Heaven can wait.
There's a passage in the Bible that says, "The Kingdom of the Father is spread out upon the earth and men do not see it."
Bankers see it.
The whole earth is heaven for the big banks. They rule over it like petty, greedy gods.
And that's not because they're too-big-to-fail; it's because they're too-big-to-control and have it too-good-to-ever-change their sleazy, self-serving, corrupt ways.
The latest proof of big bank's criminal ways, that they've been manipulating Libor - which isn't news, I was writing about this four years ago - isn't an indictment. It's a signed, sealed, and delivered verdict of "guilty."
(Check this out, I get credit from a group of fraud lawyers for being first to call this out right here.)
Barclays, a monster British bank, is under criminal investigation for its role in fraudulently manipulating the London InterBank Offered Rate (Libor). It settled charges late on Tuesday with Britain's Financial Services Authority (FSA), the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), and the U.S. Department of Justice.
Yeah, about that "justice" thing...
Barclays "settled" by paying $92.8 million to the FSA (a record fine), $200 million to the CFTC (another record), and $160 million to the DOJ (a piddling amount).
But, hey, you know, they're sorry and all that. Sorry they got caught, that is. And they're not alone.
There will be a bunch of other big banks paying for this gross game of manipulation. And all of them are household names.
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LIBOR Manipulating Banksters Get a Slap on the Wrist
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Bankers Committed Fraud to Get Bigger Bonuses
In case you didn't catch the article titled "Guilty Pleas Hit the 'Mark'" in the Wall Street Journal, I'm here to make sure you don't miss it.
This is too good.
Three former employees of Credit Suisse Group AG (NYSE: CS) were charged with conspiracy to falsify books and records and wire fraud. They were accused of mismarking prices on bonds in their trading books by soliciting trumped-up prices for their withering securities from friends in the business.
By posting higher "marks" for their bonds in late 2007, they earned big year-end bonuses.
What a shock!
What's not a shock is that, after a bang-up 2007, Credit Suisse had to take a $2.85 billion write-down in the first quarter of 2008. No one knows how much of that loss was attributable to the three co-conspirators who were fired over their "wrongdoing."
Two of the three accused pled guilty. Also not shocking is the reason David Higgs - one who pled guilty - gave for his actions. He said he did it "to remain in good favor" with bosses, who determined his bonus and who profited handsomely themselves from his profitable trading and inventory marks.
As for Salmaan Siddiqui, the other trader who pleaded guilty? His attorney Ira Sorkin, the former Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) enforcement chief, said of his client: "What he did was the result of his boss and his boss' boss directing him to do it."
You know what else is shocking?
This is too good.
Three former employees of Credit Suisse Group AG (NYSE: CS) were charged with conspiracy to falsify books and records and wire fraud. They were accused of mismarking prices on bonds in their trading books by soliciting trumped-up prices for their withering securities from friends in the business.
By posting higher "marks" for their bonds in late 2007, they earned big year-end bonuses.
What a shock!
What's not a shock is that, after a bang-up 2007, Credit Suisse had to take a $2.85 billion write-down in the first quarter of 2008. No one knows how much of that loss was attributable to the three co-conspirators who were fired over their "wrongdoing."
Two of the three accused pled guilty. Also not shocking is the reason David Higgs - one who pled guilty - gave for his actions. He said he did it "to remain in good favor" with bosses, who determined his bonus and who profited handsomely themselves from his profitable trading and inventory marks.
As for Salmaan Siddiqui, the other trader who pleaded guilty? His attorney Ira Sorkin, the former Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) enforcement chief, said of his client: "What he did was the result of his boss and his boss' boss directing him to do it."
You know what else is shocking?
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