Saturday, May 29, 2010

Major gloss newsmagazine: top banks indicted, plea bargaining!

ePC Editor comments: "Banks are the enemy" was the Great One's shorthand response to people who had some trouble seeing the need to get out of banking -- and now all his worst predictions are coming out in the wash.
Normally this kind of sensational news flash comes third-hand from an obscure source via email, but if the New American says it's happening, it's happening. A further disgrace on the "mainstream" media for not taking up this major news which comes on top of all the banksters' well-known crime and mayhem they have reported. How many more layers are there to come?

http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/economy/markets-mainmenu-45/3621-top-banks-conspired-to-defraud-taxpayers

Banks Conspired to Defraud Taxpayers

More than a dozen top American banks were involved in a conspiracy to swindle taxpayers by rigging auctions in the $2.8 trillion municipal bond market, according to an indictment filed by the Department of Justice and multiple lawsuits across the country. Some conspirators are now cooperating with investigators or have already pled guilty, while other alleged participants deny wrongdoing and await trial.

The federal government and dozens of municipal bond issuers claim “advisory” firms like CDR Financial Products were fixing the bidding process on guaranteed investment contracts (GICs, basically a deposit that is supposed to provide higher returns than a traditional savings account) for state and local authorities in exchange for illegal kickbacks from banks. In hundreds of deals from coast to coast and over 34 states, CDR is alleged to have provided bogus information to municipalities while secretly telling the banks what rates to offer in order to win the bidding. The banks were conspiring together too, letting each other win or lose — always at the expense of taxpayers.

Among the institutions named by federal prosecutors after the three-year investigation are Wachovia, JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup, UBS, General Electric, and other industry giants. Bank of America, which was also involved but will not be prosecuted under an amnesty deal, announced in a press release that it had voluntarily informed the government of its illegal actions and was cooperating with the Justice Department. One of the firm’s employees is a key witnesses in the case and reportedly explained the whole scam to investigators........

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