Bloomberg Investigation: Wall Street Conspiracy To Defraud State Governments
New investigative piece. We're excerpting just a small portion of the article. There is much more to this story at Bloomberg.
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A telephone call between a financial adviser in Beverly Hills and a trader in New York was all it took to fleece taxpayers on a water-and-sewer financing deal in West Virginia. The secret conversation was part of a conspiracy stretching across the U.S. by Wall Street banks in the $2.8 trillion municipal bond market.
The call came less than two hours before bids were due for contracts to manage $90 million raised with the sale of West Virginia bonds. On one end of the line was Steven Goldberg, a trader with Financial Security Assurance Holdings Ltd. On the other was Zevi Wolmark, of advisory firm CDR Financial Products Inc. Goldberg arranged to pay a kickback to CDR to land the deal, according to government records filed in connection with a U.S. Justice Department indictment of CDR and Wolmark.
West Virginia was just one stop in a nationwide conspiracy in which financial advisers to municipalities colluded with Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., Wachovia Corp. and 11 other banks.
They rigged bids on auctions for so-called guaranteed investment contracts, known as GICs, according to a Justice Department list that was filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan on March 24 and then put under seal. Those contracts hold tens of billions of taxpayer money.
California to Pennsylvania
The workings of the conspiracy -- which stretched from California to Pennsylvania and included more than 200 deals involving about 160 state agencies, local governments and non- profits -- can be pieced together from the Justice Department’s indictment of CDR, civil lawsuits by governments around the country, e-mails obtained by Bloomberg News and interviews with current and former bankers and public officials.
“The whole investment process was rigged across the board,” said Charlie Anderson, who retired in 2007 as head of field operations for the Internal Revenue Service’s tax-exempt bond division. “It was so commonplace that people talked about it on the phones of their employers and ignored the fact that they were being recorded.”
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Continue reading at Bloomberg >>
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May 19, 2010 at 1:12 PM
Reader Comments (21)
Looting Main Street
How the nation's biggest banks are ripping off American cities with the same predatory deals that brought down Greece
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Read this one by Matt Taibbi...
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-treasurys-mortgage-mod-program-is-dying-as-trials-begin-to-slow-and-debt-to-income-ratios-worsen-2010-5#ixzz0oOyaUPv6
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7009807.html
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This will happen nationwide...
By Stephen Roach
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/9f165de0-61bf-11df-aa80-00144feab49a.html
The mod program has been a joke since the beginning, many got mods and then get forclosure notices after making the agreed upon new payments. BoA is top of the list.
I can't imagine the Federal Gov defrauding the states (sarcasm), go party loyalists, make the FED proud...
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/19/dining/19pot.html?src=me&ref=general
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/19/opinion/19pressler.html?src=me&ref=general
The mod program has been a joke since the beginning, many got mods and then get forclosure notices after making the agreed upon new payments. BoA is top of the list.
I can't imagine the Federal Gov defrauding the states (sarcasm), go party loyalists, make the FED proud...
May 19, 2010 | Unregistered CommenterS. Gompers
I know a guy went into a loan mod because he had 7 extra people living with him and was ask quit nice about a mod.Well
he said i will give it a shot but if anything goes wrong please let me know i want to keep the house at all cost.Well this poor
Idiot filled out the packet that was late (long story) sent it in called android after android at boa just to hear different excuses each time.And he was told he was not reported late on his credit .When he mailed the trial payment in with the packet they told this dumb bastard everything was fine .This after about 6 months.Yes they were cashing the certified
checks and he sent them return sig .So about 7 months goes by he gets packet back no accept or deny.He calls yet again
EVERYTHING is fine boa android said.well the next fucking day he gets a sale for sheriff auction in 2 weeks.So this poor
Idiot had to pay a lawyer 4 fucking grand to keep his house.And BTW this IDIOT WAS ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
fuck boa this is so fucking common it is unreal.PS i shortened the story greatly.Im so mad i could kill a someone.Oh and yes they scored me late from the first mod payment .and you know what there is no bank police.And then 3 days before the sale
date boa called and ask if i wanted a loan mod.She said it would stop the sale.LOL .Oh i got a letter the day after the sale
date saying i was in a mod and the sale was off.A least i still have my house it would have been tooth picks if they got it.
I have way to much in my house to walk away .Sorry for the rant
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/19/dining/19pot.html?src=me&ref=general
This is why i weigh 340 pounds .LOL
Yes but at 6'5", you carry it well... Come over and have a cool refreshing beverage tonight.
i seem to have some.Anyway there are quit a few class action suits going on.
Just try googeling bad home loan mod story after story the exact same.
a congress women did a thing on dateline she was on hold for to hours and got hung up on
every time. And that was even after she said who she was.Trust me they have no intention
of helping people in any way.And the treasury dept isnt doing a thing.
version of windows xp after i cleaned my original one off the computer some how?? :) so i cant load some stuff.
On Hold: Even Congresswoman Gets the Runaround ...
Jan 22, 2009
abcnews.go.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JczIimq22mE