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Bankers Go To Jail


KandJBm

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In a story not reported on at all by any Western mainstream media source that I am aware of, Iceland just sentenced another five high level bankers to prison for directly contributing to the collapse of the country’s economy in 2008.

 

This brings the total to 26 bankers now behind bars in Iceland, with most being CEOs of large financial institutions, rather than low level traders. Most of those jailed will serve terms of two to five years, according to a report by Iceland Magazine. What? You don't read Iceland magazine? http://icelandmag.visir.is/article/26-bankers-already-sentenced-a-combined-74-years-prison

 

Their crimes include market manipulation, embezzlement, and breach of fiduciary duties. Their market manipulation destroyed the country’s economy and to this day Iceland is still having to repay the global loan sharks at the IMF, as well as governments of other countries, which kept the nation operating.

 

The article explains that the prosecutions have been possible because rather than protect and reward the very institutions responsible for the collapse, and the gangsters that run them, the Icelandic government let them fail, and then created a financial supervisory authority to strictly oversee the banks.

 

I hope, since this is about Iceland, it won't be considered too political.

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  • 4 weeks later...

UPDATE

 

Just maybe something is starting to happen? The WSJ article at the link below says so.

 

http://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-targets-rbs-j-p-morgan-executives-in-criminal-probes-1447786655

 

Since you can't read all of the WSJ article unless you subscribe to the WSJ, here is a short comment on the article, titled "Seven Years Later, Will Justice Be Served?" at the link below.

 

http://news.goldseek.com/GoldSeek/1447944300.php

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I've been following it too, thanks for posting. It is about time.

RV/Derek
http://www.rvroadie.com Email on the bottom of my website page.
Retired AF 1971-1998


When you see a worthy man, endeavor to emulate him. When you see an unworthy man, look inside yourself. - Confucius

 

“Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.” ... Voltaire

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  • 1 month later...

This isn't directly about bankers going to jail. It might, however, be about bankers - specifically the Dallas FED - trying to hide the extent of oil sector loans that are not in good shape and the future bailing out of more banks like we have seen in the past. We will see.

 

An article from Zero Hedge: "Exclusive: Dallas Fed Quietly Suspends Energy Mark-To-Market On Default Contagion Fears."

 

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-01-16/exclusive-dallas-fed-quietly-suspends-energy-mark-market-tells-banks-not-force-shale

 

 

And a follow up article: "The Fed Responds To Zero Hedge: Here Are Some Follow Up Questions."

 

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-01-18/fed-responds-zero-hedge-here-are-some-follow-questions

 

J

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  • 1 month later...

Another article that covers much more than bankers not going to jail, but since it offers some insight into that topic too, here it is (http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/02/17/the-federal-reserve-and-the-global-fracture/). The "much more" is about the state of our economic system and how it is changing from industrial capitalism which saw the growth of economic well being of most people to a form of financial capitalism which mostly benefits wealth and power holders no matter which political party they belong to.

 

The article is an interview with economist, Michael Hudson, not your mainstream type of guy! Who is he: (https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=michael+hudson+economist)

 

I put the article in this thread rather than "Are You Still In?" because unfortunately some readers here are somewhat likely to jump on the political aspects of this article (and those are only minor aspects) rather than comment on the more important aspects of our economic system and the role of wealth and power changing it to benefit a small segment of our population. I do hope this does not happen, but if it does and this thread gets locked, well at least it won't be "Are You Still In?" that gets locked.

 

K and J

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Thanks k,

You are right that there are those who push their agenda no matter what on forums. Thanks for the excellent links. I could not have explained it better. Heck I could not have explained it at all. Now I will sound literate and edumacated! ;)

RV/Derek
http://www.rvroadie.com Email on the bottom of my website page.
Retired AF 1971-1998


When you see a worthy man, endeavor to emulate him. When you see an unworthy man, look inside yourself. - Confucius

 

“Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.” ... Voltaire

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  • 4 months later...

The big Wall St bankers are still not going to jail. They get to pay fines instead: "Banks fork over $17 billion for misdeeds in 2013" at this link:

http://money.cnn.com/2013/10/30/news/companies/bank-payouts/?iid=EL From this link the following quote is important, "There is one wrinkle though - virtually all the fines are tax deductible. So when the feds collect a fine, whether it's $1 million or $1 billion, the bank will have a lower tax bill. The upshot: Treasury isn't really collecting all of that fine money." Just imagine, misdeeds bad enough to have to pay those huge fines, but no jail time?!

 

Then there is this article titled, "35 bankers were sent to prison for financial crisis crimes." at this link: http://money.cnn.com/2016/04/28/news/companies/bankers-prison/ But, "Many of the crimes involved relatively small amounts of money at smaller banks, rather than massive fraud at Wall Street banks."

 

Finally, on the positive side of small state banking systems. Who would have guessed that North Dakota's (http://www.onthecommons.org/magazine/how-one-state-escaped-rule-by-wall-street) state banking system is a stand out at escaping the power of Wall St banks? And who would have guessed that, "While the publicly owned BND might well be characterized as a socialist institution, it has had the effect of enabling North Dakota’s local banks to be very successful capitalists. Over the last three years, they’ve operated more efficiently, and earned a return on their capital nearly twice that of the nation’s largest 20 banks, according to federal data."

 

J

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J,

Awesome article about the BND. I love that it is labeled socialist. Like anything not controlled by monopolistic big interests, or big interests that have been deregulated with the promise to behave like the banks deregulated like crazy in 2000-2008 and that worked out just fine, they behaved - NOT!

 

I think their fines being tax deductible is criminal as well.

 

What ever happened to the daring prosecution of those who prey instead of serve the citizens of the US?

RV/Derek
http://www.rvroadie.com Email on the bottom of my website page.
Retired AF 1971-1998


When you see a worthy man, endeavor to emulate him. When you see an unworthy man, look inside yourself. - Confucius

 

“Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.” ... Voltaire

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Thanks for sharing!

 

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  • 2 months later...

Here is an article with two videos in it, that you may want to watch to see Senator Elizabeth Warren take on the latest banker-crook.

 

Video 1: "Warren Says Wells Fargo's Stumpf Should Resign, Face Criminal Investigation"

 

 

Video 2: "Watch Next: Warren Asks Stumpf, Have Your Resigned, Returned Money?"

 

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-09-20/wells-fargo-expands-account-review-to-2009-and-2010-stumpf-says

 

 

K&J

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Here is an article with two videos in it, that you may want to watch to see Senator Elizabeth Warren take on the latest banker-crook.

 

Video 1: "Warren Says Wells Fargo's Stumpf Should Resign, Face Criminal Investigation"

 

 

Video 2: "Watch Next: Warren Asks Stumpf, Have Your Resigned, Returned Money?"

 

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-09-20/wells-fargo-expands-account-review-to-2009-and-2010-stumpf-says

 

 

K&J

 

K&J

I watched that hearing in its entirety the other day and it was great entertainment. Better than watching "Game of Thrones". It seems clear that Wells Fargo is guilty of fraud and as an off and on shareholder over the years I'm disappointed in them. I'm not trying to defend them.

 

The LA Times broke this story over 5 years ago. So I would like to ask Senator Warren where she, her Banking Committee and their indignation has been for the last 5 years? There is a clear answer to that question but it can't be answered here because of the limits of "political discussion" and I agree with that rule. But if you research why the American banking industry has paid over 120 billion dollars in settlements to the US government since 2008, with nothing more than minor prosecution, you can figure this out.

 

Jim

Jim
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Agreed Jim.

 

It was good theater I loved it too K&J.

RV/Derek
http://www.rvroadie.com Email on the bottom of my website page.
Retired AF 1971-1998


When you see a worthy man, endeavor to emulate him. When you see an unworthy man, look inside yourself. - Confucius

 

“Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.” ... Voltaire

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So where did the fine money go? Perhaps it is just another way to collect money?

 

Safe Travels!

SKP #89742 - Lifetime membership - Member of the SKP Class of 2007
Good Sam Club - Lifetime Member
DataStorm #5423
Passport America - Lifetime Member
Sons Of The American Revolution (SAR) - Lifetime Member
American Legion - USAF - Lifetime Member
Rotary Club Member - 30 years

Escapee CARE Supporter

National Wildlife Refuge Volunteer

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So where did the fine money go? Perhaps it is just another way to collect money?

 

Safe Travels!

 

Some time ago the Wall Street Journal tried to follow where the settlement money was going and as I remember the article, it said something like just under half was going into the general treasury funds and the rest were going to various programs to compensate those hurt by the banks improprieties. It's not really "fine money" though as you have called it. There are certainly a lot of fines paid for smaller infractions but the bulk of the money collected is "settlement money" that is collected by the DOJ from the banks to avoid civil or criminal prosecution by the DOJ. This practice, in my opinion, comes dangerously close to the definition of extortion. As an example the German bank Deutsche Bank was notified recently by the DOJ that it wanted 14 billion dollars to settle.

 

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/deutsche-bank-rebuffs-14-billion-settlement-demand-in-us-mortgage-probe-2016-09-16

 

My argument is that the financial industry caused a great deal of hardship in the world by following unethical and or illegal acts. And when the government demands and receives these massive settlements, the only ones really paying the price are the shareholders. If we truly want to clean up the financial industry we should demand that absolutely no settlements will be accepted. If there is evidence of criminal activity or activity in violation of banking regulations that activity will be looked at and those responsible will be held accountable on a personal level. I'm not an attorney, so maybe there are rules in place that shield the guilty parties from personal liability, but I would certainly hope not. It would be an expensive and lengthy endeavor to pursue the guilty parties in the legal system but I believe that would be the only real way to make them afraid to do this again in the future. And you only have to go after a few of them for the rest to figure out that the personal risk would just be too high.

 

Note to the moderator: I am not trying to make this a political discussion in any way. This is simply my comment on a financial problem we are having in this country that affects us all equally, no matter what our political views are.

 

Jim

Jim
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If you think you can, or you think you can't. . . you are probably right (Henry Ford)
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