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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsMatt Taibbi Tells A Tale Of STAGGERING International BANK FRAUD
Here's Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi with a financial fraud story that involves the international banking system. Regulators on multiple continents are investigating the possibility that four of more banks were involved in widespread, Libor-style currency manipulation that went on for years:
There's no way to do a slap on the wrist in these cases. If they're guilty, they're done.
And virtually simultaneous to that, JP Morgan Chase disclosed that it is currently the target of no fewer than eight federal investigations, for activities ranging from possible bribery of foreign officials in Asia to allegations of improper mortgage-bond sales to . . . the Libor mess.
"The scope and breadth of risky practices at JPMorgan are mind-boggling," Mark Williams, a former Federal Reserve bank examiner, told Bloomberg.
The point of all of this is that any thought that the potential Chase settlement might begin a period of regulatory healing for it and other Wall Street banks appears to be wildly mistaken. If anything, the scope of potential liability for all the major banks, particularly in these market-rigging furors, appears to be growing in all directions.
A half-year ago, it looked like the chief villains in the Libor mess at least were going to get away with writing relatively small checks. Back in March, a major private class-action suit filed by a gaggle of plaintiffs against the banks for Libor manipulation was tossed by a federal judge here in the southern District of New York on the seemingly preposterous grounds that a bunch of banks getting together to monkey with the value of world interest rates in this biggest-in-history financial collusion case was somehow now an antitrust issue.
The banks in that case humorously implied that the victims might have done better to sue for fraud instead of manipulation ("The plaintiffs, I believe, are confusing a claim of being perhaps deceived," one bank lawyer put it, "with a claim for harm to competition"

Moreover, when the plaintiffs' lawyers tried to make a point about the seemingly key fact that a series of governments had already concluded settlements with the banks for manipulating Libor, the judge the Hon. Naomi Rice Buchwald mocked the plaintiffs' lawyers for trying to ride to civil victory on a wave of government settlements:
Wait a second. Your job here, as plaintiffs' counsel, looking for whopping legal fees, is not to piggyback on the government. Indeed, the reason that there are statutes that provide plaintiffs' counsel with attorney's fees is a recognition that the government has limited resources.
The banks must have thought they'd hit the lottery, with this potentially deadly Libor suit suddenly stopped dead in its tracks by a grumpy federal judge with an apparent distaste for plaintiff lawyers who collect "whopping" legal fees. So the victims tried to take a different tack, appealing to a federal panel in an attempt to allow them to file their suits against the banks on a state-by-state level.
But then, in a seemingly fatal blow to the private claims, the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation ruled in favor of the banks, sending the case right back into the courtroom of the same judge who'd dumped on the plaintiffs' lawyers and their "whopping fees."
cont'
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/chase-isnt-the-only-bank-in-trouble-20131105
cont'
http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/matt-taibbi-has-tale-staggering

Tuesday Afternoon
(56,912 posts)Segami
(14,923 posts)There's simply no way to do a damage calculation that won't wipe out the entire finance sector when you're talking about pervasive, ongoing manipulation of $5-trillion-a-day markets. That's the problem there's no way to do a slap on the wrist in these cases. If they're guilty, they're done...."
Warren Stupidity
(48,181 posts)He gets a routine Fisking here.
Scuba
(53,475 posts)Or something.
Segami
(14,923 posts)
Ace Acme
(1,464 posts)WinkyDink
(51,311 posts)Jerry442
(1,265 posts)...but in this country we've banksterized the government instead.
Ace Acme
(1,464 posts)The State bought the banks, solved the problems, and before long was able to sell out their holdings
for a good price.
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/the_pivot/2012/10/sweden_when_its_banks_failed_the_scandinavian_country_made_a_miraculous.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/23/business/worldbusiness/23krona.html
Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)It's wonderful.
Ace Acme
(1,464 posts)FreakinDJ
(17,644 posts)Wise choice
PeoViejo
(2,178 posts)They saw that Train 'a Comin'
WinkyDink
(51,311 posts)Octafish
(55,745 posts)Or anyone?
Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)Octafish
(55,745 posts)Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)Get it out there again. Just as a reminder. Every few weeks.
questionseverything
(10,437 posts)matt t...hope he stays safe
Octafish
(55,745 posts)The letters show I focus on the glass half empty. There should be a lot more.
And I tried to warn him and a bunch more writers on the BFEE:
Lots of good reporters have died pursuing stories critical of the powerful.
Blue_Tires
(57,596 posts)Greenwald could stand to learn a lesson from this guy...