Article – Media – Page 66 – Financial Treason & Crime

Hannah Godfrey, 04 March 2021

The city watchdog has banned ex-City of London trader Adrian Geoffrey Horn after he engaged in ‘wash trading’, a form of market abuse.

Horn, who worked as a market making trader at Cheapside-based Stifel Nicolaus Europe, was fined £52,000 by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and banned for carrying out any regulated work in the future. Continue reading “Article: Watchdog bans City of London trader for ‘wash trading’”

03/04/202104/15/2021

Article: FCA Fines Ex-Stifel Nicolaus Trader For Misleading Market

Article - Media, Publications

FCA Fines Ex-Stifel Nicolaus Trader For Misleading Market

Najiyya Budaly, 04 March 2021

The Financial Conduct Authority said Thursday it has fined a former Stifel Nicolaus trader and banned him from regulated activities for executing 129 so-called wash trades that misled the market about demand for his client’s shares.

The City watchdog said it has fined Adrian Geoffrey Horn £52,500 ($73,302) for market abuse and banned him indefinitely from performing any function related to a regulated activity. Horn was a former market making trader at Stifel Nicolaus Europe Ltd., which meant that he both bought and sold securities. Continue reading “Article: FCA Fines Ex-Stifel Nicolaus Trader For Misleading Market”

03/04/202103/05/2021

Article: Ignoring years of silver price manipulation, Orwellian CFTC now goes after Reddit Apes

Article - Media, Publications

Ignoring years of silver price manipulation, Orwellian CFTC now goes after Reddit Apes

Ronan Manly, Bullion Star, 04 March 2021

On Monday 1 March, an article in Bloomberg Law by CFTC connected lawyers from law firm Clifford Chance revealed that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is reportedly investigating retail silver trader activity in the silver price and that the US Department of Justice looks set to investigate as well.

Before looking at this shocker of an Orwellian development, it’s helpful to provide some context on the CFTC’s track behavior in this area and to show how hypocritical such a development would be. Continue reading “Article: Ignoring years of silver price manipulation, Orwellian CFTC now goes after Reddit Apes”

03/03/202103/09/2021

Article: Senator Ossoff Drops a Bombshell: “The 12 or 13 Largest Banks” Got the Trillions from the Fed’s Repo Loans Last Year

Article - Media

Senator Ossoff Drops a Bombshell: “The 12 or 13 Largest Banks” Got the Trillions from the Fed’s Repo Loans Last Year

Pam Martens and Russ Martens: March 3, 2021 ~ Wall Street on Parade

“Nearly all the money went to too-big-to-fail institutions. For example, in one emergency lending program, the Fed put out $9 trillion and over two-thirds of the money went to just three institutions: Citigroup, Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch.

“Those loans were made available at rock bottom interest rates – in many cases under 1 percent.”

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03/03/202103/05/2021

Article: Young Koreans are echoing r/WallStreetBets in their war against short sellers

Article - Media, Publications

Young Koreans are echoing r/WallStreetBets in their war against short sellers

Max Kim, Rest of World, 03 March 2021

The Korean Stockholders’ Alliance is located in Yeouido, Seoul’s financial and political district, on the fifth floor of an officetel building mostly occupied by financial companies. Jung Eui-jung, the 62-year-old head of the Alliance and the sole resident of its office, points out the window to a large, bright-yellow bus parked outside on Eunhaengro (“bank street”), so named because it is home to South Korea’s two main state banks. The Alliance is an advocacy group that represents retail investors, with around 41,000 members. Its current mission statement is displayed in block letters on the side of the bus: “I hate short selling!”

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03/02/202104/03/2021

Article: Texas Grid Failure: Why More Heads Need To Roll

Article - Media, Publications

Texas Grid Failure: Why More Heads Need To Roll

Ed Hirs, 02 March 2021

The Texas electricity market failed. Yet in the words of ERCOT, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, it functioned just as designed. ERCOT has congratulated itself for losing only 40% of the grid and is proceeding to settle transactions to transfer more than $50 billion from consumers to electricity generators. Why is there such an obvious disconnect?

The core premise of effective governance is that the officers and directors of any entity understand the business they govern. The late Yale University economist Paul W. MacAvoy used to state it this way: The purpose of the board of directors is to assist the CEO to develop the corporation’s strategy and then monitor performance. If performance is not up to expectations, the board must ask two questions. Continue reading “Article: Texas Grid Failure: Why More Heads Need To Roll”

03/02/202103/03/2021

Article: FinCEN Must Staff Up to Fulfill Reform Mandate, Director Says

Article - Media, Publications

FinCEN Must Staff Up to Fulfill Reform Mandate, Director Says

Dylan Tokar, The Wall Street Journal, 02 March 2021

The U.S. Treasury Department’s financial crimes unit is focused on acquiring the resources it needs to implement sweeping new anti-money-laundering reforms—in a way that doesn’t unnecessarily burden the financial industry, its director said.

Putting into practice the anti-money-laundering legislation, which was passed in January as part of an annual defense-policy bill, is a priority of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, FinCEN Director Kenneth Blanco said Tuesday at a virtual conference hosted by International Institute of Bankers.

“The priority is to make sure that we do everything that we can to implement the [law], everything that we can to get FinCEN in a position where it can accomplish that,” Mr. Blanco said.

That means making sure FinCEN is “fully staffed” and “fully resourced,” and conducts outreach needed to carefully write regulations surrounding the law, he said.

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03/02/202103/03/2021

Article: What’s Going On At Goldman? Another Senior Exec Just Jumped Ship

Article - Media, Publications

What’s Going On At Goldman? Another Senior Exec Just Jumped Ship

TYLER DURDEN, 02 March 2021

In the last few days, Goldman Sachs has lost two very senior executives from the investment bank’s two biggest bets on the future – consumer finance (Marcus) and wealth-management – and now, the behemoth’s chief lawyer is abandoning ship.

Leaving many asking – what is going on at Goldman? Continue reading “Article: What’s Going On At Goldman? Another Senior Exec Just Jumped Ship”

03/02/202103/22/2021

Article: How Regulating GameStop’s ‘Market Manipulation’ Could Harm Crypto

Article - Media, Publications

How Regulating GameStop’s ‘Market Manipulation’ Could Harm Crypto

Benjamin Sauter, Steven Perlstein, William McGovern and David McGill, 02 March 2021

The ongoing roller-coaster ride of GameStop, dogecoin and other so-called meme stocks has led day traders, market makers and exchanges to attack each other with knee-jerk accusations of “market manipulation.” When this happens, the primary winners are government regulators seeking to expand the scope of their authority. Industry cries of market “manipulation” – from all sides – are not only shortsighted. They also risk setting the market on a path towards an enforcement framework that all market participants may come to regret, no matter what side they think they are currently on.

Reddit takes on Wall Street
Since early this year, by sharing tips and organizing on social media platforms such as Reddit and Twitter, individual traders have been able to rally prices of meme stocks to unbelievable heights. First, it was GameStop, AMC and a handful of other targets, with traders sending prices skyward 1,500% or more. Then, traders set their sights beyond the securities markets: dogecoin (DOGE) rose over 800% in 24 hours after a tweet from Elon Musk rallied the masses behind it.

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03/02/202104/15/2021

Article: Aussie Bank Westpac Inks $25M Deal In Rate-Rigging Suit

Article - Media, Publications

Aussie Bank Westpac Inks $25M Deal In Rate-Rigging Suit

Caleb Drickey, 02 March 2021

Australian bank Westpac has agreed to a $25 million deal settling claims that it conspired with a cabal of banking institutions to rig the price of derivatives based on an Australian foreign exchange benchmark.

Tuesday’s proposed deal would also compel Westpac, which denied all illegal conduct or wrongdoing, to turn over information related to the alleged price-fixing conspiracy. This would, according to the investors, strengthen cases against Westpac’s co-defendants and lead to similarly-structured deals with the accused conspirators.

In a memorandum, representatives for the proposed class expressed confidence that the newly announced deal would lead to further victories against defendant banks. Continue reading “Article: Aussie Bank Westpac Inks $25M Deal In Rate-Rigging Suit”

03/01/202104/17/2021

Article: EU Watchdog Told To Crack Down After Wirecard Scandal

Article - Media, Publications

EU Watchdog Told To Crack Down After Wirecard Scandal

Najiyya Budaly, 01 March 2021

The European Union’s markets watchdog must improve its supervision of national regulators, a technical advice group said on Monday after it found that Germany’s largest post-war accounting fraud had laid bare deficiencies in the authority’s oversight of market abuse and auditing rules.

The Securities and Markets Stakeholder Group, which provides advice on policy development to the European Securities and Markets Authority, recommended that ESMA should improve protection for investors and ensure integrity in markets after an accounting scandal at Wirecard AG revealed gaps in its supervision. Continue reading “Article: EU Watchdog Told To Crack Down After Wirecard Scandal”

03/01/202103/22/2021

Article: 77% of people surveyed believe Robinhood’s restriction of meme stocks during the GameStop frenzy was market manipulation, new report finds

Article - Media, Publications

77% of people surveyed believe Robinhood’s restriction of meme stocks during the GameStop frenzy was market manipulation, new report finds

Isabelle Lee, 01 March 2021

A survey by data analytics firm Invisibly found that 77% of people believe Robinhood’s restriction of certain stocks at the peak of the Reddit-fueled frenzy amounts to market manipulation.

Commission-free trading app Robinhood has faced significant backlash and scrutiny in the weeks since January’s Reddit-fueled short squeeze, with CEO Vlad Tenev grilled by legislators at February’s congressional hearing over the company’s decision to restrict buying of many of the “meme stocks” at the heart of the saga.

The move took the wind out of the momentum trade, and marked the end of January’s retail trader phenomenon.
Now, a recent study by data analytics from Invisibly found that a majority of people surveyed believe Robinhood’s restriction of meme stocks was market manipulation.

The study, which surveyed 1,300 people during the first week of February, also revealed that 39% felt the market mania was “exciting and good” for investors, while 17% felt it was “exciting but a bad investment.”

28% said the trading phenomenon was a positive event, and “shaking things up from time to time is a good thing”, while 15% felt it was detrimental to markets. Meanwhile, 40% of respondents believe that Robinhood and other retail trading services restricted some stocks to help hedge funds.

The survey paints a stark picture of the public’s perception of what transpired in late January, despite Robinhood stating that it restricted trading of some stocks due to clearinghouse requirements.

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02/27/2021

Warren Buffett says ‘never bet against America’ in letter trumpeting Berkshire’s U.S.-based assets

Article - Media

Written by Yun Li and published at CNBC on Feb 27, 2021

“In its brief 232 years of existence … there has been no incubator for unleashing human potential like America,” the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway wrote in the letter released Saturday.

02/27/202103/05/2021

Article: GameStop: Markets Adjust, Politicians Frown

Article - Media, Publications

GameStop: Markets Adjust, Politicians Frown

The week of February 22: GameStop, again, a poor choice for Interior, China’s rare-earths play, and much, much more, including the latest in our new podcast series, the Capital Record.

A slightly calmer day in the markets yesterday after Thursday’s wild ride, although GameStop — back in the news again after taking off again earlier in the week — stepped up to fill the gap for those who needed a little more volatility in their lives.

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