GLOBAL AND U.S. BANKS: A CONTINUOUS SERIES OF SCANDALS!

GLOBAL AND U.S. BANKS: A CONTINUOUS SERIES OF SCANDALS!

(Dawn Kopecki, Google News, Bilderbergers, Barry Eichengreen, Fu Wong Ka, Harry Wilson)

(Dawn Joseph Ahorny, Anthony Saunders, The Federal Reserve, London Telegraph Media Group)

(Free Republic, Jonefab, Monica Langley, Michael M. Phillips, Jeannine Aversa, Dawn Kopecki,)

(Forbes, Halah Touryalal, Vidya Ram, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Frazer Chronicle)

JP Morgan Chase & Company has tentatively agreed to pay close to $2 billion dollars to resolve a probe by the U.S. Justice Department, into their business dealings with Bernard Madoff’s crimes. Part of the agreement is the fact that the Justice Department will halt further investigations.

Wait just a ding-dong minute, I’m not a banker, a lawyer or on the staff of the U.S. Justice Department, but quitting an investigative probe seems to me to be a bit premature, I mean what was the fed looking for, and if the bank agreed (in principle) to pay a couple billion dollars in fines…..wouldn’t that indicate possibly further wrong-doing…..I mean, I watch television, and I watch an episode of Law and Order weekly, so why accept a monetary fine, when maybe they could take the fat cats down from their penthouses and into the real world.

This isn’t the first brush with the Justice Department by JP Morgan Chase & Company, these guys have a relationship with investigative agencies…..from around the world, why in hell are they still in business…..anyways?

Banking in the United States is regulated by both federal and state government organizations. In 2011 the five largest banks in the United States were JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, and Goldman Sachs. In 2011 these five banks equaled to have 56% of the U.S. economy, compared with 43% five years earlier.

Eight of the top 30 banks in the world are U.S. banking institutions: Bank of America, Bank of New York Mellon, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Citi Bank, State Street Bank, and Wells Fargo.

For me, banking is a touchy subject, I can count, add, subtract and multiply…..and even do the occasional fraction. However given the hundreds of banking terminology and my limited education, I wouldn’t know a back to back commitment from a 3-6-3 Rule, and you know what, I’ll bet most people don’t…..or at least a fair percentage.

Violations and even crimes are committed by banks at different times and are being uncovered constantly. Financial regulators are carrying out official searches into the activities of banks and there have moreover been legal proceedings. Banks are being forced by law and regulation rules to pay out enormous fines, and the circle of banks being pulled into the epicenter of these scandals is growing continuously.

THESE BANKERS ARE A GREEDY LOT…..AREN’T THEY, TOP TEN BANKING SCANDALS IN 2012

The following information gives a quick synopsis of what went on during the 2012 banking season, it isn’t like a Major League Baseball season, but it’s close. If you look at banking CEO’s like franchise player, or players who take enhancing drugs, than you’ve pretty much hit the nail on the head.

You could say that these guys are driven, they’re not ever wrong, that would be admitting a flaw in judgment, spotting a meticulously clean record of achievement. These guys are willing to take chances…..with other people’s money, and assets, in fact they crave those chances at chance and the unknown, it’s their elixir to life.

It’s been less than six years since the last big banking scandal hit the world, and already there are big hints that the banking industry didn’t learn a single thing. 2012 saw some of the same systemic activity as 2007 and 2008. These knuckleheads won’t ever learn…..will they?

Banks and the banking officers, CEO’s and boards of directors seem to be oblivious to the activity around them. I won’t go into the alleged reasons for the scandals, I’m not qualified, and based on some of the results of probes and investigations of the industry…..few people are qualified, even those who are supposed to be.

It doesn’t do any good to hold U.S. Senate Committee hearings, (most are for show anyways)…..there aren’t any criminal charges ever leveled. The bad behavior by top banking officials, throughout the world, continues by both men and women. One thing can be said for these men and women, they do know how to dress, and, baby, do they look confident or what!

And they address whomever from some perch way up on high, and I really believe, that they believe that they did nothing wrong because their chosen profession…..banking and the financial world, is so convoluted that these people are really needed, because they’re the only ones who understand, and are qualified. The scandals of 2012:

 1. JP Morgan Chase, revealed in May that one of the safest of banks in the U.S. suffered a massive trading loss, initially projected to be $2 billion, but after the dust had settled that amount turned roughly into $5.89 billion.

 2. The London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor) manipulation scandal was the year’s most far-reaching, hitting dozens of banks across the United States and Europe. Barclays was the first bank to settle allegations that it manipulated the Libor a benchmark rate tied to hundreds of trillions of dollars worth of financial contracts and derivatives. Barclays paid up to $450 million and American CEO; Bob Diamond lost his job over the matter after regulators lost their faith in him. I had no idea that banks operated on a faith basis.

 3. Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS) paid $1.5 billion to settle Libor allegations. The Swiss bank admitted wrongdoing and some of its former traders were arrested in Europe as a part of the investigations.

 4. Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) paid $1.9 billion to the UK and U.S; to the regulators over money laundering allegations. More specifically HSBC money laundering policies allowed billions in Mexico drug money and Iranian terrorist money to be transferred into the United States financial system.

 5. Standard Chartered, a United Kingdom bank paid $327 million to American regulators in December of 2012 over illegal transactions with Iran, Sudan, Libya, and Burma. The countries are all subject to U.S. sanctions.

 6. UBS scandal kept on rolling, as one of its traders, who went rogue costing the bank more than $2 billion dollars.

 7. CEO Russell Wasendorf Sr. was indicted by federal prosecutors in Iowa for allegedly embezzling more than $215 million dollars of client money. Wasendorf pleaded not guilty even though he’d confessed in a suicide note that he was using fake bank statements to embezzle the money from customers.

 8. A large brokerage firm, Market-Maker Knight Capital Group, suffered a $440 million dollar loss after a problem with its trading system resulted in unwanted securities purchases.

 9. Insider trading, and hedge fund trader Rah Rajaratnam was fined $5 million and jailed for two years for illicit profits he made on inside information. Among the secret information Rajaratnam used was a $5 billion investment Warren Buffet would make to Goldman Sachs amid the 2008 financial crisis.

10. Steve Cohen, and his firm, SAC Capital were in hot water for allegedly using insider information to make even more billions than he’s already worth.

WHAT’S THE ANSWER

Regulations, regulations, regulations…..and then more regulations, laws, tough laws with teeth that carry prison time for even the smallest infraction. And some sort of ultimate authority that can regulate the regulators.

Maybe breaking up the banks, those that are too big to fail, JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Household Bank, none should be termed too big to fail. Today we have these types of industry, and it seems like an open door for these jerks to commandeer the common folk’s money, security and future.

Without a doubt, few people understand the banking industry, the savings and loan, the hedge funders, traders and brokers. The banking industry has been constructed that way so that few people fully understand what in hell is going on with the industry…..and their money.

HAVE A NICE DAY!