Search Results for: bank collusion

Alexander Cockburn Predicted Wall Street’s Collapse Ten Days Before His Death

By Pam Martens: July 23, 2012 Alexander Cockburn, the outspoken columnist who died on Saturday, penned his last column for The Nation on July 11, just ten days before his death.  His final column out of a lifetime of covering politics and world news predicted the collapse of Wall Street. Alexander Cockburn had kept it a secret from all but his closest friends and family, but he knew he was dying.  He likely suspected this column would be his last. And what he chose to write about was the systemic corruption of the global banking cartel.  Perhaps we should listen carefully: “People calling for banking reform on either side of the Atlantic are underestimating the problems of enforcement.  A writer on the financial news blog Zero Hedge recently remarked that ‘the Libor scandal seems to be waking people up to manipulation and fraud by the big banks.’  Of course, there are … Continue reading →

Another Day, Another Probe of JPMorgan

By Pam Martens: July 6, 2012  A five day chart of JPMorgan Chase shows what shareholders think of the company. (The market was closed Wednesday for the July 4th holiday.) Taxpayers have no reason to cheer either.  Each day seems to bring another tax-payer funded investigation of potentially serious wrongdoing at the firm.  The latest probe involves an investigation into JPMorgan for manipulating electric markets in California and the Midwest through its commodities business.  The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued subpoenas to JPMorgan in April and May.  FERC wanted emails pertaining to its investigation.  JPMorgan is now being sued by FERC in Federal Court in Washington, D.C. to turn over 25 emails it has withheld.   The dispute has erupted into the public spotlight over the incredulous claim by JPMorgan that the emails are subject to attorney-client privilege.  FERC says the emails are between bankers.  How JPMorgan hopes to convince a Federal court … Continue reading →

Judicial Apartheid: Wall Street’s Kangaroo Courts (Part II)

By Pam Martens: August 3, 2009 As the newly appointed Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission prioritizes its agenda to investigate how a 200-year old system conceived to establish fair pricing and trading of stocks and bonds morphed into a rigged backroom casino of craps tables piled high with triple-A rated junk that crippled the world’s largest economy, they must place Wall Street’s private justice system at the top of their list for subpoenas. The rationale is as simple as this: —  there is only one industry in America bringing the country to its knees; —  there is only one industry in America which requires its workers to contractually relinquish their access to the courts as a condition of employment; —  look under that rock first for the thousands of industry whistleblowers who walked out of these kangaroo courts with gag orders, leaving behind their documents, placed under seal by colluding lawyers. … Continue reading →

Mileposts On the Journey to Global Financial Implosion

By Pam Martens: February 2, 2008 With Wall Street capital disappearing as fast as foreclosures are climbing, one foreign head of state had an epiphany. French President Nicholas Sarkozy advanced the idea recently that the global financial system is “out of its mind.” To develop this theory further, I’ve reconstructed below some of the mileposts on our journey to this financial loony bin. Exhibit One: Commit-a-Felony-Get-a-Bonus Contract. Back in 2002, Mark Belnick, who had previously been one of the legal go-to guys for Wall Street as a rising star at corporate law firm Paul,Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, found himself transplanted as General Counsel at fraud-infested Tyco International. Mr. Belnick inked a retention agreement for himself and it was duly filed without fanfare at the top corporate cop’s web site, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The agreement guaranteed Mr. Belnick a payment of at least $10.6 million should he … Continue reading →