed the United States into a severe recession from which the economy is still recovering only slowly.

Levin said the 2010 banking and Wall Street regulation overhaul known as Dodd-Frank is part of a solution if regulators "do not water it down" and "enforce those rules with vigour."



and

A CNBC "reporter" tries to stand up for GS, but Professor Black destroys her.


http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000108525&play=1

[Sabrina]

http://www.dw.de/dw/article/0,,16153042,00.html

Germany

BANKING
Commerzbank stops speculating on basic food prices

Germany's second-biggest lender, Commerzbank, says it will no longer participate in market speculation on basic food prices. The bank says it has removed all agricultural products from its funds for moral reasons.


Commerzbank of Germany confirmed on Thursday it had withdrawn from market speculation on prices for basic food items. The country's second-largest lender said it had removed all agriculture products from its ComStage ETF CB Commodity fund.

Commerzbank stated that the move came in response to a series of international studies claiming that similar agricultural funds had played no small role in artificially pushing up food prices, contributing to widespread hunger in many parts of the world.
The lender's decision was hailed by pressure groups in Germany.

"If a bank can't be sure which damage such speculation may cause, it should not offer such funds to be on the safe side," Foodwatch Germany Managing Director Thilo Bode said in a statement.

Deteriorating business environment
Commerzbank on Thursday reported that its net profit in the first half of 2012 was down 36 percent, compared to the same period in the previous year. In the second quarter alone, profit dipped by 25 percent, totaling 275 million euros ($340 million).

"This was due in particular to the further decreased market interest rate level and declining customer activity," the lender said.
The bank increased the provisions it had set aside for bad loans to 404 million euros in the second quarter, meaning it already has a total of 2.8 billion euros more core capital than required by the European Banking Authority (EBA).

9 Aug

[Sabrina]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/09/greece-braced-protests-spending-cuts

Greece braced for 'hottest autumn yet' over round of new spending cuts

Athens' fragile coalition could be heading for a showdown with unions and anti-bailout forces over prospect of more job losses

New spending cuts being asked of Greece by international creditors are pushing Athens' fragile coalition towards a showdown with unions and anti-bailout forces amid signs that it will be civil servants who will bear the brunt of the belt-tightening.

Word is spreading of an incendiary autumn with labour groups, backed by the radical left main opposition Syriza party, warning of protests in September. The prospect of mass lay-offs in the state sector and a spate of planned privatisations are setting the scene for the "hottest fall yet," unionists said.

"Mass demonstrations are being prepared by both public and private sector unions," said Ilias Iliopoulos general secretary of ADEDY, the union of civil servants. "As long as the [governing] parties don't respect their pre-election pledges of no more cuts and no more firings they will face the wrath of the people," he said.

With the country enduring a record fifth straight year of recession and unemployment hitting an unprecedented 23.1%, Greeks, he said, could "take no more'".

Passions were reignited this week when barely a month into the job the new finance minister, Yiannis Stournaras, conceded that the "numbers don't add up". He admitted the government was still €4bn short of its budget target.

The debt-stricken country has to come up with "alternative solutions" to appease lenders at the EU, ECB and IMF, the so-called Troika that set as a condition of further assistance €11.5 bn in additional cuts – the equivalent of 5.5% of GDP. Among options being discussed, he said, was a controversial plan placing thousands of civil servants in a special labour pool on reduced pay. The scheme, seen as the first step towards dismissal, was dropped last year in the face of widespread hostility.

On Thursday senior government officials insisted that the politically risky move would go ahead with as many as 40,000 civil servants being gradually laid off. "The labour reserve plan will go ahead this time," an official told Reuters. Another insider said: "This is a measure that may not produce dramatic and immediate savings but it will give credibility to our efforts to reform."

With the country's coffers close to empty and the paralysis caused by two successive elections having delayed the next €31.5bn tranche of aid, the government is under pressure to show willing.

Failure to implement reforms, exacerbated by months of foot-dragging, has given way to suspicion among Greece's troika of creditors with Athens being repeatedly warned it will face default, and euro exit, if it does not conform.

Despite a reported change in atmosphere during a recent visit by troika inspectors, Greek officials are acutely aware that they can afford no let up in the reform process if EU-IMF monitors are to produce a positive review on which further loans depend. Piling on the pressure, EU officials said plans were afoot to postpone Athens' next injection of cash until October – prompting officials to issue a denial amid fears that payment of public sector pensions and salaries will be delayed.

With Greece's economic indicators worsening since the outbreak of the crisis in late 2009, it is debatable whether the government would survive enforcing measures that are so unpopular. In a sign of the mounting storm, Fotis Kouvellis, the leftist leader supporting the coalition, described the labour pool scheme as a "fiasco" and said he would not countenance further policies that exacerbated the plight of ordinary Greeks.
9 Aug

[Sabrina]

Well people are finally waking up at last, as part of the whole process! But Greeks are far ahead on the 'feeling the pain' front in Europe. And Spain's now got huge unemployment figures - especially in youth sector.

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/255260.html

Trust in UK banks 'at all time low'


More than 7 out of ten people in Britain believe the banking sector has not learnt lessons from the massive global credit crunch five years ago, reflecting the growing public disillusionment with the banking sector.


A study by consumer rights campaigners, Which?, from 2,000 adults found that 71 percent believe the banking sector has still lessons to learn, compared to 61 percent last September.

According to Which?, public are also pessimistic about the upcoming parliamentary inquiry into banking standards with only 26 percent expecting positive improvements in British banks.

The research was published on the fifth anniversary of the global financial crisis in 2007 that saw high risk mortgage debt paralyze the American banking sector sending shockwaves through major economies across the world, where the resultant recession is still being felt.

The gloomy consumer view of the banking sector comes amid a series of banking scandals in Britain that have exposed the mismanagement and corruption at the heart of British banking sector.

These include the mis-selling of Payment Protection Insurance (PPI), which is now becoming the biggest financial scandal of all time, IT system failure at Natwest and Nationwide and Libor interest rate rigging at Barclays.

"Five years on from the beginning of the financial crisis, public confidence in the banking industry is at an all time low, with a series of scandals exposing mis-management and corruption at the very heart of the banking system that have cost UK consumers dear," Which? chief executive Peter Vicary-Smith said.

“The parliamentary banking inquiry must produce proposals for fundamental change to the culture and practices of the banks and put the best interests of consumers back at the centre of reforms.

Nothing should be off the table if the government is to rebuild consumer confidence in this essential service,” he added.

[Sabrina]

http://hat4uk.wordpress.com/2012/08/09/euroblown-american-influence-on-the-greek-government-waning-sources/

EUROBLOWN: American influence on the Greek Government waning – sources
Intrigue, austerity denial, side-deals, and economic collapse: but the bottom line is ‘debt monetisation’
Coalition dilemma…which way is up?

Senior sources close to Greek Opposition MPs are claiming this morning that those calling the shots in the ruling Coalition of Antonis Samaras do not view a return to the drachma with American support as “a viable alternative to staying within the EU”. The Troika’s abrupt change of attitude to Greece is also suggesting to some observers that “some kind of secret deal” has been done between the ECB and Athens to both reassure the Troikanauts, and keep the Greeks onside. But it’s clear the Germans aren’t on board with this.

Something very odd indeed is going on between Brussels, Berlin, Frankfurt, Washington and Athens. On all sides, things said in public are either slightly mad, or completely different to what is thought in private – and then executed while nobody is looking. Facial expressions and media soundbites have turned 180 degrees to give the impression of Jolly Good Pals. But there is a great deal of intrigue going on behind all this.

Most people outside Greece find it less and less intriguing. “It’s holiday time, the Greeks owe a lot of money, the Troika seems to be happy again, it’s tough for the people – whatever. I’m all Greeked out.” It would be a mistake for any of us to think like this, for two reasons.

First, at the sovereign level, the overlapping (and often contradictory) aims of the ECB, the Brussels Commission, the Americans, the Germans, and the Greek elite may be very close now to snatching meltdown from the jaws of chaos. Taken together, these swirling objectives could easily turn Europe and the Middle East into an unstable nightmare.

Second, at the globalist investment bank level, sooner or later – whether one lives in Finchley, Philadelphia or Famagusta – it will be our turn to be pauperised further. Bluntly, only an insane person would imagine that Greece can survive the latest round of cuts: so either the Troikanauts are all crazy, or there’s another game in play. The game is called monetising debt. One way or another, the financial Establishment is hell-bent on squeezing real money out of the populace in order to meet the currently ‘virtual’ cost of a decade of unscored, frontal-lobe lending policies, and derivative salamis chopped up on the back of it. In my view, it can’t be done because the numbers are far too high. But mark my words, unless somebody courageous stops them, they’re going to have a crack at it.

A quick survey of the Troika’s feigned insanity – and the terror now felt by the Samaras Coalition – will suffice to make the point.

Following Draghi’s (in my view much underreported) new deal for the Bank of Greece concerning collateral relaxation, the negotiating mood changed immediately: the Troika left Athens all smiles and happy handshakes last week. But the first time the BoG tried to use the facility, they were turned down. And it now emerges that, behind closed doors, Christine Lagarde and her IMF officials maintain Greece’s debt must be reduced to “sustainable” levels before the fund releases billions more euros…..to keep Athens from running out of cash. That’s what I thought the Draghi deal was about, silly me. But now Chrissie the Countdown genius says – for once correctly – that the most effective way to do this is at least some degree of debt forgiveness.

Chrissie is not mad, just stupid and cunning. She knows perfectly well that Greece’s deep recession has blown the country’s bailout programme several light years off course. The statistics are horrendous, and are I think reported in the West for the first time here. 68,000 small businesses closed in the first 6 Months of 2012. 190,000 businesses stated they were at risk of closing down in the
next 12 months. One in Four companies are unable to meet their business loan repayments. One in Two faces difficulties in paying employees’ salaries. 30% have fallen behind on the rent. Three in Ten have debts to utility companies. The average fall in SME turnover was 34.5% during the first half of 2012. This isn’t a slump, it’s scorched-earth economics worthy of the less sensitive form of Gauleiter.

I simply do not accept that even the barmiest neocon thinks this “retribution” (as the holy suits love to call it) is getting the european economy anywhere, or is indeed likely to achieve anything more than the destruction of the Greek economy….and violence against the new Athens government. That the Samaras Coalition realises this only too well is obvious: for these new cuts are the scimitar which dare not leave its scabbard.

“There will be spending cuts but no new austerity,” said a struggling Government minister on TV last week. But the reality (admitted by the Greek government) is that they have signed up to €11.5bn in new cuts…and although the estimates vary, there are around €4.5bn in savings that, I understand, nobody in the Cabinet seriously thinks can be carried out. Plans are being drawn up for pension cuts on a grand scale, but the hospitals (which haven’t paid any bills for some five months) are already flooded with old people either half-starved or unable to afford to run air-conditioning during the August heat. This is, if you like, literally scorched earth.

In fact, not far below the surface is the widespread belief that, while Samaras seems robotic enough to do the Troika’s bidding, his Coalition partners aren’t. Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras, says in public the savings can be found, but in private he flatly rules out the possibility of firing public sector employees as “impractical”. PASOK leader Evangelos Venizelos has told colleagues he thinks they will “all be strung up” if the full cuts are enacted. (If they are carried out without firing bureaucrats, then I suspect he’ll be proved right).

So the Government plan for the moment is Don’t Mention the Austerity Measures. It wasn’t helped by Greek President Stournaras telling the media that “there will be no layoffs in the public sector”, although more optimistic Hellenics have interpreted this to mean that things are not so bad after all.

But things could not be worse. Without massive debt forgiveness, Greece will default – and very soon. What’s more, if Mario in Frankfurt keeps on playing silly buggers with the Bank of Greece, it will be very soon indeed.

This is what the Americans would not so much like to happen, as like to be around to control: defensively, to protect Wall Street: and aggressively, to maintain its position in the South-east Europe-to-North African axis of energy. But their main contact at senior Governmental level, Finance Tsar Yannis Stournaras, hasn’t been able to get enough credibility behind the American ‘offer’.

“There is no offer,” asserts one source close to Opposition Party Syriza, “just a lot of bullsh*t which adds up to ‘you dive off the cliff and we’ll be there with a net at the bottom’. Samaras thinks the EU needs us more than the Americans. Maybe he’s right.”

But not every EU member State ‘needs’ any more Greek dramas. And so it is that we find ourselves back in Berlin, where the view expressed in the media (and by almost every source one talks to) is that forgiving Greek debt would be completely unacceptable to the German people. You can sort of see their point: having already lent €127 billion, not just Merkel but pretty much the whole country has drawn a line in the sand. Understandable, but mad. Not just mad, in fact, but a failure to draw the blindingly obvious conclusion: had they forgiven much of it three years ago, the cost to EU governments would’ve been a fraction of what it is now shaping up to be.

But that’s the point: governments and taxpayers have coughed up: so far, the bondholders and general lending community have got away with nothing worse that a profit-negating haircut in Greece. Bizarrely, they see even this as a disaster, a precedent…and above all, the clinching piece of evidence that dictates, “We have to get our money out somehow”. And so that’s what is happening in Greece.

As I wrote earlier, the strategy is doomed. Next up are Spain and Italy. Draghi’s response to that unaffordable cost is, decoded, “print money”. This is what the bankers have been wanting to hear for eighteen months, for not only will it start wiping out the real value of their obligations through inflation, it once more reaffirms the central daft assumption within their survival strategy: they can’t pay, so the customers must….via the Mints, whose banknote machines will now start to work overtime.

The Americans are up for this, but the Germans will make their move soon to get away from so much as a whiff of hyperinflation. The Chinese too will not accept it: they’re already letting the Yuan fall again. And as for the economies….ah yes, the economies. They’re at a standstill. Ben Bernanke will start up QE3 soon enough to keep the markets solid. But that will also feed the inevitable inflation.

Interesting times. But not if you’re an ordinary Greek citizen. And – the fundamental point of this piece – not if you are one of the 97% sinking under the weight of the super-rich. So don’t let Greece slide off your radar: keep looking underneath.

9 Aug

[Sabrina]

Egypt Defence Chief Tantawi Ousted in Surprise Shakeup
Hussein Tantawi dismissed as Egyptian president extends powers, with showdown predicted at constitutional court

By Abdel-Rahman Hussein in Cairo , The Guardian – August 13, 2012

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/12/egyptian-defence-chief-ousted-shakeup

Egyptian defence minister Hussein Tantawi, centre. President Mohamed Morsi has replaced Tantawi and sent him into retirement. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

The Egyptian president, Mohamed Morsi, has dismissed his military chief as part of a sweeping set of decisions that includes the appointment of a vice-president and the rescinding of a military order that curbed presidential powers.

Presidential spokesman Yasser Ali announced the retirement of Hussein Tantawi, head of the armed forces, and the chief of staff, Sami Anan. They have been appointed as advisers to Morsi.

The president also cancelled the complementary constitutional declaration issued by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (Scaf), announced days before he was declared the victor in June’s elections. The addendum had curbed presidential power and kept much of it in the hands of the military council.

“This sets up an inevitable showdown with the supreme constitutional court as the court is likely to attempt to overturn Morsi’s cancelling of the supplemental constitutional declaration. It seems this move will require the sacking of the court if it is to stand,” said Michael Hanna, a fellow at the Century Foundation, a US thinktank.

The decisions follow an attack by unidentified assailants on a police station in North Sinai that resulted in the death of 16 policemen on 6 August. The incident triggered further clashes between security forces and militants in the peninsula and led to the Egyptian chief of intelligence, Mourad Mowafi, being removed, along with other senior security figures.

Morsi’s move on Sunday marks the latest blow in a tussle between the Muslim Brotherhood and the military over control of post-transitional Egypt. The decision to remove Tantawi and Anan was taken in consultation with Scaf, including Tantawi, the new deputy minister of defence, Mohamed el-Assar, told Reuters.

Replacing Tantawi is the head of military intelligence, Abdel-Fatah el-Sissi – one of the generals who defended the use of “virginity tests” against female protesters in March 2011 – with El-Assar as his deputy. The new chief of staff is General Sidqi Sobhi Sayed. The appointments are all members of Scaf.

Tantawi and Anan were honoured with accolades, Tantawi receiving the highest medal in the country, the Order of the Nile, and Anan also receiving a medal, which has led to speculation that rather than indicating a face-off, this latest move comes as part of the “safe exit scenario” that would see Scaf members leave office without fear of prosecution for crimes committed against protesters during their tenure, including when army APCs ran over Coptic Christian protesters on 9 October 2011, killing 27.

“What is happening now was planned once Scaf realised they had to make a deal with the Brotherhood anyway,” said Sherif Azer, deputy director of the Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights. “This moment where Scaf would fade back into the background was expected, and I believe that they knew this was their best option for a safe exit, just fade away from the political realm.”

Revolutionaries who participated in the ousting of the former president, Hosni Mubarak, in 2011 have remained opposed to the military throughout the transitional period, and have criticised the Muslim Brotherhood for what they see as the party’s willingness to forgo the revolution in return for political gain. Gigi Ibrahim, a member of the Revolutionary Socialists group, said: “Morsi and Scaf joined forces in the face of the revolution to simply crush and control Egypt.”

With these latest decisions, and the continued absence of an elected parliament, legislative powers revert from Scaf to Morsi. The president also decreed that fresh parliamentary elections would take place 60 days after a new constitution is ratified in a popular referendum.

A constituent assembly was formed to draft the constitution and, if the current assembly fails to come up with a draft, Morsi now has the power to appoint a new assembly to draft Egypt’s future constitution.

The president also appointed senior judge Mahmoud Mekki as his vice-president. Mekki was a senior figure in the independent judges movement during the Mubarak era that agitated for more judicial independence. Morsi had promised that his two first appointments would be Coptic Christian and female vice-presidents.

¤=[Post Update]=¤

Poofness's take on it all...

Poof: Matrix II
By Poof- August 12, 2012

Greetings and Salutations,

No need to feed into all this hair on fire stuff, the folks in the rafters created the smoothest transition into the new system, possible.

The Matrix locked in absolutely last sat night, some insiders still don’t know how it works yet, as evidenced by a few trying to steal recently audited and fully collateral backed account of a vip.

Within secs the insiders were nailed and jailed, never to see the light of day anytime soon. This is the same back up to every receiver’s account, so no need for concern.

Some hacker was trying to steal names out of the data base…..he is now in an undisclosed location. The evidence you want to ‘see’ won’t happen until the word is given to start the ‘announcements’…in the east and the west. This is ‘synchronistic vibrosity’ at work.

Don’t bother trying to find that in your funk and wagnals, I made it up many years ago when I was trying to find a way to describe what I saw at work here. The old system was being taken over by a benign virus that was permeating the entire system. It would go thru every tendril of the old and reestablish the proper order of things.

This is what the man was talking about on squawk box the other morning. ‘Putting the old system in a coma’.

See it’s coming out now, a new system of finances is taking over. The poor bankers are getting the orders, mess around at your own peril. Wahhh, it’s really over. As they say in the southland, they just didn’t believe fat meat’s greasy’. Oh well. Adults are not keep repeating themselves over and over.

Don’t know how many congress members will be returning from their vacations. The proper authorities, have already been called and are on ‘alert’. Don’t worry about a thing. You will be advised, don’t get ‘creative’, not necessary.

http://the2012scenario.com/2012/08/cnbc-stand-in-reporter-admits-financial-system-changeover-theyre-going-to-put-the-old-system-in-a-coma/

This is about global peace and the folks, who can’t handle the new paradigm, will be departing in various ways, and leave the rest of us alone to pursue happiness. Politics is politrix a game for the plutocrats, the people are just serfs to farm for them. Now they are angling to get the rest of what you have so they can order cuban cigars direct. ‘Discussions in quiet rooms’ is what the man said, because ‘you wouldn’t understand’.

Use the good sense the lord gave you in the coming weeks, your paradigm is being shifted for you because you had little knowledge of the way the plutocrats have been working you, using patriotism as a dog whistle so you would stick with them. Shades of ’1984′, with lipstick on the pig.

When you get your pack, turn your back and walk away from them, you don’t need them. If they mess with you, they’ll find themselves in an undisclosed location before they can say, ‘jack robinson’.

The moment is up for us and the nice lady is readying herself to announce the revals around the world. She will be joined by others so no one ‘poops’ themselves. Good luck and have a wonderful future.

Love and Kisses,

Poofness

[Sabrina]

Interesting closing ceremony at the Olympics in London yesterday. John Lennon, George Michaels and Muse to name just a few featured - hardly people who go along with the establishment line. Lots of messages about freedom etc. in it all.

Good energy IMO..... and London's still in one piece :).... part of the shift perhaps - with London being the earth's heart chakra according to some.

http://www.iol.co.za/sport/olympics-closing-ceremony-gallery-1.1360925

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19195421


http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/aug/12/mervyn-king-bankers-olympics?newsfeed=true

Learn from Britain's Olympians, Mervyn King tells bankers
Bank of England governor urges City to embrace fair play and work ethic of athletes at London Games


The governor of the Bank of England has urged those in the scandal-hit finance sector to learn lessons from Britain's Olympians.

Sir Mervyn King said the sportsmanship and work ethic displayed by the stars of the London Games needed to be embraced by those plying their trade in the City.

His comments come in the wake of the Libor scandal that has seen Barclays hit with a £290m fine for manipulating the key benchmark borrowing rate. At least 15 institutions, including Royal Bank of Scotland, are also being investigated over the controversy.

"For many years, our financial sector sustained the illusion that it was possible to become a millionaire overnight by buying and selling pieces of paper," King wrote in the Mail on Sunday.

"But we have seen how paper fortunes in financial markets can disappear overnight. Things need to change."

He added: "As recent scandals have shown, banks could learn a thing or two about fair play from the Olympic movement."

King said the British economy could learn a number of key lessons from the Games.

"First, and most important, we have been reminded that an objective that is worth attaining, like a gold medal, requires years of hard work. Success does not come overnight," he said.

"That is as true of our economy as it is of sport. It means reforming our banking system so that banks focus less on making money in the short term, and more on building businesses to serve their customers' interests over the longer term."

The Bank of England boss also said bankers should focus less on money and more on their customers.

"The financial sector has done us all a disservice in promoting the belief that massive financial compensation is necessary to motivate individuals," he added.

"Look at the success of the volunteers whose presence at the Olympic Park and around London did so much to create the atmosphere of happiness that pervaded the Games, and who represented all of us so well when greeting and helping the many visitors from overseas.

"Motivation is more than mere money. Bankers should concentrate on laying a solid foundation for customers, not focusing on making quick cash."

[GoodETxSG]

More fear porn or is some of this stuff starting to look to be on the level? http://www.financialsensearchive.com/fsu/editorials/martenson/2008/0414.html



How Safe is My FDIC-Insured Bank Account?
by Dr. Chris Martenson. April 14, 2008

Your bank account may not be as safe as you think (or hope). Taking a deeper look at the legal details and the financial depth of the FDIC reveals several troubling details that call into question how the FDIC would fare during a true banking crisis.



===

[Mod-edit: The above post was a duplicate of another post, made at http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?48518-All-Legal-Bank-Deposit-Protections-Are-Now-Officially-Gone-Hot-to-Act-&p=538353&viewfull=1#post538353. I trimmed this long duplicate post short, and recommend that the interested reader go to its original posting, at the provided link. -Paul.]

[Sabrina]

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-08-14/bank-fees-questioned-in-high-court/4198392?section=business


Bank fees questioned in High Court - Australia
Posted Tue Aug 14,

Australia's biggest class action has reached the High Court. It's a case about what is and is not an excessive bank fee. The suit against the ANZ Bank is a test case, which could see more than $220 million returned to customers.

ABC audio report at the link


and

http://the2012scenario.com/

Australia’s Biggest-Ever Class Action Begins – 38,000 Against Bank Fees and Penalties
Stephen: Australia’s has THE most profitable banks in the world.

Today 38,000 customers of the ANZ Bank, representing a whopping 170,000 total customers, launched Australia’s biggest ever Class Action as they took the bank to the Australian High Court over the fees, charges and penalties – such a late payment fees, overdrawn accounts fees etc – it has been imposing customers. All of which the customers and their lawyers – who are being funded by Australian internet service provider iinet – say are illegal.

This is one to watch. The repercussions will spread around the world.

While there are several newspaper stories on this – one of which I have run at the very bottom, this radio report is the most comprehensive. The transcript is below. You’ll need to click on the link provided below to listen as unfortunately the link is not able to be embedded here on the site.

[Sabrina]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-19254059

14 Aug Syria

Syria's ex-PM Riad Hijab says regime is collapsing


Former Syrian PM Riad Hijab, who defected to Jordan last week, has said the Syrian government is collapsing "morally, financially and militarily".

Speaking in the Jordanian capital, Amman, he said the regime controlled no more than 30% of Syrian territory.

He called on the opposition abroad to unite and on the Syrian army to stand alongside its people.

UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos has held talks in Damascus in an attempt to increase the flow of emergency aid.

Mr Hijab told a news conference he was joining the rebel side and urged other political and military leaders to break away from President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

"I urge the army to follow the example of Egypt's and Tunisia's armies - take the side of people," he added.

This is the first time Mr Hijab has spoken publicly since fleeing to Jordan with his family last week.

The US has responded by lifting sanctions it had earlier imposed on him because of his role in the Syrian government.


UN relief co-ordinator Valerie Amos has met the Syrian PM in an attempt to improve aid efforts
The highest-ranking political figure to defect from the Assad regime, Mr Hijab explained how he had decided to leave Syria on 5 August before spending three days travelling to Jordan with the help of the Free Syrian Army (FSA).

"Syria is full of officials and military leaders who are awaiting the right moment to join the revolt," he asserted.

Damascus is also facing the prospect of increased diplomatic isolation, as the Organisation of Islamic Co-operation (OIC) meets in Saudi Arabia to consider a recommendation from foreign ministers to suspend Syria from the 57-member group.

Iran is resisting the proposal. "We have to look for other ways, means and mechanisms for resolving conflicts and crises," Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said.

President Bashar al-Assad has sent an aide, Buthaina Shaaban, to Beijing for talks on the crisis with Chinese officials.

A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said it was also considering an invitation to members of the Syrian opposition.

Beijing has opposed recent UN resolutions on Syria, but backs a ceasefire between the warring parties as well as political dialogue.

more at link

[Sabrina]

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/08/standard-chartered-settles-with-new-york-state-for-340-million.html

14 Aug

Standard Chartered Settles with New York State for $340 Million (Updated)

As we predicted, Standard Chartered has settled rather than face an August 15 hearing with Benjamin Lawsky, New York’s Superintendent of Financial Services over Iran-related money laundering charges. The amount agreed was less than he was initially rumored to be seeking, which was in the $500 to to $700 million range. However, as we also indicated, in a “good” settlement, neither side gets what it wants. And given that the Federal authorities were roused by the New York action and are also reported to be negotiating settlements, they will likely have to secure decent dollar amounts so as not to be perceived to be completely incompetent, which would have cut into what SCB would pay to New York. The benchmark here is HSBC’s recent money laundering settlement, which led observers to contend that $700 million or even as much as $1 billion, would be what SCB might be forced to pay for this to go away. Put it another way: if the Feds together don’t get at least as much as Lawsky did after he paved the way, it will prove a complete lack of seriousness on their part.

From the Wall Street Journal:

Standard Chartered STAN.LN +2.74% PLC agreed to pay New York’s top banking regulator $340 million, averting a public showdown and ending a weeklong, trans-Atlantic regulatory drama.

After a harried week of debate, the U.K.’s fifth-largest bank by assets reached a settlement with New York’s Superintendent of Financial Services, Benjamin M. Lawsky. The agreement came eight days after Mr. Lawsky accused the bank of illegally scheming over a decade to hide more than 60,000 financial transactions totaling $250 billion for Iranian clients.

Four other U.S. regulators that have been probing the bank’s actions weren’t part of the settlement. The U.S. Treasury Department, the Federal Reserve, the U.S. Department of Justice and the Manhattan District Attorney’s office have been negotiating with Standard Chartered since 2011 to reach a settlement over its Iran-related transactions.

As part of the settlement, Standard Chartered agreed to install a monitor chosen by Mr. Lawsky’s office to oversee its international transactions. The bank also agreed to appoint its own auditors in its New York office to oversee compliance with U.S. money-laundering laws. The bank acknowledged that the settlement covers $250 billion of transactions that the company handled for Iranian clients.

Note this settlement apparently does NOT cover transactions with Libya, Mynmar, and the Sudan that Lawsky flagged in his order, or at least if it did, the Journal did not mention that. However, given that SCB was handling Iran’s foreign oil sale related payments, it’s unlikely that the transactions related to the other countries the order indicated as troubling would approach the size of the Iran transfers.

Updated: I thought it was a bit weird that SCB would not settle the entire matter, and while Lawsky’s statement is terse, it does suggest all the matters mentioned in the order, which would presumably include the transfers with Mynmar and the Sudan, have indeed been settled. Text of his statement:

STATEMENT FROM BENJAMIN M. LAWSKY, SUPERINTENDENT OF FINANCIAL SERVICES, REGARDING STANDARD CHARTERED BANK

Benjamin M. Lawsky, New York Superintendent of Financial Services, issued the following statement today.

“The New York State Department of Financial Services (“DFS”) and Standard Chartered Bank (“Bank”) have reached an agreement to settle the matters raised in the DFS Order dated August 6, 2012. The parties have agreed that the conduct at issue involved transactions of at least $250 billion.

“The settlement also includes the following terms:

· The Bank shall pay a civil penalty of $340 million to the New York State Department of Financial Services.
· The Bank shall install a monitor for a term of at least two years who will report directly to DFS and who will evaluate the money-laundering risk controls in the New York branch and implementation of appropriate corrective measures. In addition, DFS examiners shall be placed on site at the Bank.
· The Bank shall permanently install personnel within its New York branch to oversee and audit any offshore money-laundering due diligence and monitoring undertaken by the Bank.

“The hearing scheduled for August 15, 2012 is adjourned.

“We will continue to work with our federal and state partners on this matter.”

and

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/08/reuters-runs-interference-for-elite-corruption-scrubs-article-that-shows-how-banks-get-out-of-jail-free.html

9 AUg

Reuters Runs Interference for Elite Corruption, Scrubs Article That Shows How Banks Get Out of Jail Free

Marcy Wheeler put up a useful post yesterday morning, based on a Reuters article describing the efforts of Standard Chartered to combat the damage done by its making illegal transfers on behalf of Iranian banks.

Marcy picked up on how the article revealed the techniques used by big banks to escape suffering meaningful consequences of their misdeeds:

Reuters lays out the steps that SCB took that normally should be enough to minimize any consequences for violating Iran sanctions. First, you hire Sullivan and Cromwell and act contrite. Then, you pay a consultant to conduct a review and claim the violations involved just $14 billion million in transactions as opposed to $250 billion shown in your bank records.

As part of a review the bank sought to give to regulators, Standard Chartered hired Promontory Financial Group, a Washington D.C. consulting firm run by Eugene Ludwig, who served as U.S. Comptroller of the Currency from 1993-98. Promontory was hired to review Standard Chartered’s transactions tied to Iran. The bank’s review ultimately settled on the figure of less than $14 million for improper transactions.

Then you bury all the embarrassing details showing willful flouting of the rules, so the proles don’t learn how craven banks really are.

I suspect, for the reasons laid out here, that OFAC will still find a way to give SCB a nice cushy settlement. But Lawsky has revealed what really goes on behind these settlements: the coziness, the misrepresentations, the complicity in hiding the true face of banking.

Now I decided to go have a look myself. Being on the vampire shift, I didn’t go looking until mid afternoon. And guess what, the story that was now at that URL was not the same story. Yes, there was a story on Standard Chartered. But the version that Marcy worked from was apparently the original, released at 00:28 AM, titled “U.S. regulators irate at NY action against StanChart.” I’ve loaded that version in a Word and put it up at ScribD, and am embedding it below. It’s 1766 words. Be sure to download it if you are interested in this topic.


full story at link

[Sabrina]

http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/warning-get-your-money-out-all-customer-deposits-in-the-united-states-are-now-the-legal-property-of-jp-morgan-goldman-sachs-megabanks_08122012

Warning: Get Your Money Out: “All Legal Bank Deposit Protections Are Now Officially Gone”

12 AUg US

Former money manager Ann Barnhardt, who in November of 2011 made the decision to cease operations of her brokerage firm and return funds to her customers citing “systemic” problems within the entire financial industry, has issued a new warning about the stability of US banks and the safety of individual deposit accounts.

The warning, stemming from a recent federal appeals court ruling surrounding customer funds lost during the 2007 collapse of Chicago futures broker Sentinel, indicates that individuals who lose deposited funds because a financial institution improperly manages that money, even if those funds are supposed to be “segregated” from other operations of the firm, are essentially left with no recourse if the firm goes belly-up. According to the court, a misallocation of those customer funds, “is not, on its own, sufficient to rule as a matter of law that Sentinel acted ‘with actual intent to hinder, delay, or defraud’ its customers.”

The implications of the ruling, according to Barnhardt, will affect the monies of all private individuals who have seen their deposit accounts wiped out in the collapse of firms like John Corzine’s MF Global and put all deposit account holders in the country at risk should their bank be faced with a financial windstorm:

The NFA in collusion with the banksters, government and judiciary have achieved their goal. The entire concept of “customer segregated funds” is officially, completely, legally dead.

Guys, it is OVER. I know that many of you are still cowering in normalcy bias, unable to deal with reality, unable to face the world as it is, but you have GOT to snap out of it. The marketplace is DESTROYED. You CANNOT be in these markets. All legal protections are now officially gone.

…

The federal appeals court ruled yesterday that not only does BNYM stay at the front of the line, but that using customer segregated funds as collateral is NOT a crime, and that co-mingling customer segregated funds with proprietary funds is NOT fraud.

…

What this means is that even if Jon Corzine is somehow dragged into court by private citizens, because you know damn good and well that the Justice Department will never, ever touch him, Corzine now has a legal precedent, likely from a bribed or otherwise coerced Federal Appeals Court, explicitly stating that an FCM can use customer deposits to pay its debts, and that the customers themselves are subjugated and have basically no legal right to their own monies, no matter what the law says, or what legal assurances, claims or guarantees are made to that customer about their funds held with an FCM or any other brokerage or depository institution. The “secured” party at the front of the line will always be the mega-bank who made the fraudulent loan using the stolen customer funds as collateral.

In other words, all customer funds in the United States are now the legal property of JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, BNYM, or whichever megabank is the counterparty on the loans the FCM or depository institution takes out in order to fund its mega-levered proprietary in-house trading desks.

Source: Ann Barnhardt via Steve Quayle

The ruling is specifically designed to protect large financial institutions that have (purposefully) mismanaged customer funds and used the hard-earned life savings of Americans to gamble on equities, commodities and bond markets. If those firms happen to make the wrong bet, as MF Global, Sentinel and a handful of others have recently done, depositors who have placed funds with the banks under the belief that their bank account is securely protected from trading liabilities are now completely exposed and liable for the incompetence and negligence of those who engage in market trading.

This latest ruling combined with recent actions by the Federal Reserve and other government regulators suggests a massive fraud has taken place and the financial system itself is under extreme strain with the potential to make the financial collapse of 2007/2008 look like just a training exercise.

In recent days, for example, it’s come to light that the government has secretly called on the country’s five major banks to prepare themselves for collapse by creating stress recovery plans to be used in the event of worst case scenarios.

A few weeks ago, the Federal Reserve also implemented a new policy for money market funds held by financial institutions. Per the new policy, money market funds, which account for some $2.7 trillion in deposits across the United States, can be frozen in the event of an emergency or financial panic. This means that if and when the system does go into a tailspin, at exactly the time people will want to pull their money out of their bank account, they will be restricted from doing so.

These latest actions by government regulators, judges and financial institutions point to one thing: that we have an unprecedented financial collapse in the making. If such a financial crisis comes to pass it is clear that the policies and procedures now in place will transfer the legally owned deposits and money market savings of individual Americans into the hands of the banks at which those funds are kept.

Get Your Money Out.

[Sabrina]

http://the2012scenario.com/2012/08/lord-rothschild-takes-204m-bet-against-the-euro/#more-140604


Lord Rothschild Takes $204M Bet – Against the Euro

2012 AUGUST 19


Lord Rothschild Takes $204M Bet – Against the Euro

Stephen: In the same way as his predecessor Nathan Mayer Rothschild made his fortune by using his early knowledge of the British victory at the Battle of Waterloo to speculate on the Stock Exchange and make a vast, vast fortune, it now seems Lord Jacob Rothschild is revealing his similar insider knowledge on what’s going on with the world’s soon-to-be replaced financial system.

He is betting a whopping $204.09 million (£130 million) on the Euro crashing and the Eurozone being broken up. He also seems to think he’s going to win in a big way when it does. Well, he thinks he is – but we all know he won’t. Mostly because the new financial system is going to be totally equitable and NESARA isn’t too far away now…

What is fascinating is that this bet is being reported in London’s independent but nevertheless mainstream newspaper, The Guardian. So lots of people are going to be reading about this…

Separately, I have been talking to a couple of sources today who agree with my intuition that something very ‘big’ is going to happen this week. I feel August 20 (which is tomorrow), is a watershed day or a tipping point day…but exactly why I don’t know – yet.

In case you don’t remember who Lord Rothschild is, here he is filmed at the Bilderberger meetings in Chantilly, Virginia, USA from May 31-June 3, 2012: http://the2012scenario.com/2012/06/lord-rothschild-henry-kissinger-and-others-confronted-on-camera/

Lord Rothschild Takes £130m Bet Against the Euro
By James Quinn, The Guardian – August 19, 2012

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/9484435/Lord-Rothschild-takes-130m-bet-against-the-euro.html

Lord Rothschild has taken a near-£130m bet against the euro as fears continue to grow that the single currency will break up.

The member of the banking dynasty has taken the position through RIT Capital Partners, the £1.9bn investment trust of which he is executive chairman.

The fact that the former investment banker, a senior member of the Rothschild family, has taken such a view will be seen as a further negative for the currency.

The latest omen follows news in The Daily Telegraph late last week that the government of Finland is already preparing for the euro’s break-up. (see link to this story below)

RIT, which Lord Rothschild has led since 1988, had a -7pc net short position in terms of principal currency exposures on the euro at the end of July, up from -3pc at the end of January. Given a net asset value of £1.836bn at the end of July, the position is worth £128m.

Sources close to RIT suggested that the position was not a dogmatic negative view on the euro as a currency, but rather a realistic approach on a currency that remains relatively weak.

It is not the first time Lord Rothschild has used currency positions as a form of hedge. RIT significantly increased its exposure in sterling after the currency’s decline in 2008, but then scaled back on both the sterling and the euro, anticipating the ensuing recessions in both regions.

Some 53pc of RIT’s assets were in US dollars at the end of July, in part a reflection of its deal to buy a 37pc stake in Rockefeller Financial Services at the end of May.

Lord Rothschild is not alone in seeing value in shorting – or selling down – the euro. At a conference organised by business news channel CNBC in July, Mary Callahan Erdoes, head of JPMorgan Asset Management, said “shorting the euro” when asked for her single best investment idea.

In June, George Soros – the billionaire investor best known in the UK for helping to force sterling out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism in 1992 by betting against the British currency – said that European leaders at that point had a “three-month window” to save the euro.

For the Finland/Euro story go here: http://the2012scenario.com/2012/08/is-finland-preparing-for-break-up-of-eurozone-or-not/

[Sabrina]

http://americankabuki.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/neil-keenan-files-cease-and-desist.html#more

Served Upon the Following Entities and their Executives:
Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS)
Bank for International Settlements (BIS)
ORDER TO CEASE & DESIST CRIMINAL ACTS


http://americannationalmilitia.com/2012/08/cease-desist-neil-keenan-papers-rev/


These documents were posted on Drake's web site tonight. -AK


Cease & Desist – Neil Keenan Papers (Rev.)

Posted on 08/18/2012

NOTE: ThIs is the reason dates don’t seem right.

Drake

The Green Hilton Agreement was not implemented until 1968 (this is why the dates differ between Kennedy’s signature and the dates of the assets) when Soekarno fell from office and when Global Trade made it imperative that the world have a Global Currency. As the Gold had been transferred to the US Treasury in 1968, a series of Bonds known as Kennedy Bonds were issued in order to honor the terms of the Green Hilton Agreement made between Kennedy and Soekarno, the 1968 terms of the gold delivery to the United States being different than made in 1934. When after 30 years, interest had not been paid as promised, a reissue of the bonds in an increased number were issued as commemorative notes and were accepted by the owners of the Gold, the Dragon Family being held by the Soekarno Trust, the Indonesian Elders, Holders and Gatekeepers. The Soekarno Trust held mostly all assets throughout Asia.

http://americannationalmilitia.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Cease-Desist-UBS-BIS-+-Evidence-05-14-12.pdf


Served Upon the Following Entities and their Executives:
Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS)
Bank for International Settlements (BIS)

ORDER TO CEASE & DESIST CRIMINAL ACTS

Under penalty of enforcement of the lawful rights, powers and authorities detailed in this
Order, enforceable on national and international law enforcement and national and
international security levels of all countries involved, on the basis of applicable laws as
applied to the facts supported by evidence, you are hereby formally served this legal and
binding Order to Cease & Desist certain highly illegal and criminal activities.

Official criminal complaints to numerous agencies on various high levels in multiple countries
are already being actively prepared by qualified legal counsel with veteran law enforcement
and national security consultants, to be filed imminently. In the event of your failure or refusal
to deliver to us convincing formal written assurance and binding commitment to comply with
this Order, by reply within 3 banking days, then such criminal complaints will be filed.

Although specific laws of the United States are referenced here as having effect and jurisdiction in
this matter, you are hereby WARNED that similar and analogous criminal laws of all related countries
based upon the same fundamental legal doctrines also apply, and are equally enforceable.
Immediate Demand Under Force of Law


Based upon information obtained from credible and reliable confidential sources, we have reason to
believe that your organization, its responsible executives and also employees, have begun
preparation and/or implementation of certain highly criminal actions that are the subject of this Order.

We hereby lawfully demand that you immediately CEASE & DESIST from any and all of the following
acts, courses of action, and planning or preparation for acts of misconduct that are in clear, direct,
flagrant and indefensible violation of established and enforceable criminal laws:
 Any efforts to alter, conceal, modify, replace or otherwise change legal access to and control
over assets (gold deposits and derivative rights arising therefrom) of private ownership deriving
from President Soekarno of Indonesia, in breach of documented fiduciary obligations of UBS
as bound to secure and protect such private ownership, and in violation of UBS obligations
under international treaties established in 1960 and 1961, and reaffirmed in 1963 and 1966.
 Any efforts to utilize, leverage, borrow against, devalue, re-assign, rename, or otherwise
change any accounts or account numbers, access codes, verification codes, or control of any
or all of the private assets deriving from President Soekarno of Indonesia, for the benefit of any
unauthorized third parties.
 Any efforts to in any way diminish or undermine the legal and binding exclusive authority of
Keith F. Scott and Neil F. Keenan, on behalf of the true beneficial owners of the accounts and
lawful owners of the assets and rights thereto contained therein, as the duly appointed Settlors
of the Soekarno Trust by legal power of attorney from the direct original heirs of the Trust.Legal Basis for Demand Order
The above-listed actions, which you are hereby demanded to Cease & Desist, presently do and/or would constitute severe violations of the following US criminal laws (and also their corresponding equivalent laws of Switzerland and other countries):
 Abusing any apparent legal authority or “color of law” to deprive any person of any rights under a sovereign Constitution or any other laws (18 USC 242).
 Conspiring to violate or interfere with any rights under the Constitution or other laws, by injury (including property loss), oppression, threat or intimidation (18 USC 241).
 “Racketeering” (organized crime) as interference with commerce under color of official
authority (18 USC 1951(a), 1951(b)(2), (Chapter 95)), or conspiring for racketeering (18 USC 1951(a)).
 “Racketeering”, by patterns of bribery or extortion, or related to financial institutions (18 USC 1961(1)(a)).
 Retaliation against a victim or witness (18 USC 1513(e)(1)), or conspiring for retaliation (18
USC 1513(e)(2)).
 Tampering with victims or witnesses by intimidation or misleading conduct, to interfere with
reporting crimes to law enforcement (18 USC 1512(b)).
 Bribe taking as official conflict of interest for anything of value including indirect or promised
future benefits (18 USC 201(b)(2)).
 Fraud by exceeding authorized access to any computer to obtain anything of value (18 USC
1030(a)(4)), or trafficking in any password or access code for a computer that affects interstate
or foreign commerce (18 USC 1030(a)(6)(b)), and with any computer used by or for a financial institution, “including a computer located outside the US that… affects interstate or foreign commerce of the US”. (18 USC 1030(e)(2)).
 Fraudulent making of any false entry or transaction in any banking institution including a
foreign bank that would injure any organization, company or individual (18 USC 1005).
 Fraud or devising any means to defraud, or seeking to obtain money or property by false
pretenses or misrepresentation, by any “wire” (telephone or internet) transmission in interstate
or foreign commerce (18 USC 1343).
 Fraud or attempted fraud to obtain any funds or assets under custody or control of a financial institution by false pretenses or misrepresentation (18 USC 1344).
 Conspiracy or attempt to commit any fraud, subject to same penalties and punishment as for
the primary offense (18 USC 1349).Evidentiary Basis for Demand Order
Claimants are in physical possession of originals, and multiple notarized copies (in multiple locations) having the same legal force and effect as the originals, of a large collection of documentary evidence meeting all relevant standards of admissibility under federal rules of evidence for courts and law enforcement. Below are only limited and partial references to some of that large body of solid evidence, that forms the basis for the present demand Order and all related enforcement actions: US Federal Jurisdiction over Present Case
It is a legal fact that Union Bank of Switzerland was additionally bound as a third-party fiduciary
trustee conservator of the original Soekarno gold deposit assets, as a ratifying signatory to the Green
Hilton Memorial Agreement (Geneva, 1963 and 1966) signed as a binding treaty between President
of the United States of America, John F. Kennedy and President Soekarno of Indonesia (and
documented owner of the assets) (photographic documentary evidence attached). Violation of the
commercial, legal and financial rights and interests of the original (and current) true owners as
signatories to that treaty with the President of the United States is thereby subject to US jurisdiction,
as a violation of a direct fiduciary obligation to the United States of America itself.

One of the authorized power of attorney Settlors of the true original and beneficial owners of the
assets is Neil Keenan, as evidenced by the notarized Full Power of Attorney by Bayu Soekarno Putra
on January 30, 2012 (photographic documentary evidence attached). It is a legal fact that Neil
Keenan is a United States citizen, as evidenced by his previous US Passport No. Z-8205672, issued
December 18, 2000 (photographic documentary evidence attached). Violation of his commercial,
legal and financial rights and interests (both as principal and/or proxy) is thereby subject to US
jurisdiction, as a violation of US federal laws.

US Foreign Jurisdiction over Criminal Violations

For violations of federal criminal laws of the United States, US federal authorities have jurisdiction to
serve summons upon foreign witnesses and take possession of foreign evidence (28 USC 1783), and
to initiate and assist in arrests of all violators in cooperation with foreign law enforcement agencies
(22 USC 2291(c)(2)). When the crimes undermine US sovereignty or its constitution (10 USC
502(a)), US authorities may also assign military forces from its Embassy and/or other facilities in the
host country to size evidence and make arrests together with foreign law enforcement (US AFM 3-07,
Ch.6).

The present situation, caused by your own intentions, preparations and/or actions that we have
detected, is already solidly positioned to escalate into devastating liabilities and penalties for your
organization(s) and all participating individuals therein, on an unprecedented level that your legal
counsels or legal department(s) will be unqualified to handle and unable to effectively defend against.
THEREFORE: CEASE & DESIST, AND GIVE BINDING WRITTEN REPLY IMMEDIATELY
_____________________________ _____________________________
Settlor of Trust - Lien Claimant Settlor of Trust – Lien Claimant
Keith Francis SCOTT Neil Francis KEENAN
Issued and Served: May 14, 2012

more documentation at the top link

[Robert J. Niewiadomski]

"Top Gun" director and Ridley Scott younger brother, Tony Scott has voluntarily(?) resigned from earthly domain...


'Top Gun' director Tony Scott dies at age 68 in apparent suicide
Tony Scott, the director of Hollywood hits such as Top Gun, Beverly Hills Cop II, and Unstoppable, died Sunday at age 68, his publicist has confirmed to EW. According to the Los Angeles Police Department’s harbor division, the British-born filmmaker jumped to his death from the Vincent Thomas bridge near Long Beach, Calif.

According to officials, the director climbed a fence on the south side of the bridge and leapt off around 12:30 p.m. Police reportedly found a suicide note inside Scott’s black Toyota Prius, which was parked on the bridge. His identity was confirmed around 7 p.m. by the Los Angeles County coroner’s office.

Scott and his older brother Ridley (the Oscar-nominated director of films like Alien, Gladiator, and Prometheus) were partners in Scott Free Productions, the company behind the CBS drama The Good Wife as well as A&E’s four-hour medical thriller "Coma (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2132641/)", due to air next month. Tony Scott, whose last film was the 2010 runaway-train thriller Unstoppable with Denzel Washington and Chris Pine, had been developing a sequel to his 1986 Tom Cruise blockbuster Top Gun.

Born in Northumberland, England, Tony Scott graduated from London’s Royal College of Art and made a name for himself as a director of TV commercials, most for his brother’s company, before directing his breakout feature, the 1983 vampire thriller The Hunger starring Catherine Deneuve and David Bowie. He followed that with the mega-blockbuster Top Gun and a string of successful commercial hits that often bore his slick visual stamp: lots of smoke, shafts of light bursting through windows, and very quick cuts.

Known for wearing a red baseball cap, Scott worked frequently with some of the biggest box office draws of the last three decades, including Cruise (Top Gun and Days of Thunder), Will Smith (Enemy of the State), and Washington (Crimson Tide, Man on Fire, The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3).

(Additional reporting by Grady Smith)

Source: http://insidemovies.ew.com/2012/08/20/top-gun-director-tony-scott-dies-in-an-apparent-suicide/
Has "the serial suicide" struck again?

[Sabrina]

http://en.ria.ru/russia/20120816/175253411.html

Russia

Russia Prepared for Possible Economic Meltdown – Putin

The Russian economy is prepared for a possible economic meltdown as a result of the slowing of global growth and the escalating eurozone debt crisis, President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday.

At a meeting with regional ombudsmen, Putin said the situation was complex both in the European and global economies.

“In the United States, the engine of the world economy, the situation looks better but macroeconomic indices that are vital for the economy’s sustainability are no better than in Europe. Their debt state [in the United States] is 104 percent [of U.S. GDP],” he said.

Aside from this, the U.S. financial system is burdened with mortgage loans issued against state guarantees, he said.

“All these factors cause certain alarm. Now news is coming that China’s economic development rates have slightly slowed and declined and China is one of the world’s largest consumers. These are, no doubt, alarming signals. Let us hope that these concerns do not transform into a full-blown crisis,” Putin said. “Let us hope for the better but prepare for the worse,” Putin added.

In 2011, the Russian government started to prepare anti-crisis measures to respond to unfavorable economic developments, he said.
“We also agreed to set aside quite a substantial sum for the start of next year in the 2013 budget as the government’s operational reserve, so that we can respond effectively and energetically to crisis factors, if they emerge,” Putin said, adding the Russian economy was currently demonstrating healthy parameters.

The Finance Ministry has said Russia is drafting several crisis budget scenarios to cater for low oil prices.

"We are currently checking the resilience of the federal budget, and holding stress tests to study its exposure to sharp changes in external economic conditions. We are calculating revenues to estimate their levels at an oil price of $80 per barrel or even $60 per barrel,” Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Lavrov said earlier this year.

16 Aug

[Sabrina]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/9487198/Debt-crisis-Italian-cash-for-gold-shops-quadruple-as-financial-crisis-deepens.html

20 Aug Italy

Debt crisis: Italian cash-for-gold shops quadruple as financial crisis deepens


Crisis-hit Italy has seen the number of cash-for-gold shops quadruple in the last two years, according to an Italian think tank, with some cash-strapped citizens forced to sell their gold teeth to make ends meet.

City centres are being transformed as traditional shops go out of business, their signs replaced by ones that announce "Compro Oro", or "I Buy Gold".

The Eurispes thinktank estimates that the number of the shops has quadrupled in the last two years. The growth of the industry is "a very good indicator of the level of hardship in the country," said president Gian Maria Fara.
Valerio Novelli, a ticket inspector in Rome, is planning to sell his old gold teeth.
"I can't get to the end of the month without running up debts," 56-year-old Mr Novelli told Reuters. "I know I won't get much, but I need the money."

In a country mired in crisis, buying gold off desperate people has become one of the few boom industries.
full story at link


and Greece/Germany

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/greece-austerity-plan-short-by-2-5-billion-euros-as-crisis-intensifies-a-850963.html#ref=rss

The Greek prime minister has spent weeks searching for ways to come up with 11.5 billion euros to satisfy international conditions for emergency aid. Now, though, SPIEGEL has learned that the shortfall may be as much as 14 billion euros. German politicians are becoming increasingly exasperated.

full story at link

[Sabrina]

http://www.blacklistednews.com/Jamie_Dimon_just_admitted_to_the_world_that_JPM’s_assets_are_overvalued_by_$150_billion/21111/0/38/38/Y/M.html




Jamie Dimon just admitted to the world that JPM’s assets are overvalued by $150 billion
August 20, 2012

Source: Daily Bail

JPM’s $150 Billion FDIC Reality Adjustment

Reuters published an exclusive story this morning:

U.S. banks told to make secret plans for preventing collapse
Buried in the final paragraph:

In a presentation in March, JPMorgan Chase said it had a recovery plan in place and said it was ordered by regulators. The presentation was organized by Harvard Law School and was closed to the media at the time, but is now available online.

Here’s the BEST part of the JPM document.

It’s easy to see on the PDF:

http://www.law.harvard.edu/programs/about/pifs/symposia/europe/baer.pdf

Go to page 9. Under the wipeout scenario JPM describes a $50 billion trading loss turning into a $200 billion loss as soon as the FDIC takes over. Why… ? Because JPM says they would expect the FDIC to immediately writedown JPM’s assets by an additional $150 billion.

Holy ****. Jamie Dimon just admitted to the world that JPM is mis-marking assets to the tune of $150 billion.

It gets better. Go to page 10. The chart shows that they only have $184 billion in equity, minus the $50 billion loss, minus ‘the $150 billion fdic reality adjustment’, which leaves them in a negative equity position of (-$16 billion).

So, we can extrapolate that without this phantom loss of $50 billion, JPM’s real equity position is just $34 billion currently, not the $184 billion on their books.

See STEP 2 in the figure below:
(see at link)

[Sabrina]

Rolling Stone - Matt Taibbi


Goldman Non-Prosecution: AG Eric Holder Has No Balls

I’ve been on deadline in the past week or so, so I haven't had a chance to weigh in on Eric Holder’s predictable decision to not pursue criminal charges against Goldman, Sachs for any of the activities in the report prepared by Senators Carl Levin and Tom Coburn two years ago.

Last year I spent a lot of time and energy jabbering and gesticulating in public about what seemed to me the most obviously prosecutable offenses detailed in the report – the seemingly blatant perjury before congress of Lloyd Blankfein and other Goldman executives, and the almost comically long list of frauds committed by the company in its desperate effort to unload its crappy “cats and dogs” mortgage-backed inventory.

In the notorious Hudson transaction, for instance, Goldman claimed, in writing, that it was fully "aligned" with the interests of its client, Morgan Stanley, because it owned a $6 million slice of the deal. What Goldman left out is that it had a $2 billion short position against the same deal.

If that isn’t fraud, Mr. Holder, just what exactly is fraud?

Still, it wasn’t surprising that Holder didn’t pursue criminal charges against Goldman. And that’s not just because Holder has repeatedly proven himself to be a spineless bureaucrat and obsequious political creature masquerading as a cop, and not just because rumors continue to circulate that the Obama administration – supposedly in the interests of staving off market panic – made a conscious decision sometime in early 2009 to give all of Wall Street a pass on pre-crisis offenses.

No, the real reason this wasn’t surprising is that Holder’s decision followed a general pattern that has been coming into focus for years in American law enforcement. Our prosecutors and regulators have basically admitted now that they only go after the most obvious and easily prosecutable cases.

If the offense committed doesn’t fit the exact description in the relevant section of the criminal code, they pass. The only white-collar cases they will bring are absolute slam-dunk situations where some arrogant rogue commits a blatant crime for individual profit in a manner thoroughly familiar to even the non-expert portion of the jury pool/citizenry.

In other words, they’ll take on somebody like Raj Rajaratnam, who stacked his illegal insider trades so brazenly and carelessly that his case almost reads like a finance version of Jeff Dahmer tripping over bodies in his Milwaukee apartment. Or they’ll pursue Bernie Madoff on the tenth or eleventh time he crosses their desk, after years of nonaction, and after he breaks down weeping and confessing. Basically, if someone backs a dump truck up to the DOJ and unloads the entire case, gift-wrapped, a contrite and confessing criminal included, a guy like Eric Holder might, after much agonizing deliberation, decide to prosecute.

But here’s the thing: most of the crimes Wall Street people commit involve highly specific, highly individualized transactions that won’t fit Eric Holder’s bag of cookie-cutter statutory definitions. That is not the same thing as saying they’re not crimes. They are: the crimes of the crisis period were and are very basic crimes like fraud, theft, perjury, and tax evasion, only they’re dressed up in millions of pages of camouflaging verbiage.

Or, even more often, the crimes have also been sanctified in advance by “reputable” law and accounting firms, who (for huge fees) offered their clients opinions that, if X and Y are signed in accordance with Z, and A and B are stipulated by the parties, and everyone’s sitting Indian-style and facing the moon when the deal is agreed to, then it’s not ****ed up and illegal when Goldman Sachs tells you it’s a co-investor in your deal when it’s actually got $2 billion bet against you.

You know that look a dog gives you when you show it something confusing, like an electric razor or a lawn sprinkler? That’s the look federal prosecutors give when companies like Goldman wave their attorneys’ sanctifying opinions at them. They scratch their heads and say: “Oh, wow, well since this was signed in Australia by three millionaire lawyers wearing magic invisibility cloaks, it really isn’t fraud! They’re right!”

As one high-profile attorney currently working on a closely-watched case involving a Wall Street bank put it to me yesterday: “With these Justice guys, everything the Wall Street lawyers say makes perfect sense to them, no matter how dumb it is.”

You can almost feel the relief emanating from Washington when these prosecutors decide against matching wits with the wizened 60 year-old legal Sith Lords from Harvard and Yale who’ve seen everything, know every judge by his or her first name, and in a trial would be basically bringing absolutely everything a lawyer can bring to the table, except consciences of course.

It’s political, sure, these decisions not to go after the Goldmans of the world, but more than that what usually rules the day is just pure intellectual fear – appropriate in many cases, since any prosecutor who buys for a second any of the high-priced excuses being shoveled at them from corporate defense firms like Davis Polk or criminal defense mercenaries like Reid Weingarten (retained to defend Blankfein against possible criminal charges) probably really is no match, intellectually, for Wall Street’s lawyers.

They’re also no match morally. Wall Street firms pay their lawyers millions of dollars for their creativity, for their willingness to fight. They say to their lawyers, as Lehman Brothers said before it crashed: “We’d like to book $50 million in loans as sales. Find a way for us to call that legal.”

As it happens Lehman couldn’t find even one American law firm to go for that one, so they went to England and got a firm called Linklaters to find a way, which they did. The Linklaters opinion was just a duller version of the, “It’s legal if we’re all sitting Indian style and facing the moon” defense. Here’s the New York Times explanation:

Enter Linklaters, which grounded its legal brief in English, rather than American, law. The firm explicitly said: “This opinion is limited to English law as applied by the English courts and is given on the basis that it will be governed by and construed in accordance with English law.”

Otherwise, Linklaters provided Lehman with exactly what it wanted to hear. The law firm decreed in its briefs, at least as outlined in the 2006 iteration obtained by Mr. Valukas, that intent matters. If two parties intend to exchange assets for cash, and then later the party receiving the assets decides to hand back “equivalent assets (such as securities of the same series and nominal value) rather than the very assets that were originally delivered,” that amounts to a sale.

That’s how law works on Wall Street. The bank walks into the room with the sordid activity, and the law firm’s partners huddle up and whip their associates – for hundreds and hundreds of billable hours straight, if necessary – until a way is found to call stealing or tax evasion or accounting fraud or whatever legal.

That’s the way it should work on the prosecutorial side, too. You should start with a simple moral premise – this group of crooks ripped off X group of victims for fifty million dollars – and then you should bury yourself in law books until you find a way to put them all in jail. If Linklaters gets paid to be creative, well, Mr. Holder, we’re paying you to be creative, too.

Again, though, Holder didn’t need to be creative in the Goldman case. Levin gift-wrapped the whole thing for him. He could have had a dozen easy convictions just on the evidence in that report, and if he had been creative, if he had used his vast power to roll up the guilty and flip them into more revelations, then he’d have had enough cases to last the AG’s office the next decade.

But the Holders of the world do not want to be creative when the targets are politically influential rich people. Instead, they use their creativity against Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, immigrant housekeepers, and guys who knock over liquor stores. They like to flex muscles against bank robbers, celebrity tax evaders (we can’t have Wesley Snipes on the loose!), truck hijackers, and drug dealers. As Gene Wilder would say, "You know – morons."

Holder’s non-decision on Goldman is more than unsurprising. It amounts to an official announcement that the government is no longer in the business or prosecuting smart criminals. It’s pathetic. The one thing you pay any lawyer to have is balls, and our nation’s top attorney has none.

Editor's note: As one lawyer close to the situation points out, I actually undersold the Lehman Brothers dilemma -- they were actually looking to mis-mark more like $50 billion per quarter toward the end, not $50 million.



Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/ag-eric-holder-has-no-balls-20120815#ixzz246XXcRvN

[Sabrina]

http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/320-80/12995-seven-banks-under-investigation-for-global-interest-rate-scandal

Seven Banks Under Investigation for Global Interest Rate Scandal


Seven international banks have been served with subpoenas over the global interest setting scandal. Barclays, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, JPMorgan Chase, Royal Bank of Scotland and UBS - have been asked to provide relevant "documents and communications" to Eric Schneiderman, the New York attorney-general in collaboration with George Jepsen, Connecticut's top law enforcement officer.

The scandal involves LIBOR - or the London Inter Bank Offer Rate - a global system of interest rates for $360 trillion in international deposits. While many of these loans are overnight transfers between banks, they affect the price of consumer loans like mortgages, car loans and credit card loans. The rates are set by the British Bankers Association which makes a considered average of rates reported to them verbally by participating bankers.
full story at link
18 Aug

[centreoflight]

http://http://americankabuki.blogspot.ch/p/banker-resignations.html

Huge amout of resegnations, over 600....

[Sabrina]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/9484442/Suicide-of-Deloitte-partner-Daniel-Pirron-linked-to-Standard-Chartereds-Iran-scandal.html

Suicide of Deloitte partner Daniel Pirron linked to Standard Chartered's Iran scandal

The family of a senior partner at Deloitte has called for answers after he apparently committed suicide days after the auditing firm was linked to the Standard Chartered Iran dollar trades scandal.

Daniel Pirron, a partner in Delloite’s key General Counsel’s office in New York, was found dead in a car park near his home in Trumbull, Connecticut.

On August 6, Deloitte was accused by the New York Department of Financial Services of aiding Standard Chartered in its “deception” over billions of dollars’ worth of trades involving Iran.

Mr Pirron apparently took his own life seven days later.

Deloitte denies the DFS allegations that have led to Standard Chartered agreeing to pay a fine of $340m.

Speaking publicly for the first time about the incident, Mr Pirron’s brother, Mike, said the family believed the two events were connected and that Daniel Pirron had warned his daughters the day before his death that there was “big trouble” ahead.

“My brother didn’t discuss the case but he told me they were in big trouble with this case in London,” he said.

“He was clearly apprehensive about a case that was about to come out. It is just extraordinary, when he was fine, that somebody would take his life.”

Asked directly if he believed the two events were connected, Mr Pirron said: “The circumstances are just too much of a coincidence.

“He was in the legal department and I think he was in London. It had to be work related. He told me the company was under pressure over this.”

The local Fairfield Police have launched an investigation into Mr Pirron’s death and his office in New York has been sealed off.

Mr Pirron, a leading businessman who owns a construction company in Chicago, said his brother had been acting strangely the day before he shot himself. “He was with his daughter on Sunday and she said he was acting very apprehensive. He kept going to the newsstands, looking for an important story to come out to do with Deloitte,” he said.

The family has hired a lawyer to try to retrieve his laptop, which Deloitte is not releasing.

Mr Pirron said that they had been left devastated and confused by his death and are determined to uncover the reasons behind it.

“He had two beautiful girls. He had everything to live for. For him to just step out of the picture just doesn’t make any sense. A lot of things aren’t sitting well with us.”

Daniel Pirron was a detective for the Illinois Bureau of Investigation and the Securities and Exchange Commission in Chicago, before moving to work for Deloitte in 1990.

Deloitte denied that Mr Pirron had any involvement in the Standard Chartered matter.

“The loss of our partner, Dan Pirron, is a terrible tragedy and he will be missed dearly by all of his Deloitte friends,” a spokesman said.
“Dan was a highly respected member of our office. However, Dan was not involved in any way on our work for Standard Chartered Bank.”

18 Aug

[Sabrina]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19328216

21 Aug Vietnam


Nguyen Duc Kien arrested for' economic violations'


Nguyen Duc Kien, one of Vietnam's richest businessmen, has been arrested for suspected "economic violations", according to the local media.


Mr Kien is the one of founders of Asia Commercial Joint Stock Bank (ACB), one of Vietnam's largest banks.

Shares of ACB fell 7% on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange after the news.

However, ACB said that Mr Kien was not involved in the day-to-day operations of the bank and the arrest would not impact the bank's business.

"It is a personal issue (of Kien)," Nguyen Thanh Toai, deputy general director of ACB, was quoted as saying by Tuoi Tre News.

"Kien is no longer a major shareholder, nor a board member, and is not involved in the bank's board of executives.

"The detention of Kien is the decision of the authorities so it does not affect the normal operation of the bank," he added.

Tuoi Tre News reported that authorities also conducted a search at his residence in Hanoi on Monday night and seized several documents .

Mr Kien is also a shareholder in other commercial banks, including Kien Long Commercial Joint Stock Bank and the Vietnam Export-Import Commercial Joint Stock Bank

Shares of ACB fell 7% on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange after the news.

[PathWalker]

http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/320-80/12995-seven-banks-under-investigation-for-global-interest-rate-scandal

Seven Banks Under Investigation for Global Interest Rate Scandal


Seven international banks have been served with subpoenas over the global interest setting scandal. Barclays, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, JPMorgan Chase, Royal Bank of Scotland and UBS - have been asked to provide relevant "documents and communications" to Eric Schneiderman, the New York attorney-general in collaboration with George Jepsen, Connecticut's top law enforcement officer.

The scandal involves LIBOR - or the London Inter Bank Offer Rate - a global system of interest rates for $360 trillion in international deposits. While many of these loans are overnight transfers between banks, they affect the price of consumer loans like mortgages, car loans and credit card loans. The rates are set by the British Bankers Association which makes a considered average of rates reported to them verbally by participating bankers.
full story at link
18 Aug

This honorable banks standout for reputable business. There are some distinguished banks that are missing from the list. Goldman Sachs, Bank of America. Paribas.

I wonder, there must be some kind of internal turmoil and fist fights. I hope they spill all the beans.

[PathWalker]

Default Breaking News: Huge 'RESERVE BANK' Scandal BUSTED Wide Open in Australia..! (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?48860-Breaking-News-Huge-RESERVE-BANK-Scandal-BUSTED-Wide-Open-in-Australia..-)

Memo warning RBA chiefs of corruption withheld from police

August 22, 2012

A SECRET memo sent to the "Deputy Governor RBA" five years ago detailing bribery and corruption within a Reserve Bank subsidiary was withheld from the police, Federal Parliament and the government.

Read The RBA's response and The Age's reply


The revelation of the five-page "private and confidential" memo ties RBA governor Glenn Stevens and his recently retired deputy, Ric Battellino, to one of the worst corporate corruption cover-ups in Australian history.

[Robert J. Niewiadomski]

Mass arrest are happenning anyway... Some MSM start to leak...
From WiReD magazine Danger Room section:


Child Porn, Coke Smuggling: Hundreds of DHS Employees Arrested Last Year

Border Patrol agents smuggling weed and coke. Immigration agents forging documents and robbing drug dealers. TSA employees caught with child porn. Those are just a few of the crimes perpetrated by Department of Homeland Security employees in just the past year.

Since the creation of the Department of Homeland Security nearly a decade ago, the agency’s inspector general has been tasked with uncovering corruption, waste and criminality within its own ranks. The IG has had his hands full.

According to a newly released DHS inspector general’s summary of its significant investigations, 318 DHS employees and contractors were arrested in 2011 (.pdf). That’s about one arrest per weekday of the men and women who are supposed to be keeping the country safe. The report lets us not only see how corrupt some agents tasked with protecting the homeland can be, it also gives us a scale of the problem. In short: There are a lot of dirty immigration and border officers.

That might send the wrong impression. DHS is a massive agency of more than 225,000 employees. Within DHS, sub-agency Customs and Border Protection has more than doubled in recent years to nearly 59,000 employees. Maybe it’s not so surprising an organization of that size has a few bad apples. There’s also some good news. The number of arrests is going down: there were 519 arrests in 2010, compared to the 318 last year. Still, within that number includes some serious crimes.
(...)

Full story: http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/08/employees/

There is also (mentioned by Sabrina already in this thread here (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?41059-Massive-Bank-and-High-Profile-Resignations-Across-the-World&p=439444&viewfull=1#post439444)) FBI's "Operation Perfect Hedge (http://www.fbi.gov/newyork/press-releases/2012/prepared-remarks-of-assistant-director-in-charge-janice-k.-fedarcyk-on-insider-trading-arrests)" aimed at insider trading in progress for four years now...
Here is Michael Douglas (aka infamous Gordon Gekko) lending his face to the cause:
3iQLnpupaUM
FBI anouncement featuring above clip: http://www.fbi.gov/newyork/press-releases/2012/fbi-announces-public-service-announcement-by-michael-douglas-on-securities-fraud-and-insider-trading

[Sabrina]

http://www.propublica.org/special/a-scorecard-for-this-summers-bank-scandals

A Scorecard For This Summer’s Bank Scandals

As many have noted, this summer has seen one bank after another slapped with fines or rocked by reports of wrongdoing. You’ve probably heard something about Libor, or credit card overcharges, or money-laundering, but it can be hard to keep track. We’ve laid out the details on some of the most notable cases, including fines, resignations, and which investigations aren’t over yet. Got a scandal we should add or update? Email us.

Click on the sidebar links to jump to a section. (see link for this)

Libor Fixing

THE BANKS

Barclays, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, UBS, Deutsche Bank and more

THE DETAILS

In late June, Barclays settled with British and American regulators over charges that it manipulated the Libor, a critical international interest rate set in London each day by a panel of banks. Barclays traders tried to rig the rate (and its Eurozone counterpart, the Euribor) in order to benefit particular trades, schemes clear from emails where traders promised one another bottles of champagne for their help. Also, during the financial crisis, Barclays submitted artificially low rates to make the bank look stable.

This kind of behavior wasn't limited to Barclays, and the investigation is still growing. Regulators first started getting worried about Libor in 2008. And in the wake of Barclays’ settlement, officials at the Bank of England and the New York Fed have come under fire for not pressuring the British Bankers’ Association, the industry trade group that oversees the Libor, to do more to reform the way the rate was set then.

WHO’S BEEN HURT

Ordinary consumers and investors.

Libor is used as a benchmark for trillions of dollars in financial contracts, from derivatives on down to student loans and credit cards. If the rate was messed with, consumers could have paid artificially high rates, or investors could have lost out if rates were too low. And submitting artificially low rates during the financial crisis could have misled the public and regulators about the health of the banking system.

WHO’S TAKEN A FALL

Barclays' CEO, chairman, and chief operating officer have all stepped down. The Libor itself is also being targeted for reforms by the British government.

PENALTIES

$453 million in a settlement from Barclays to the U.S. Justice Department and Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and the U.K.’s Financial Services Authority.

WHAT DOES BARCLAYS SAY?

In their settlement with the Justice Department the bank admitted that traders tried to rig rates and also acknowledged lowballing rates during the financial crisis. CEO Robert Diamond has said no one "above desk supervisor level" knew about traders' scheming, and that he did not know about rate-suppression by the bank until the settlement was reached this summer.

WHO’S STILL UNDER INVESTIGATION

More than a dozen banks have disclosed that they are under investigation by U.S. or other regulators. They have all said they are cooperating with requests for information.

UBS reported in early 2011 that some regulators—including the anti-trust division of the Justice Department—had promised them leniency in exchange for cooperating with the investigation, but the bank could still face charges from other regulators. Some individual traders have also reportedly been offered non-prosecution agreements. The bank has reportedly fired or suspended more than 20 staff in the wake of the scandal. UBS was sanctioned by Japanese regulators in December for traders trying to manipulate the Tibor, Tokyo’s Libor equivalent.

Citigroup disclosed ongoing investigations in a recent filing. Japanese regulators also sanctioned Citigroup in December as part of their investigation into rate-rigging by Tokyo traders.

Deutsche Bank: In July, the bank said that an internal investigation had identified a "limited number" of staff who were involved in rate manipulations, and cleared all senior management.

Royal Bank of Scotland: RBS says they have fired four employees and maintains that the wrongdoing is confined to a "handful" of individuals.

Credit Suisse, HSBC, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, and a few other international banks have also acknowledged they are part of the Libor probe.

KEY READS

For a history of the Libor, and how it got so important, see this London Review of Books essay from 2008. Also see the Wall Street Journal’s early reporting about banks lowballing Libor, and the Financial Times’ interactive explainer.

A Blind Eye to Money Laundering

THE BANK

HSBC

THE DETAILS

A scathing report released by the U.S. Senate this July alleged that HSBC failed over the last decade to perform basic anti-money-laundering protections and evaded Treasury sanctions against Iran, Myanmar, and others. The report says HSBC allowed billions in cash to flow between Mexico and the U.S. despite warnings drug money was involved, opened Cayman Island accounts for customers with little-to-no background information, and provided cash to banks with terror ties. The report also faulted the government’s Office of the Comptroller of the Currency for taking virtually no action against the bank despite being aware of problems for years.

WHO’S BEEN HURT

Well, we know who’s not been hurt: Mexican drug cartels, Saudi Arabian banks, and others who may have moved money with little scrutiny.

WHO’S TAKEN A FALL

HSBC’s head of compliance resigned July 18.

PENALTIES

$27.5 million, in a fine to Mexican regulators.

In a recent financial disclosure, HSBC said it had put aside $700 million as a "best estimate" of what it may have to pay U.S. regulators. The Justice Department, OCC, Treasury, and others are investigating.

WHAT DOES HSBC SAY?

The bank has apologized and promised reforms are already underway. (It made similar claims back in 2003, when it was cited for similar violations.)

KEY READS

Here’s the Senate’s full report. If you don’t have time for all 340 pages, Reuters has long been covering the bank’s lapses. And if you want a quick overview of the report itself, we broke out the most remarkable stats.

The London Whale’s Big Losses

THE BANK

JPMorgan Chase

THE DETAILS

This spring JPMorgan Chase reported staggering losses from a risky derivatives trade run by the bank's London office. Since then the estimated losses have almost tripled to $5.8 billion.

WHO’S TAKEN A FALL?

Bruno Iksil, aka the “London Whale,” who was the trader in charge of the blown-up trade, left the bank in July. Ina Drew, who was in charge of the bank’s investment unit, resigned in May, and in July agreed to return two years of pay to the bank.

WHAT’S THE BANK SAY?

CEO Jamie Dimon has apologized for inadequate risk management, and for initially dismissing reports of losses as “a tempest in a teapot,” but maintained that it was shareholder money lost—not customers’ or taxpayers’.

WHO’S INVESTIGATING?

At least eleven state, federal, and British agencies are investigating the losses as of August. In June, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the CFTC told Congress they are looking into how JPMorgan disclosed risks to shareholders and regulators. The OCC, the Federal Reserve, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation each said that they were examining JPMorgan's risk management oversight.

WHY DOES IT MATTER?

JPMorgan has lobbied heavily against regulations that could put a damper on risky trades like this one. For example, the Volcker Rule is meant to ban proprietary trading—when a bank trades for profit, using its own, rather than customers’ funds. The rule hasn’t yet been fully implemented. The head of the OCC said in June that the agency hasn't determined whether the rule would have covered JPMorgan’s trade.

KEY READS

For a blow-by-blow, start with the Wall Street Journal’s coverage of the London Whale. See also New York Magazine’s recent interview with Dimon,who says the bank has “crossed the t’s and dotted the i’s and put in new rules, and we’re fine.”

Steering Minorities into Subprime Loans

THE BANK

Wells Fargo

THE DETAILS

On July 12, Wells Fargo settled with the Justice Department over claims that the bank steered African-American and Hispanic customers into high-interest subprime loans and charged them more than it did white borrowers with similar qualifications. The Justice department described a pattern of systemic discrimination between 2004 and 2009.

WHO’S BEEN HURT

Roughly 34,000 black and Hispanic borrowers in 36 states.

THE SETTLEMENT

$175 million. $125 million will go to harmed borrowers, and $50 million will go to help with down payments in areas of the country hit hard in the crisis and where the Justice Department found widespread evidence of discrimination.

DID WELLS ADMIT WRONGDOING?

Nope. The bank still denies the DOJ’s claims, saying it settled to avoid a long legal battle.

KEY READS

The Washington Post recently detailed the lasting impact on black and Hispanic communities of credit scars from subprime fiascos. We’ve also reported on complaints that Wells Fargo has fallen short in its upkeep of foreclosed homes in black and Hispanic neighborhoods.

Misleading Customers on Credit Card Services

THE BANK

Capital One

THE DETAILS

On July 18th, Capital One settled with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the OCC for pressuring customers to buy unnecessary and costly account features and misleading them about benefits, requirement, and eligibility.

WHO’S BEEN HURT?

The settlement estimates some two million Capital One credit card holders were affected.

THE SETTLEMENT

$210 million. $150 million will be returned to harmed customers, for a payment of about $70 each.

DID THE BANK ADMIT WRONGDOING?

Kinda, sorta. In a statement, the bank blamed third-party vendors for the swindling, but apologized and said it was accountable for its contractors’ actions.

Wrongful Foreclosure on Members of the Military

THE BANK

Capital One

THE DETAILS

On July 26th, Capital One settled with the Justice Department over allegations that the bank violated the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, which gives active-duty military a temporary break from some debts, and puts a cap on interest rates they can be charged. Capital One violated those provisions, resulting in wrongful foreclosures and overcharges.

WHO’S BEEN HURT

Roughly 4,000 members of the military with Capital One credit cards, loans, or other products between June 2005 and November 2011.

THE SETTLEMENT

$12 million, to be paid to harmed servicemembers.

WHAT’S THE BANK SAY?

Capital One says it cooperated with the Justice Department’s investigation, and has already taken some extra steps to offer bonus benefits to the military.

KEY READ

Similar violations may be flying under the radar. A Government Accountability Office report released in July faulted regulators for not watching banks more closely. The report found that the government reviewed less than half of U.S. banks for compliance, and relied on banks to identify which loans actually involved members of the military.

Doing Business with Iran

THE BANKS

Standard Chartered, ING Bank

THE DETAILS

In June, ING Bank settled with the Treasury for violating sanctions against Cuba, Iran, and other countries. In more than 20,000 transactions—totaling $1.6 billion—ING removed or disguised references to embargoed countries in order to skirt sanctions.

In what seems to be a much larger scale case, New York state filed an order on August 6th, alleging that Standard Chartered had also flouted Treasury sanctions by allowing as much as $250 billion worth of transactions from Iranian clients to pass through its New York office, and like ING, taking deliberate steps to obscure the country of origin. Most of the action happened in “U-Turn transactions,” which involved Iran and passed through the U.S. but started and ended in non-U.S. banks. They were legal until 2008. New York alleges the bank didn’t keep accurate records and sought to mislead regulators about even legal trades.

SETTLEMENTS

$619 million from ING to the Justice Department and the Manhattan District Attorney (who were investigating alongside the Treasury).

$340 million from Standard Charted to New York, in a settlement announced August 14th. Standard Chartered will keep its license to operate in New York, which the state's financial regulator had threatened to revoke.

WHAT DOES STANDARD CHARTERED SAY?

When New York first filed its order, the bank responded that only $14 million of the $250 billion in transactions actually violated sanctions. Standard Chartered’s announcement on the settlement last week doesn’t mention that figure (the bank did not respond to our requests for comment). The precise wording of the settlement is still being worked out, but New York says that Standard Chartered agreed that the “conduct at issue” involved $250 billion. (The New York Times explained the gray area behind the huge disparity in these numbers).

MORE TO COME?

Standard Chartered could still see fines from other regulators, though the Treasury, Fed, and Justice Department were reportedly taken by surprise by New York’s order, as they hadn’t yet determined the scope of wrongdoing. Standard Chartered had previously disclosed that they were cooperating with inquiries from those and other agencies

They’re not the only bank in hot water here. Remember HSBC’s money-laundering lapses? The Senate’s report also alleged a pattern of evading sanctions, and the bank says it is still under investigation by the Treasury.

21 Aug

[Sabrina]

21 Aug UK

(main stream media starting to vent spleen as well....:) )

Banksters! Why should we pay for their greed?

Most people won’t be the least bit surprised to learn that so-called ‘free banking’ is nothing of the sort. While everyone realises that banks use our deposits as they please, we now learn the sheer amount of money that banks make.

The shocking findings are the latest blow for the beleaguered financial sector, already reeling from a series of scandals.

Of course, none of these hidden charges take into account the nearly £1trillion of assistance that we, as taxpayers, have had to plough into the banking system to prevent it crashing in the five years since the credit crunch flared up in August 2007.


Despite mounting evidence that banks use every opportunity to impose charges on consumers and profit heavily from the so-called ‘endowment effect’ – the difference between the paltry interest rates they pay savers and the heavy charges imposed on borrowers – bank chiefs are desperate to end the tradition of free banking.

What makes this concerted campaign even more egregious is that it is supported by Sir David Walker, chairman-elect of Barclays.

In his first interview since his appointment, the 72-year-old City grandee – who was brought in to clear up the mess created by Bob Diamond following the Libor interest-rate-rigging scandal – said that ‘in principle’ he favoured the idea that ordinary customers should pay for their current accounts.

But it was what he said next that was most offensive.


Walker declared: ‘Free banking is one of the main problems behind some of the recent scandals and until people understand what the banking services they are paying for actually cost we will not have real competition.’

What utter cheek to suggest that, if the banks had imposed charges on ordinary accounts sooner, they would not have felt the need to rip people off by mis-selling products such as payment protection insurance.

In other words, the boss of a scandal-hit bank was claiming that it was the public’s fault that bankers behaved so despicably, because customers weren’t handing over enough money each month to guarantee their bonuses.

Of course, it is possible to understand Walker’s desire to improve transparency in terms of charging. But that alone will not change the sullied culture of the banks. No doubt bankers, many of whom find it impossible to see beyond their own fat-cat pay packets, would use the same twisted logic to justify the trend of selling customers premium services, such as access to airport lounges, travel insurance and car breakdown services.



Instead of concentrating on providing a proper service for consumers and small and medium-sized businesses in the way that the Governor of the Bank of England Sir Mervyn King has been calling for, Walker seemed to be blaming the customers for the banks’ own blunders.

It was as if the customers, not the banks, were responsible for the £8billion swindle surrounding the wrongful sale of payment protection insurance to people who did not need it. In Walker’s mind, such profiteering by the banks seems justified by the fact that customers are getting free services on their current accounts.

Indeed, these so-called premium accounts are already the subject of a preliminary investigation by the finance authorities and could well be the next big scandal in the banking industry. It is indisputable that customers’ lives are made easier by having bank accounts.

Cash machines offer us instant access to money across the globe, while direct debits are a great convenience, saving bank customers the regular chore of sitting down to write cheques or queue up at the local gas showroom, for instance, to pay in cash.

Having said that, it is outrageous that those who choose to do so, many of them elderly, face punitive extra charges.

But we should never forget that what may appear to be a free service is not.

The cash we leave in our current accounts is freely available for the bank’s own use. It can lend it to other banks or financial institutions, earning an instant return, or even better it can be used to lend to people who have taken on overdrafts, which never come cheap.

For some years, high street banks have been stealthily plotting to end the era of free banking.

Lord Turner, who chairs the Financial Services Authority and is widely tipped to be the next governor of the Bank of England, argued recently that the free current account banking model was the ‘central problem’ of British banking.

In classic banker-speak, he suggested current accounts were ‘sold at below the cost of production’.

The corollary of what Walker, Turner and their colleagues have been saying about the need to end free banking and charge for services is that the banks, in turn, should follow the same principle when it comes to customers who maintain their accounts in credit. This is precisely what banks such as Santander UK do by offering customers a proper, market-related interest rate return on their deposits.

Also, banks and building societies should be forced to ensure that savers (who outnumber mortgage borrowers seven to one) automatically receive the best rate of interest available on their deposits and ISAs. This would end the disgraceful situation whereby banks discriminate against existing savers, paying them low rates of interest, while enticing new customers with higher rates, cash bonuses and other carrots.

In the aftermath of the bailout of the banking system and the scandals that have shattered people’s trust in the industry, the least that individual customers and small businesses deserve is a square deal.

The debate about free banking, coming as it does while taxpayers continue to shoulder a huge bill for the foolishness and chicanery of the bankers, merely highlights how divorced from the real world so many in the City are.

It is sheer effrontery to shift the burden to the customer. Instead, it is the banks and the ‘banksters’, as the Economist magazine has labelled them, who should be paying a heavy price for their own mistakes.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2191211/Banksters-Why-pay-greed.html#ixzz24PwWn9HK

[Sabrina]

And of course energy and new and hidden technologies are key to it all aren't they... let's hope to see more and more of this kind of thing. S


http://globalbem.com/conference/

We are excited to announce our first conference to be held on November 9, 10, 11 in Hilversum Holland. Tickets are now on sale.

We have put together a world class program which will cover breakthrough technologies and their world-changing implications. Together we will take a journey into the past, present and future of our energy landscape. With over 18 speakers, two conference rooms and a 3 day program, this event is designed to focus on the full scope of Breakthrough Energy Technologies.

uV_QeuDCvOE


The first day is about the Science. What is Breakthrough Energy? What are the breakthroughs of this time? What are the basic principles? How are they scalable and applicable in today’s society?

On the second day we will discuss the implications. How will these technologies impact our lives and our planet? How will it affect our economic and political structures? Why should we care?

Lastly, on the third day we will begin with the history and end with the future. How did we get here? What can we expect in the near future? What is the role of activism, media and journalism? How can we educate ourselves?

Ongoing conversations hint towards possible live demonstrations of breakthrough energy technologies.

[Sabrina]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-20/secret-libor-committee-clings-to-anonymity-after-rigging-scandal.html

Secret Libor Committee Clings To Anonymity Following Scandal

Every two months, representatives from the world’s largest banks meet at an undisclosed location to review the London interbank offered rate.

Who sits on the British Bankers’ Association’s Foreign Exchange and Money Markets Committee, the body that governs the benchmark for more than $300 trillion of securities worldwide, is a secret. No minutes are published. The BBA won’t identify any members, saying it wants to protect them from being lobbied, and declined to make the chairman available for interview.

The group’s lack of transparency is symptomatic of a self- regulated system that failed to stop traders around the world manipulating the world’s most widely used benchmark interest rate for profit. Martin Wheatley, the British regulator charged with reviewing Libor after the scandal, is now weighing whether to bring oversight under the control of regulators.

“Politically something has to fundamentally change in the way that Libor is run,” said Owen Watkins, a former regulator at the U.K. Financial Services Authority and now a lawyer at Lewis Silkin LLP in London. “The obvious way to change it is to have regulators more involved than they were in the past.”

The group has sole responsibility for all aspects of the functioning and development of Libor, according to the BBA. Its functions include the design of the benchmark, which banks sit on the panels that determine the rate, and scrutiny of all rates submitted.

Bloomberg - full story at link

[Sabrina]

http://www.offthegridnews.com/2012/08/21/banks-finally-allowed-to-count-gold-as-100-money/

Banks Finally Allowed To Count Gold As 100% Money

his summer, a quiet change was made to the accounting rules for gold in bank vaults. It made headlines almost nowhere, but it has the potential to dramatically change how gold is viewed relative to cash in the broader economy. For informed and prepared minds, it’s also the chance to stock up up on gold at an attractive price before the mainstream masses really process the change.

Basically, for banks, gold is now 100 percent money.

How is that different than it was before? Previously, banks could only count gold as 50 percent money.

Confused? Well, welcome to the wonderful world of bank reserve accounting. This is the system that allows banks to have $1 in actual cash but make $5, $10, or even $20 in loans on that same dollar. Reading the fine print of the regulations around this system is better than NyQuil on a late night.

But the fine print has a wealth of gems for informed minds that care about the factors influencing the value of the money supply. Under the former rules of banking reserves, cash, U.S. Treasuries, and bonds of certain other developed nations were counted as 100 percent assets, since they were perceived to be “zero risk” assets by banking regulators. Gold, on the other hand, was counted as a 50 percent asset, since gold was perceived to be a riskier asset to hold by the regulators.

Obviously, this system provided incentives for banks to hold cash and bonds instead of gold, because they could account for the whole value of the cash and bonds on their books, but only half of the value of their gold. The rules didn’t account for the falling value of the U.S. dollar or gold’s power to hedge against inflation of the money supply. Bankers had to make their own choices, but playing by the system’s rules was encouraged.

New book reveals gold-buying secrets that dealers don’t want you to know about…

And then there was this memo from the U.S. Federal Reserve, FDIC, and Treasury Department…

“In this NPR [notices of proposed rulemaking], the agencies propose to apply the following risk weights for exposures… 1) A zero percent risk weight to cash owned and held in all of a banking organization’s offices or in transit; gold bullion held in the banking organization’s own vaults, or held in another depository institution’s vaults on an allocated basis…”

No rationale was given for the change of heart, but as of January 2013 when the proposed new rules go into effect, bankers will have the choice to put their reserves into gold without having to discount their holdings.

It’s an interesting change for banks. Currently, they’re encouraged to load up on bonds and paper money, but why pile into government bonds of the dozens of developed economies on the verge of default when there’s another option out there? Gold is as sound as ever.

Whether you trust them or think they’re a pack of crooks, bankers aren’t universally stupid. They can see this is a new opportunity for their institutions to stock up on an asset class that Congress can’t create out of thin air and the European Union can’t print on demand. As a result, industry analysts are expecting that once the new risk weighting rules take effect in January, bankers are going to aggressively add gold to their balance sheets as a reserve asset.

They won’t be adding gold stocks or gold ETF holdings, either. The risk weighting rules only apply to physical gold held in the banks own vaults. The same principle of taking physical possession encouraged by smart bullion dealers everywhere is being coded right into the laws for bankers.

What does this mean for regular people? Well, for individuals, the time between now and January represents a buying opportunity. The price of gold has been holding steady at around $1,600 per ounce for several months, down from its highs near $2,000 per ounce. However, if bankers start buying and taking physical delivery of gold in bulk, the price will rise in the face of all the increased demand. So the current price of $1,600 per ounce, though definitely more than pocket change for most people, might well become the steal of the decade on gold.

©2012 Off the Grid News

[Sabrina]

https://apps.facebook.com/theguardian/business/2012/aug/23/rbs-libor-barclays-mp

23 Aug UK

RBS may be bigger Libor culprit than Barclays, says MP

George Osborne asked to explain state-owned bank's role as former trader claims 'anyone' could rig rate


Royal Bank of Scotland's involvement in the Libor rigging scandal could be worse than Barclays' and may force the state-owned bank to pay a bigger fine than its UK rival, an MP has claimed.

John Mann, a Labour MP on the Treasury select committee, said "City insiders" had suggested RBS's involvement may be "noticeably worse" than Barclays'.

Barclays was forced to pay £290m in June by US and British authorities for its role in trying to manipulate Libor, which affect the cost of borrowing for millions of customers around the world.

More than a dozen banks, including RBS, are under investigation by regulators in the US, Europe and Asia for suspected rigging of the London interbank offered rate (Libor), which is used to price trillions of dollars of financial products. RBS chief executive Stephen Hester has already warned that the bank is likely to face fines. It is thought that Barclays received a reduced fine for settling early.

Mann is asking George Osborne whether he or Treasury officials have been briefed on the issue, and when the FSA inquiry into Libor fixing at RBS began. He said: "It's not credible that UKFI, who represents the main shareholder ie, the taxpayer, was not kept informed of the investigation and it's seriousness. Either George Osborne is failing to run the Treasury properly or he is failing to tell parliament what he knows."

UK Financial Investments (UKFI) controls the taxpayer's 82% stake in RBS.

Mann's concerns have been heightened by City minister Mark Hoban's claim that he only learned of the scandal in recent times. Mann asked: "Why was the City Minister kept in the dark and who else has been kept in the dark?

"If Osborne denies receiving any information there needs to be a full Cabinet Secretary investigation into the running of the UK taxpayers investment in RBS; the failure to protect future share values and the liability of both Osborne and UKFI if losses accrue to the taxpayer due to a lack of due diligence." Mann suggested that Osborne's position is compromised because he has based his fiscal projections on an anticipated windfall from the reprivatisation of RBS.

A spokesperson for the Treasury said it would not comment on a current investigation.

Mann's comments came as a former RBS trader claimed that the bank's internal checks were so lax that anyone could change Libor rates. Court documents filed in Singapore show that Tan Chi Min, who is suing RBS for wrongful dismissal, claimed that in 2008 a trader for the bank, Will Hall, changed the Libor submission even though he was part of the Japanese yen swap desk in London.

The papers show that Tan, who worked for RBS in Singapore, raised the issue at his disciplinary meeting last September, saying the bank's internal procedure in London seemed to be that "anyone can change Libor".

Tan alleges that the bank's minutes of his disciplinary meeting omitted details of this and other conversations about how traders at the bank tried to influence RBS's interbank lending rate submissions.

He was sacked in November as head of delta trading for RBS's global banking and markets division for trying to improperly influence the bank's rate setters. Delta trading involves using derivatives to mirror price moves in a basket of securities.

Tan filed a lawsuit against the bank late last year, claiming the practice of traders making requests to the bank's rate setters was well known by RBS management.

RBS is disputing the allegations, saying Tan was dismissed for gross misconduct and that it followed its company disciplinary policy in deciding to terminate his contract. It has already announced that it has sacked several employees for misconduct as a result of its investigations.

Tan is claiming a loss of £693,000 in bonuses and 3.3m RBS shares.

The bank reiterated that it "continues to co-operate fully with ongoing investigations relating to the setting of Libor and other interest rates".The Libor scandal, which has engulfed the banking industry, led to the resignation of three senior Barclays executives – chief executive Bob Diamond, his former right-hand man Jerry del Missier and chairman Marcus Agius, who was subsequently reinstated to search for a new chief executive.

Barclays has appointed Sir David Walker as chairman from 1 November, when Agius will step down, but is still looking for a replacement for Diamond.

Last week MPs accused Diamond of being "highly selective" in the evidence he gave to their emergency hearings on rigging Libor interest rates. The Treasury select committee also criticised the Bank of England and the Financial Services Authority, the chief City regulator, for not acting sooner: the FSA's investigation of Libor was two years behind the US.

The Bank of England will take over the lead role in banking regulation next year when the FSA is disbanded.

Germany's biggest bank, Deutsche Bank, has also admitted that a "limited number" of its staff were involved in the possible manipulation of Libor rates. HSBC, Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase and UBS are also under investigation.

UK regulators are looking into instituting a reform of the Libor rates are set. Currently, they are compiled from a number of banks submitting their estimate of the price they would need to pay to borrow from other banks over periods ranging from overnight to 12 months, in a range of currencies.

[Sabrina]

Red Ice Radio on it all:


Bill Still is a former newspaper editor and publisher. He has written for USA Today, The Saturday Evening Post, the Los Angeles Times Syndicate, OMNI magazine, and produced the syndicated radio program, Health News. He has written 22 books and two documentary videos, including: The Money Masters and The Secret of Oz, both of which critique the United States monetary system. In our current economic crisis, what can the government do? Bill says, under the current monetary system, nothing. It’s not going to get better until the root of the problem is understood and addressed. Bill will talk about the imploding Ponzi scheme that will be felt by all nations. We’ll discuss currency, gold backing and the lender/borrower relationship. In the second hour, Bill talks about the relationship between the news and bankers. He’ll also discuss reforming the monetary system, full reserve lending and debt free money.

http://www.redicecreations.com/radio/2012/08/RIR-120823.php

[jackovesk]

https://apps.facebook.com/theguardian/business/2012/aug/23/rbs-libor-barclays-mp

23 Aug UK

RBS may be bigger Libor culprit than Barclays, says MP

George Osborne asked to explain state-owned bank's role as former trader claims 'anyone' could rig rate


Royal Bank of Scotland's involvement in the Libor rigging scandal could be worse than Barclays' and may force the state-owned bank to pay a bigger fine than its UK rival, an MP has claimed.

John Mann, a Labour MP on the Treasury select committee, said "City insiders" had suggested RBS's involvement may be "noticeably worse" than Barclays'.

Barclays was forced to pay £290m in June by US and British authorities for its role in trying to manipulate Libor, which affect the cost of borrowing for millions of customers around the world.

More than a dozen banks, including RBS, are under investigation by regulators in the US, Europe and Asia for suspected rigging of the London interbank offered rate (Libor), which is used to price trillions of dollars of financial products. RBS chief executive Stephen Hester has already warned that the bank is likely to face fines. It is thought that Barclays received a reduced fine for settling early.


What's with all these 'Fuking Fines' for the (Guilty)...:faint:

*** the Fines...:nono: Put the 'Fukers' in Jail...:wizard:

Nothing will ever change until they're (ALL) prosecuted and put behind (Bars)...!

[Sabrina]

http://the2012scenario.com/2012/08/several-arrests-in-vietnam-major-bank-faces-run-as-a-result/#more-141219



Several Arrests in Vietnam, Major Bank Faces Run As a Result

2012 AUGUST 24

Posted by sage

Several Arrests in Vietnam, Major Bank Faces Run As a Result


sage: Nguyen Duc Kien has become the fourth Vietnamese tycoon arrested this month (August). See second story, below, with news of the other three tycoons’ arrests. For some strange reason, I never figured that Vietnam – or any of the myriad small countries around the world – would have their own Cabalistic problems, separate from those plaguing “the west”, but my eyes are being opened daily as to just how far and deep this ‘illusion’ has been wrought.

Story 1: Vietnamese Bank Faces Run After Tycoon’s Arrest
By Ho Binh Minh, Reuters, Hanoi – August 23, 2012

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/23/us-vietnam-bank

(Reuters) – A major Vietnamese bank founded by arrested tycoon Nguyen Duc Kien faced a run on deposits on Thursday, witnesses said, but the central bank has injected funds into the banking system and assured jittery residents their money is safe.

Monday’s arrest of Kien, 48, sent shockwaves through the Communist-run country, triggering a 9.2 percent slide in the stock market this week and causing depositors to pull funds from Asia Commercial Bank (ACB), one of Vietnam’s biggest lenders, which Kien helped found in 1994.

Withdrawals began on Tuesday when the arrest was made public. By Thursday, crowds had formed at ACB’s branches in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam’s business center, residents said. At one branch, depositors shoved tables aside to try to reach bank tellers, a witness said.

The central bank said the entire banking sector “will commit to standing ready to provide, funding support to ACB to ensure it meets its obligations for repaying deposits”.

It pumped 13 trillion dong ($624 million) into the banking system on Wednesday and another 4 trillion on Thursday.

Outside ACB’s headquarters, two dozen cars lined up and about 70 depositors crowded the transaction office, a witness said, as confidence dwindled in the financial system of what a few years ago was one of world’s hottest emerging markets.

“I have some cash in ACB but since the bank belongs to the same system controlled by the central bank, it does not mean much to withdraw cash from one bank to put it in another, as all in the system face the same risk,” one ACB depositor said in a telephone interview from Ho Chi Minh City.

The bank’s chief executive officer, Ly Xuan Hai, widely believed to be detained by police, had submitted his resignation, ACB said late on Thursday.

He was replaced by Deputy Chief Executive Officer Do Minh Toan, who has been running the bank this week and told state media earlier that depositors took out 5 trillion dong ($240 million) from ACB on Wednesday. As of June 30, the bank’s deposits totaled 145.62 trillion dong ($7 billion), up 2.4 percent from a year earlier, according to the bank.

Kien, a well-connected tycoon and one of Vietnam’s highest-profile bankers, held less than 5 percent of ACB’s stock. The government said he played no part in managing the bank, which is 15 percent owned by British bank Standard Chartered Plc.

Kien is chairman of B&B Investment and Trade Joint Stock Co, ACB Hanoi Investment Joint Stock Co and Asia Hanoi Financial Investment Co, and the alleged violations concerned these firms, the police ministry said.

He was accused of running unlicensed businesses. His three companies were established to invest in real-estate projects while they raised funds and invested the proceeds in bank shares instead, state media said.

Gold Prices Jump, Currency Falls

Economists were already worried about the fragility of Vietnam’s banking system and some Vietnamese have quickly turned to the traditional safe haven of gold: bankers said demand had jumped from Monday, pushing up the retail price by about 5 percent.

The dong has fallen 0.3 percent since Monday against the dollar.

The main stock market has slid for three consecutive days, trading at a six-month low on Thursday when it lost 4.5 percent. On Tuesday, it posted its biggest daily loss since October 2008. ACB’s stock price has slumped 18.6 percent this week, losing 6.7 percent on Thursday. The bank is valued at about $1 billion.

But some experts doubted the panic would spread.

“I wouldn’t think we are going to see a lot of contagion,” said Jonathan Pincus, dean of the Fulbright Economics Teaching Program in Ho Chi Minh City and a former Vietnam economic specialist at the United Nations.

“The State Bank acted quickly and provided liquidity immediately,” he added.

The banking sector has been hit by high inflation and rising bad debt stemming from losses at big state firms in particular. At the end of March, 8.6 percent of all loans in Vietnam were bad, the highest in Southeast Asia, central bank data showed.

Pincus and other experts said ACB should weather the crisis but that plenty of other Vietnamese banks remain in difficulty.

“The immediate problems are for those banks that are heavily overextended in the property market and which are owned by one or two families or groups. Those banks, of which there are many, are very vulnerable. But ACB is not one of those,” said Pincus.

Bankers said ACB and several small banks had been borrowing short-term funds on the interbank market to ensure liquidity. The fixing on overnight dong loans eased to 7.14 percent on Thursday after surging to 7.5 percent the previous day from 4 percent at the start of the week, Reuters data showed.

Deputy CEO Toan was quoted in state media as saying the volume of cash withdrawn from ACB was higher on Wednesday than Tuesday. Toan, who is in charge of the bank in the absence of the CEO, said ACB could access up to 46 trillion dong ($2.2 billion) if needed.

It had borrowed 10 trillion dong from the central bank on August 21-22 and could also gradually withdraw 36 trillion dong from the interbank market, Toan said. That is about a third of the total weekly transactions on the interbank dong market of between 110 trillion and 130 trillion dong over the past month.

Kien’s family is ranked fifth among Vietnam’s 30 richest families in terms of stock market holdings, based on a list compiled by online news website VNExpress. He is also deputy chairman of the Vietnam Professional Football Joint Stock Co, which runs Vietnam’s top-tier professional soccer league.

($1=20,860 dong)

Story 2: Three Vietnamese Big Guys Arrested Within 20 Days

sage: This article says ‘three big guys arrested within 20 days’, yet, there are actually five arrests reported, with the remaining two being no less than the Chair and Deputy Chair of a major securities firm. While they may not be classified as ‘tycoons’ their arrests are still part of the ongoing mass arrest/containment procedure.

Complied by Kim Chi, VietnamNet – August 24, 2012

http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/business/25996/three-vietnamese-big-guys-arrested-within-20-days.html

VietNamNet Bridge – The public has been dazed by the sudden news about the arrest of Nguyen Duc Kien, one of the most influential portraits in the Vietnamese business circle, and has started in surprise that three tycoons have been arrested just within 20 days of August.

The Ministry of Public Security arrested Nguyen Duc Kien on August 20 evening at his home, a villa in the West Lake area in Hanoi.

Kien has reportedly been arrested for his wrongdoings relating to three companies which have denounced the behaviors of Kien. These include the B&B Investment and Trade Joint Stock Company, the ACB Hanoi Investment Joint Stock Company and A Chau Hanoi Finance Investment Company Ltd.

Kien has been well known in Vietnam as a multitalented businessman. This explains why he succeeded in many different business fields and held important posts in businesses, from the chair of a bank to the chair of a bitumen joint venture, a shareholder of a of a fashion company to a chair of a football club.

In 1994-2008, Kien held the post of Deputy Chair of ACB Bank and once worked as the General Director of the bank for a period. In 2008, Kien and some other founding shareholders withdrew from the board of directors to form up a founders’ council comprising of six members.

Kien has been well known as a big investor in football. He was Chair of Hanoi ACB Football Club, Deputy Chair of the Vietnam Professional Football Company. He recently made a lot of shocking statements believed to create a revolution in the Vietnamese football.

The Hai Phong’s Famous Tycoons

Pham Van Thu, Chair and Chief Executive Officer of Thai Son Company and his son, Pham Hai Thanh, the two famous tycoons in the port city of Hai Phong were arrested on August 8, 2012.

The two big businessmen in the steel industry have been prosecuted for their behaviors of swindling and appropriating assets relating to the bank loans.

The arrest also caused a big surprise to the public, because the two businessmen were believed to “do business in a correct and legal way.”

In 1995, Thu established Thai Son Company which then specialized in trading scrap steel and old ship devastation. In 2007, Thu expanded his business by jumping into the shipbuilding sector, ingot steel manufacturing and real estate. At that time, the company had the average turnover of 4 trillion dong a year.

In 2011, Thai Son was named in the list of the 500 private biggest businesses in Vietnam. It has been recognized as the biggest steel import and export company in Hai Phong City. The good reputation allowed the company to easily access bank loans.

However, since the steel price fell down by 50 percent in economic crisis in 2008, Thai Son bogged down in difficulties with the big inventories of 80,000 tons, which then led to the loss of 250 billion dong.

Thai Son also incurred the loss in the contract with ALCII, a finance leasing company on building three ships. ALCII became insolvent and stopped disbursement.

The defeats, plus the overly high bank loan interest rate of 24 percent, has pushed Thai Son against the wall. It could not pay debts, leading the company’s debts reaching 752 billion dong by February 2012. Thai Son is still owing 180 billion dong to other seven companies.

However, Thu still tried to play tricks to obtain capital to maintain production by borrowing new loans to get money to pay for old debts.

SME Securities’ Chair

On August 2, Phan Huy Chi, Chair and CEO of SME Securities was arrested for his behavior of appropriating assets.

Pham Minh Tuan, Deputy Chair of SME Securities was also arrested on the same day.

Sources said that Tuan instructed his staff to forge documents to sign contracts on capital contribution to invest in a batch of stocks. He received 107 billion dong from an insurance company and could not pay money back.

[Sabrina]

'Officials are worried' eh..... games get more and more ludicrous....

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/barack-obama-asks-eurozone-to-keep-greece-in-until-after-election-day-8076852.html

24 Aug

Barack Obama asks eurozone to keep Greece in until after election day

US officials are worried that if Greece exits the eurozone, it will damage President's election hopes


The Obama administration will pressure European governments not to let Greece fall out of the eurozone before November's Presidential elections, British Government sources have suggested.

Representatives from the International Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank and the European Commission are due to arrive in Athens next month to assess Greece's reform efforts.

They are expected to report in time for an 8 October meeting of eurozone finance ministers which will decide on whether to disburse Greece's next €31bn aid tranche, promised under the terms of the bailout for the country.

American officials are understood to be worried that if they decide Greece has not done enough to meet its deficit targets and withhold the money, it would automatically trigger Greece's exit from the eurozone weeks before the Presidential election on 6 November.

They are urging eurozone Governments to hold off from taking any drastic action before then – fearing that the resulting market destabilisation could damage President Obama's re-election prospects. European leaders are thought to be sympathetic to the lobbying fearing that, under pressure from his party lin Congress, Mitt Romney would be a more isolationist president than Mr Obama.

The President discussed the eurozone crisis with David Cameron during a conference call on Wednesday and both welcomed statements by the European Central Bank that it was "standing firmly behind the euro".

The ECB is expected to present a plan in the next few weeks to help indebted countries like Spain and Italy by buying their government bonds.

Today, Prime Minister Antonis Samaras will travel to Berlin to meet Chancellor Angela Merkel, and to France tomorrow for talks with President François Hollande. He is asking that Greece be given more time to meet its deficit targets and implement its reforms as its economy is struggling through a fifth year of recession.

But Germany's Finance Minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, said it was only months since creditors drew up a second bailout package and agreed on a massive debt write-down for Greece.

Britain is understood to have pressed the Germans to ensure that if eurozone leaders decide Greece's position is unsustainable the financial "firewall" around Spain and Italy is made stronger. Officials are worried that if Greece was to exit the eurozone, the move could result in dramatic increases in the cost of debt for other weaker eurozone members – making their financial situation unsustainable.

[Sabrina]

More on the euro games:

24 Aug

Triple threat in eurozone as Spain heads for bailout, recession looms and Greece fights to stay in currency - and may sell islands!


Pressure in the eurozone increased again yesterday as the Spanish government began talks over a bailout, leaders struggled to prevent Greece leaving the single currency and economic data indicated a return to recession.

In a move that will renew fears of a collapse of the single currency, Spanish officials have discussed an aid package for its sovereign debts from the eurozone’s trillion euro rescue fund.

The country has already received support to shore up the balance sheets of its banks.

The news overshadowed crisis talks yesterday about the fate of Greece, which is seeking to slow the pace of the austerity programme put in place after it took two bailouts from the eurozone and the International Monetary Fund.

There was even a suggestion yesterday that Greece could off some of its islands to avoid national bankruptcy (see box below).
Senior government sources in London have revealed that world leaders have effectively done a deal behind the scenes to prevent Greece slipping out of the single currency before the US presidential elections in November.



full story at link
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/news/article-2192711/Triple-threat-eurozone-Spain-heads-bailout-recession-looms-Greece-fights-stay-currency--sell-islands.html#ixzz24TJhkODX

¤=[Post Update]=¤



https://apps.facebook.com/theguardian/business/2012/aug/23/rbs-libor-barclays-mp

23 Aug UK

RBS may be bigger Libor culprit than Barclays, says MP

George Osborne asked to explain state-owned bank's role as former trader claims 'anyone' could rig rate


Royal Bank of Scotland's involvement in the Libor rigging scandal could be worse than Barclays' and may force the state-owned bank to pay a bigger fine than its UK rival, an MP has claimed.

John Mann, a Labour MP on the Treasury select committee, said "City insiders" had suggested RBS's involvement may be "noticeably worse" than Barclays'.

Barclays was forced to pay £290m in June by US and British authorities for its role in trying to manipulate Libor, which affect the cost of borrowing for millions of customers around the world.

More than a dozen banks, including RBS, are under investigation by regulators in the US, Europe and Asia for suspected rigging of the London interbank offered rate (Libor), which is used to price trillions of dollars of financial products. RBS chief executive Stephen Hester has already warned that the bank is likely to face fines. It is thought that Barclays received a reduced fine for settling early.


What's with all these 'Fuking Fines' for the (Guilty)...:faint:

*** the Fines...:nono: Put the 'Fukers' in Jail...:wizard:

Nothing will ever change until they're (ALL) prosecuted and put behind (Bars)...!

Slowly slowly catchy monkey :).....

[Sabrina]

24 Aug US

More tax woes for Mitt Romney as leaked documents show that he uses offshore investment funds called 'Blockers' to avoid taxes


Mitt Romney's private equity firm, Bain Capital has been revealed to use obscure techniques to avoid paying U.S. taxes by using Cayman Islands-based funds according to recently leaked documents.

Over 900 pages of private audit and finance records from Bain were made public on the website Gawker today and offered up tantalising glimpses of the labyrinthine methods the Republican presidential candidate employs to pay less tax.

Some of the financial statements note the creation of 'blocker' funds, with statements on one noting that it 'intends to conduct its operations so it will not be subject to United States federal income tax or withholding tax.'

s tax experts pour over at least 950 pages of documents provided by Bain, the papers could potentially reignite the debate regarding Romney's tax history and how much exactly he pays on his estimated $250 million wealth.

Critics have long pointed to Romney's alleged use of investments in offshore funds as an example of how America's super rich avoid paying taxes.

'The only reason they structure it that way is to avoid tax,' said Rebecca Wilkins, senior counsel with the group Citizens for Tax Justice to ABC News.

'It just confirms what everyone already believes about the tax system -- that it's rigged. That the rules are rigged to favor the well off.'

full story at link

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2192880/More-tax-woes-Mitt-Romney-leaked-documents-uses-offshore-investment-funds-called-Blockers-avoid-taxes.html#ixzz24TLqThe0

[Sabrina]

Phew the Daily Mail - very very UK mainstream middle England - is getting morally indignant about the financial world... things must be bad... (and they've suddenly discovered old UFO stories as well) :)


24 AUg UK

Even in recession the rich get richer: Savers have been hit for £70bn as printing money 'helps rich' admits Bank of England

Record low interest rates have robbed savers of more than £70billion while printing money to revive the economy has mainly benefited the rich, the Bank of England admitted yesterday.

Interest rates have been pegged at 0.5 per cent since March 2009 – the lowest level in the Bank’s 318-year history – in an attempt to prop up the economy.

Borrowers have benefited to the tune of £100billion thanks to lower mortgage payments, with those on floating rates the main beneficiaries.

The Bank has also unleashed a £375billion money-creation programme through so-called quantitative easing (QE) as it struggles to kick-start a recovery.

But critics have long claimed that ultra-low interest rates have hammered Britain’s army of savers and the decision to print money has led to a ‘death spiral’ in pensions by slashing annuity rates.

Savers have lost out heavily since rates were cut from 5 per cent in September 2008, with some claiming the loss is nearer £100billion when inflation is taken into account.

The Bank yesterday admitted that savers were among the biggest losers from its policies and the richest families the biggest winners – with QE boosting household wealth ‘by just over £600billion’ as the value of shares and other assets recovered in the wake of the financial crisis.
full story at link

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2192822/Even-recession-rich-richer-Savers-hit-70bn-printing-money-helps-rich-admits-Bank-England.html#ixzz24TMo8LSU

[Sabrina]

http://dailybail.com/home/report-senior-atf-agent-in-charge-of-fast-n-furious-gun-runn.html

US


REPORT: Senior ATF Agent In Charge Of Fast 'N Furious Gun Running Program Was Also Working For JPMorgan


In an unusual arrangement, a senior official of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives involved in the controversial gun operation Fast and Furious is receiving his government salary while working full time for the investment bank J.P. Morgan, according to two Republican lawmakers.

In a letter Tuesday to B. Todd Jones, the acting ATF director, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) said that Deputy Assistant ATF Director William McMahon,who oversaw the agency’s Western region during the Fast and Furious operation, has been receiving two salaries simultaneously.

The lawmakers said the ATF apparently approved allowing McMahon to remain on paid leave for four or five months while working for the investment bank in order to reach retirement eligibility.

“ATF has essentially facilitated McMahon’s early retirement and ability to double dip for nearly half a year by receiving two full-time paychecks — one from the taxpayer and one from the private sector,” Issa and Grassley wrote.

McMahon is receiving a six-figure salary as an official in the ATF Office of Professional Responsibility and is serving as executive director of global security and investigations for J.P. Morgan in the Philippines, according to Issa and Grassley.

McMahon was one of five ATF officials recently singled out in a congressional report on the botched gun operation. The report alleged that McMahon knew that no safeguards were in place to prevent a large number of guns from getting into Mexico, but he made no effort to stop them.

[Sabrina]

Would be good if they arrested the right people.... :)...


Tampa police prepare for mass arrests during RNC


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The Republican National Convention is just around the corner now, and as speakers get ready with their speeches the city of Tampa is preparing for widespread protests by clearing jail cell beds in anticipation of mass arrests. The sheriff of Hillsborough county has ordered 1700 prison beds to be cleared, relocating some inmates in order to handle the arrests they plan on making. So what does it mean for protesters' freedom of speech and are there any plans to silence them? Tristan Lear and Kelly Benjamin, Occupy Tampa activists, join RT's Liz Wahl for more.