The answer may be close at hand. A reader recently left a comment as to the validity of DOJ getting ready to indict 5,000 people in financial institutions for crimes of fraud. I did the research and here is what I found published January 15, 2009.
U.S. Attorney General's 5,000 DOJ Pending Indictments Targeting Financial Fraud, And National Security...published in FamilySecurityMatters.org
by C. Austin Burrell
Last week, in a speech given in West Palm Beach, Attorney General Holder announced 5,000 pending indictments by the Department of Justice of individuals linked to financial institution fraud as part of an overall targeting of market manipulators and cheaters across the board.
I broke this down into a single memo of eight bullet points for not only these parties but also for numerous journalists, lawyers, victims, government officials and more, with a uniform silence from them with only a handful of exceptions. The summation of this memo was that criminals both domestic and global were tactically manipulating all forms of assets, engaging in various forms of counterfeiting facilitated by vested public interests, in a huge global conspiracy lined inextricably to all forms of organized crime, again, done strategically to launder U.S. assets into foreign accounts for the purpose of evading all forms of taxes, both legitimate and illegitimate.
The enormous size of the thefts here (in the trillions of dollars) threatens U.S. national security, and global stability.
Mr. Burrell goes on to identify what type of companies could be targeted here. Speaking of who these criminal acts affected he says:
These same thefts could never have been executed except with the wholesale cooperation of not just hedge funds, and investment banks, but only with the implicit cooperation, support and protection of every form of financial service monopoly involved in trading, clearance and settlement of securities globally in all forms of assets along with the major international money center banks, a pliant press, and a corrupt research industry perforated by criminal interests who pay top price for the purchase or sale of research for securities they specialize in. Oversight provided by our U.S. government branches and agencies hasn’t been deficient, it has been non-existent, a canard by every perspective.His thoughts and beliefs mirror those of many of us. The question is, will these so called pending indictments come to the forefront and actually be acted upon. I remember two years ago the FBI releasing a statement that they were investigating 15 large financial institutions for possible fraud activities. Two years later not one word has ever been mentioned as to who they were investigating and what the outcome of those investigations were. Could this announcement by Attorney General Holder be the same - just an announcement to lead the peole to believe that "our" government is doing sometning but in reality is not?
We have all been made aware of the many possible criminal actions - or at the very least questionable actions - by Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, The New York Federal Reserve Bank (when under the direction of our Treasury Secretary. Hundreds of mortgage professionals have been imprisoned some justly and some unjustly for their participation in fraud. Yet, without the main suppliers providing the product, the "street pusher" would not have had access to product enabling their crimes. No, I do not justify any criminal activity just like I do not justify the common street drug pusher. But they to could not function if their supply was cut off.
Proof of this is also obviouos. When Wall Street stopped securitizing (almost overnight) the multitude of mortgage products allowing the abuses leading to our economic crisis ended. The cause of this was not due to effective law enforcement - it was the Wall Street cartels - seemingly led by Goldman Sachs - eliminating the product. Proof, to me at least, that our economic meltdown was due to their fraudulent actions.
It will be very interesting to see if these indictments are opened, served and acted upon. More intersting will be to see who they are served on, how thorough the investigations were and how deep into government they go.
In a time of little confidence in our government by the people, can our government truly be acting on behalf of the people not just using window dressing to to appease us and divert our attention altogether as has been the case for quite some time.
We will certainly follow this story and report on it as it develops.
Read Burrell's full article...click here...
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7 COMMENTS:
Are you tired of banks loading you up with fees while taking taxpayer money and giving executives huge bonuses? Send a final notice -- payment is past due and it's time for the government to rein in the banks.
Wall Street banks threw our economy into crisis. Bailing them out cost taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars. Now, with unemployment at 10 percent, those same Wall Street banks are planning to give six- and even seven-figure bonuses to the executives who created this mess.
Join our Partners at Working America and send the banks a final notice. Payment is past due on the harm they've done to the economy. Payment is past due on all the ways they've mistreated their customers -- from excessive credit card fees to risky mortgages.
We're letting the bankers know: Since they won't rein themselves in, the government is going to have to do it. And we're letting our Senators know we want the banks to face consequences for their actions.
President Obama's proposed financial crisis responsibility fee on the largest banks will help get back the taxpayer money that bailed out those same banks, without penalizing community banks and small firms.
We need a consumer financial protection agency to provide strong oversight so banks can't play Russian roulette with our economy again, and to protect customers from being bled dry.
Click here to let the bankers know this is their final notice. Your message also will go to your Senators, to urge them to rein in the banks.
http://tinyurl.com/ycuhspd
Max Keiser on Intelligence Arbitrage--bet you did not know you were part of it....
Watch..........
http://maxkeiser.com/2010/01/21/kr10-keiser-report-markets-finance-scandal-debtors-revolt/
Nice try Lloyd "I am the real Jesus" Blankfein. Next time you announce your earnings, make sure you bring plenty of lube for everyone who is willing to bend over and believe what you have to say. I know that at least Steve Liesman is buyin' it.
Goldman's earnings were ushered in with great fanfare on Bubblevision TV (CNBC and Bloomberg). And of course this is based solely on looking at the net income number, which blew away estimates and expectations. Of course, as per usual, there is a much different story to tell if you examine the bowels of a financial statement, especially bank financial statements. So I took out my "Greg House" marker pen and board and took a look at Goldman's 8-K SEC filing, which contains an expanded version of the press release that the monkeys on CNBC regurgitate.
The bottom line is that a substantial portion of Goldman's net income for Q4 '09 appears to have been derived from marking up illiquid positions sitting in its Fixed Income operations and is not attributable to the interest rate and currencies segment of FICC, which means the numbers came from fixed income products like mortgage and asset-backed securities.
http://truthingold.blogspot.com/2010/01/goldmans-earnings-market-to-market.html
Just remember who has more money or access to the printing press:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-na-court-corporations22-2010jan22,0,4141508.story
Quote
In a 5-4 decision that strikes down a 1907 law, the justices say the 1st Amendment gives corporations, just like individuals, a right to spend their own money on political ads for federal candidates.
End
It did not surprise me to learn that Justice Scalia was among those supporting this decision.
I was in the audience in Warrensburg Missouri March 4, 2008 during Justice Scalia's
one-man show, and heard the audience's nervous laughter when Scalia said:
http://blog.showmeprogress.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=808 (some transcripts)
Quote
...I don't mean to suggest that in the bad old days judges never distorted the Constitution. Of course they did. You're going to have willful judges with you until the end of time. But in the good old days they had to distort the Constitution the good old fashioned honest way. They lied about it [laughter]...
End
Rep Alan Grayson ~ If this Decision Stands, You Can Kiss this Country Goodbye
http://inpoints.blogspot.com/2010/01/rep-alan-grayson-if-this-decision.html
Janet Tavakoli
President, Tavakoli Structured Finance, Inc.
Posted: January 22, 2010 10:59 AM
Show Bernanke and Geithner the Door
What has the financial crisis taught us? Among other things, we should show Bernanke and Geithner, enablers from the previous administration, the door. Paul Volcker is right to ask for a return to Glass-Steagall. It worked until it was eroded over several decades by bank lobbying. Banking and speculative trading activities--even when done for "customers"--don't mix.
"Financial innovation" must be limited, since much of it in recent years was the financial equivalent of card cheating. Banks should not be allowed to sponsor hedge funds and private equity funds, and furthermore, they should not be allowed to lend to them through prime brokerage units or other means. Financial institutions must be allowed to fail. Hedge funds require regulation. Malfeasance should be investigated and prosecuted. Credit derivatives should be traded and cleared through exchanges and made transparent. Compensation and financial incentives at banks must change. Bank employees cannot continue to reap huge rewards at no personal risk while shoving risk into the global financial system.
President Obama promised us change, and he should seize this opportunity to demand sweeping financial reform.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/janet-tavakoli/show-bernanke-and-geithne_b_432897.html
Taxing Wall Street Down to Size
Make no mistake. The banking system has become an agent of destruction for the gross domestic product and of impoverishment for the middle class. To be sure, it was lured into these unsavory missions by a truly insane monetary policy under which, most recently, the Federal Reserve purchased $1.5 trillion of longer-dated Treasury bonds and housing agency securities in less than a year. It was an unprecedented exercise in market-rigging with printing-press money, and it gave a sharp boost to the price of bonds and other securities held by banks, permitting them to book huge revenues from trading and bookkeeping gains.
Meanwhile, by fixing short-term interest rates at near zero, the Fed planted its heavy boot squarely in the face of depositors, as it shrank the banks’ cost of production — their interest expense on depositor funds — to the vanishing point.
The resulting ultrasteep yield curve for banks is heralded, by a certain breed of Wall Street tout, as a financial miracle cure. Soon, it is claimed, a prodigious upwelling of profitability will repair bank balance sheets and bury toxic waste from the last bubble’s collapse. But will it?
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/20/opinion/20stockman.html?scp=1&sq=Taxing%20Wall%20Street%20Down%20to%20Size&st=cse
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