Holding Wall Street accountable and trying to rein in greed

[ProSense]

If the measure is Matt Taibbi's article, these are drops in the bucket, but still important.

Ex-UBS Banker Is Said to Have Been Informant in Inquiry

Federal prosecutors who arrested a senior private banker at Credit Suisse in the United States in January in connection with a federal investigation into offshore accounts learned his identity from an indicted UBS banker, according to court papers unsealed on Tuesday.

The Credit Suisse banker, Christos Bagios, worked at UBS, a Swiss rival to Credit Suisse, from 1999 to 2008 before joining Credit Suisse in February 2009.

One of his superiors at UBS was Renzo Gadola, a Swiss citizen who worked from 1995 to 2008 at UBS, where he was a senior private banker and the executive director of the division that oversaw UBS’s undeclared offshore private banking services for wealthy Americans. Mr. Gadola left UBS to form RG Investment Partners, an investment advisory firm in Zurich.

Mr. Bagios, a Greek citizen and Swiss resident, was arrested in January — the criminal complaint against him does not specify when — in New York and charged with conspiracy and fraud; the complaint unsealed on Tuesday also said that prosecutors had learned about Mr. Bagios’s involvement through recent interviews with Mr. Gadola.

more

Banks haven't gotten the tax fraud message: prosecutor

Kevin Downing, a senior trial attorney at the Department of Justice, also said a handful of Swiss bankers indicted last week will face Interpol red notices and risk arrest should they leave Switzerland.

He made the remarks at a legal conference in Southern California.

U.S. officials are investigating other banks after UBS AG (UBSN.VX) (UBS.N) in 2009 paid $780 million and last year agreed to hand over nearly 5,000 account names to the U.S. government to settle tax evasion charges.

The latest indictment, filed last week, charges four current and former bankers at a large Swiss international bank with encouraging Americans to use offshore credit cards and to move money to other banks from Israel to Hong Kong.

<...>

Over the last two years, a lot has happened in terms of accountability, and the process is ongoing.

• New regulations on debit card fees and credit cards
  
  
• Establishing first-ever Consumer Financial Protecton Bureau
  
  
• Elizabeth Warren Recruits Dodd-Frank Enforcers From 50 States
  
  
• Fed's massive data release offers new insight into financial crisis
  
  
• Dodd-Frank gives shareholders voice on executive pay
  
  
• Panel Begins to Set Rules to Govern Financial System (Volcker Rule)
  
  
• Warning Shot On Financial Protection
  
  
• S.E.C. Proposes Crackdown on Wall Street Bonuses
  
  
• Sheila Bair, FDIC Chief: Too Big Banks Should Be 'Downsized'
  
  
• Ex-Goldman director charged with insider trading
  
  
• Former Mortgage Officer Admits to Fraud
  
  
• Mortgage Modification Overhaul Sought by States

Also, the President Obama's budget included several proposals that Democrats should be pushing for.

<...>

The president, in a $3.7 trillion budget plan released yesterday in Washington, revived dozens of proposals that Congress has rejected, including $129 billion in higher taxes on the overseas profits of U.S. companies. He also proposed changing the tax treatment of oil, gas and coal companies, which would raise about $46 billion.

<...>

The proposal also would bring back pre-2001 tax rates on income and capital gains for individuals earning more than $200,000 annually and married couples making more than $250,000. The estate tax would return to 2009 levels with a $3.5 million per-person exemption and a 45 percent top rate. Under a law Obama signed in December, lower rates expire at the end of 2012.


<...>

The budget plan would limit itemized deductions for top earners to 28 percent, curbing the value of tax breaks for charitable contributions, home mortgage interest and state and local taxes. That proposal has been included in every budget of Obama’s presidency and was rejected as a revenue-raising provision to fund his overhaul of the health system last year.

link

The budget also included a $30 billion tax on the largest financial institutions.

The question is how to pressure Congress to pass these proposals?

[ProSense]

1. No comment? n/t

[martymar64]

2. Good smalls steps, but we need to get a lot tougher on them than that.

The Bankster CEO's that brought our economy to the brink of collapse need to be indicted, convicted and sent to a regular maximum or supermax prisons instead of Club Feds, and thrown in with the general population for long 10 year + mandatory minimum sentences. That will be a powerful incentive for these crooks to come to jesus. Make an example of them for future generations of bankers to not fuck with our economy.

Or we could deal with them the way the Chinese would deal with those convicted of corruption. That would really get them in line, and how.

To pressure Congress, we need to turn the Mall in DC into our own Tahrir Square. Besides big fat campaign contributions, mass assembly by a few hundred thousand pissed off people is our only recourse left. They won't listen to courteous letters or faxes so we need to go get right in their collective faces.

[leftstreet]

3. If Obama can't get Congress to pass this measly shit, he's a terrible CEO n/t

[ProSense]

5. "this measly shit"

Robert Reich:

<...>

Here’s what Democrats should be saying:

Hike taxes on the super-rich. Reform the tax code to create more brackets at the top with higher rates for millionaires and billionaires. Absurdly, the top bracket is now set at $375,000 with a tax rate of 35 percent; the second-highest bracket, at 33 percent, starts at $172,000 for individuals. But the big money is way higher.

<...>

[The Magistrate]

4. Until Major Bankers Are On Trial, And In Jail, Ma'am, This Barely Counts As Window-Dressing

It is unfortunate, but true: this administration has performed very poorly in regards to the criminal behavior of the wealthy, and has gained nothing by it. The wealthy still whine they are persecuted, and oppose the administration's most minor reforms strenuously, while the people are left to feel bewildered or disgusted by the laxity displayed to malefactors of great wealth. The people know if they presented fraudulent papers to a court, or materially misrepresented an item they sold someone, they would be punished under law. They expect, or at any rate would very much like to see, those with more money than they have treated similarly.

[ProSense]

6. Arrested, indicted, pled guilty

I'd say those things are more than window dressing.

Until now, Mr. Farkas, 58, was the only person charged in what the government said was an extensive scheme to deceive financial firms and the Troubled Asset Relief Program by covering up shortfalls at Taylor, Bean & Whitaker, according to the S.E.C. Mr. Farkas was charged in a 16-count indictment in June and faces the possibility of spending the rest of his life in prison, according to court papers.

Ms. Brown, of Hernando, Fla., faces up to 30 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and an order to pay restitution to more than 250 victims. She is to be sentenced on June 10.

[The Magistrate]

7. A Street-Level Dealer Ma'am, Caught With A Pocketful Of Nickle Bags....

[ProSense]

8. Colonial was the largest bank to fail in 2009

A "$1.9 billion fraud scheme" that brings down a large bank is not "nickle bags."

Sometimes it starts small: Ex-Atheros VP sentenced to 18 months in Galleon case

From the OP: Ex-Goldman director charged with insider trading

Gupta was an investor in some of the Galleon hedge funds when he passed the information along, and he had other business interests with Rajaratnam, the SEC said. Rajaratnam used the information from Gupta to illegally profit in hedge fund trades, the SEC said.

[The Magistrate]

11. Compared To the Totals, Ma'am, Yes, Nickle Bags

Nor is Mr. Gupta's arrest related to the chief frauds practiced.

You may not like to hear it, but all this you have listed is penny-ante stuff. It will not achieve what has to be done to clear te system and restore confidence.

[Rex]

13. Some people will take a band-aid and declare victory.

We need exactly what you said...clear the system and get some real leadership to restore confidence in our elected officials.

[ProSense]

15. No one is declaring victory

That's simply a line to brush aside the facts. A lot more needs to be done as is clearly stated in the OP.

[Rex]

18. Wrong again.

[ProSense]

14. Right

pursuing fraud charges, implementing Wall Street reform, including regulations to prohibit the kinds of abuses that took place is "penny-ante stuff." Putting the people who are responsible in jail feels good (to me too), but the notion that none of the other reforms are relevant is simply brushing aside the changes (like the Volcker rule, the CFPB, "say on pay," bonus rules) for only the satisfaction of seeing people go to jail, which is warranted but by itself is not going to fix the problems.

[The Magistrate]

16. These Items, Ma'am, Will Not Do The Trick

They are some improvement on the situation, and this is to the the good, certainly, but they are not enough, and certainly will not suffice to prevent the sorts of abuses that marked the previous decade or so. Most derivatives trading still will be unsupervised, margin requirements remain far too low, 'securitization' remains unpoliced. It is not a question of seeking the 'satisfaction' of putting people in jail: crminal behavior demnds proper sanction, to serve as both punishment and deterrent. This particular class of predatory criminal is much more amenable to deterrence than a typical mugger or drug dealer, since they actually have something to lose, and generally are acting on a rational calculation that their crimes will net them far more than the usual penalties, paltry fines, will cost. They seldom have what it takes to stand up to prison life, even in minimum security facilities, and are terrified of the prospect. So long as criminal behavior pays, and goes unpunished, it will continue in the highest circles of finance, and work to the detriment of everyone else in society.

"Some men rob you with a six-gun, and some with a fountain pen."

[ProSense]

17. "They are some improvement on the situation, and this is to the the good,...but they are not enough"

And I didn't say they were enough.

"Most derivatives trading still will be unsupervised, margin requirements remain far too low, 'securitization' remains unpoliced."

Also an ongoing process.

U.S. Justice Department Letter Calls For Stronger Ownership Rules on Swaps

Simon Johnson: Deceptive Lobbying on Derivatives

The fact is that getting these rules right will have an impact, and Wall Street is fighting them with all they've got.

[The Magistrate]

19. If You Agree They Are Not Enough, Ma'am, Why Quarrel With People Disatisfied And Calling For More?

The fight being put up by the predators of Wall Street does not owe to any great crimp they expect these rules will put in their thieving, rather it owes to their objection to recognizing any authority over their actions by the government, in however slight a degree it might be manifest.

[ProSense]

20. Who's quarreling?

Don't you think there is enough negative news that some of the positive can be spotlighted? I don't have to dismiss the positive to acknowledge that more needs to be done.

Seriously, the goal is to push those who are trying to do something to do more while calling out the predators. If those who are trying to help are demonized, then apathy sets in.

[Initech]

9. See - I think we need to change the rhetoric: these people are addicted to money.

And they have a problem.

[ProSense]

10. Anyone ever check out this site:

Stopfraud.gov

[jody]

12. IMO it's We the People at least the few who vote who are accountable. We have a chance every two

years to elect 435 congresspersons who will represent us, not a political party nor corporatist who finance those two parties with their candidates for president and the senate who pass bipartisan bills that move us closer toward a corporate state.