British – Financial Treason & Crime

Michael Roddan and Jonathan Shapiro, 08 March 2021

Sophisticated British criminals exploited vulnerabilities in Australia’s search engine and cryptocurrency infrastructure to dupe small investors, lured by the promise of high-yield funds badged by some of the finance world’s most trusted brands.

The complex scheme involved stolen identities and fraudulent prospectuses that claimed to represent high-yield investment funds run by global managers Citibank, Nomura, and IFM Investors. It has ensnared millions from unsuspecting victims who sought better returns as interest rates collapsed during the COVID-19 crisis. Continue reading “Article: Millions vanish into crypto world in high-yield bond scam”

10/10/201803/18/2021

Article: Goldman Sachs may face $1.76 mn fine for naked short selling

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Goldman Sachs may face $1.76 mn fine for naked short selling

Jin Young-tae and Choi Mira, 10 October 2018

The U.S. investment banking giant Goldman Sachs could face a fine of up to 2 billion won ($1.76 million) by the South Korean financial authorities for conducting more than 100 naked short selling transactions banned by the Korean law.

This would be the biggest fine to be slapped for a financial institution in short-sale transactions in the country.

According to sources from the investment banking industry on Tuesday, the financial authority decided to impose a 2 billion won fine on Goldman Sachs for illegally shorting more than 100 local stocks on May 30, and will submit its finding to the top decision-making Securities & Futures Commission of the Financial Services Commission (FSC) within this week. Continue reading “Article: Goldman Sachs may face $1.76 mn fine for naked short selling”

10/29/201703/23/2021

Article: WSJ editorial board calls for Mueller’s resignation and accuses Clinton campaign and DNC of collusion

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WSJ editorial board calls for Mueller’s resignation and accuses Clinton campaign and DNC of collusion

Sonam Sheth , 29 October 2017

The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board called this week for a full Russia investigation — not into President Donald Trump’s campaign, but into the Democratic Party, the FBI, and the special counsel Robert Mueller. Continue reading “Article: WSJ editorial board calls for Mueller’s resignation and accuses Clinton campaign and DNC of collusion”

12/02/201503/20/2021

Article: UK banks may face another £40 billion in fines for misconduct, Bank of England warns

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UK banks may face another £40 billion in fines for misconduct, Bank of England warns

Nick Goodway, 02 December 2015

British banks may see their bill for past misconduct rise by another £40 billion, the Bank of England has warned.

The figure, which was included in the central bank’s stress test results on Tuesday, is virtually double what banks have already set aside to cover the cost of historic crimes and misdemeanours.

The Bank explained that while the extra £40 billion was “not a central projection for future misconduct costs”, it had been arrived at using the best available information.

It said: “Bank staff have generated these ‘stressed’ estimates for additional misconduct costs drawing on information provided by participating banks as well as other sources – including, for example, public reports of legal proceedings involving potential bank misconduct issues.”

The stress test assumed that £30 billion of the extra misconduct charges would fall in the first two years of the five-year scenario played out in the simulation.

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06/07/201503/20/2021

Article: Forbes Flashback: How George Soros Broke The British Pound And Why Hedge Funds Probably Can’t Crack The Euro

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Forbes Flashback: How George Soros Broke The British Pound And Why Hedge Funds Probably Can’t Crack The Euro

Forbes, 07 June 2015

Greek citizens voted against further austerity measures demanded by the Troika financing their rescue package, casting even more doubt on the country’s future as a member of the eurozone and throwing bond and currency markets into an uproar.

The euro has plunged from $1.20 to $1.09 this year (see chart). The feared unraveling of the currency – which, admittedly, would take a lot more than Greece’s departure – calls to mind another currency fiasco from the early 1990s, when George Soros and a group of other investors that included fellow hedge fund managers Paul Tudor Jones and Bruce Kovner, bet against a central bank’s ability to hold the line on its currency.

Forbes took a deep dive into that trade in the November 9, 1992 issue, illuminating how Soros made $1.5 billion in just a single month by betting the British pound and several other European currencies were priced too richly against the German deutsche mark.

The entire group cashed in big-time. Jones’ funds made $250 million, while Kovner’s Caxton Corp. rang the register to the tune of $300 million, but no one made more than Soros, who cleared $1.5 billion in that fateful month of September. (The score made Soros’ legend and swelled his firm’s coffers; assets under management jumped to $7 billion, from $3.3 billion, by mid-October 1992, and to $11 billion by the end of 1993.)

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11/04/201303/20/2021

Article: HSBC dragged into forex probe, reveals profits jump

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HSBC dragged into forex probe, reveals profits jump

AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE, 04 November 2013

LONDON: A worldwide probe into suspected rigging of foreign exchange deals has reached Europe’s biggest bank HSBC, the bank revealed when it also announced a jump in quarterly profits.
The London-based bank said in its earnings statement that British regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority, is conducting investigations alongside several other global agencies into a number of firms, including HSBC, “relating to trading on the foreign exchange market”.

HSBC said it was “cooperating with the investigations which are at an early stage”.

It comes as the British bank announced a 28-percent increase in net profit to $3.2 billion (2.37 billion euros) during the three months to the end to September on major cost-cutting and lower bad debt charges.

HSBC had posted profit after tax of $2.5 billion in the third quarter of 2012.

“Revenue was stable in the third quarter (of 2013), influenced by the mixed global macroeconomic picture,” HSBC chief executive Stuart Gulliver said in a statement.
“Our home markets of the UK and Hong Kong contributed more than half of the group’s underlying profit before tax.”

Gulliver added: “Hong Kong continues to benefit from its close economic relationship with mainland China. We remain well positioned to capitalise on improving economic conditions in these markets.”

HSBC said it would continue to focus on reducing its cost base after savings of $400 million over the third quarter and total cuts since the start of 2011 of $4.5 billion.

“This is well in excess of the target we set out to achieve by the end of 2013. We re-invested part of these savings in risk and compliance, increasing headcount by 1,600 since December 2012,” Gulliver said.

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07/05/201003/18/2021

Article: UK’s collusion with Islamists ‘catastrophic’

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UK’s collusion with Islamists ‘catastrophic’

Richard Norton-Taylor, 05 July 2010

British collusion with radical Islamist forces, including extremists who provided training camps for the leader of the 7/7 London suicide bombers and who are fomenting the insurgency in Afghanistan, has had a catastrophic impact, according to an account of British policy in the Middle East and central Asia.

Writing in the Guardian, Mark Curtis, author of Secret Affairs, says: “The terrorist threat to Britain is partly ‘blowback’, resulting from a web of British covert operations with militant Islamic groups stretching back decades. And while terrorism is upheld as the country’s biggest security challenge, Whitehall’s collusion with radical Islam is continuing.”” Continue reading “Article: UK’s collusion with Islamists ‘catastrophic’”