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Article: Money Stuff: Pump and Dump and Pull the Rug

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Money Stuff: Pump and Dump and Pull the Rug

Matt Levine, 01 July 2021

Here’s a thing you can do. You start a company and sell some stock to the public. You say “we are a good company and we plan to do good things, give us money to do them.” You sell, say, 10% of the company to the public at a low price. You keep the other 90% for yourself, as the founder of the company. Then you start putting out press releases saying “we did a bunch of good things!” These press releases are not true. Also you buy a bit of the publicly traded stock for yourself, to create volume and move the price up. Investors read the press releases and see the buying activity, and they think the stock is good. So they buy it. The stock — the 10% that is publicly traded — goes up. The price is now high. Then what you do is, you sell your stock — the 90% that you kept — at the new high price. Then you close up the company and move on to your next scam. Continue reading “Article: Money Stuff: Pump and Dump and Pull the Rug”

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Article: Is repo madness predicting a crack-up?

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Is repo madness predicting a crack-up?

Rick Ackerman, 21 June 2021

[The following was written by a San Francisco friend from the hedge fund world, Shawn Brown. It buttresses the suspicion that while there seems to be plenty of credit money available for speculation, the collateral behind it is getting thinner and shakier by the week. The Fed, with $8 trillion of Treasury paper and other top-shelf collateral on its balance sheet, has monopolized the supply, leaving lending banks to scramble for collateral for their own that hasn’t already been hocked twentyfold. As a result, central bank interventions are becoming more frequent, more complex and bigger, to the point where even the experts are having trouble determining whether the banking system is headed for a crack-up far larger than the one that took down Archegos a few months ago. RA] Continue reading “Article: Is repo madness predicting a crack-up?”

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Article: 2 Indian-Americans among six charged in Silicon Valley insider trading ring

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2 Indian-Americans among six charged in Silicon Valley insider trading ring

The Tribune, 16 June 2021

Two Indian-Americans were among six members of a Silicon Valley trading ring against which the US’ Securities and Exchange Commission has slapped charges for generating nearly USD 1.7 million in illegal profits by trading on the confidential earnings information of two local technology companies.

According to the SEC complaint on Tuesday, Nathaniel Brown, 49, who served as the revenue recognition manager for Infinera Corporation, repeatedly tipped Infinera’s unannounced quarterly earnings and financial performance to his best friend, Benjamin Wylam, 42, from April 2016 until Brown left the company in November 2017. Continue reading “Article: 2 Indian-Americans among six charged in Silicon Valley insider trading ring”

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Article: Greensill scandal: government orders inquiry into Cameron lobbying

Article - Media, Publications

Greensill scandal: government orders inquiry into Cameron lobbying

Jessica Elgot, 12 April 2021

No 10 is to a launch an independent investigation into former prime minister David Cameron’s lobbying for the now-collapsed Greensill and the role of the scandal-hit financier Lex Greensill in government.

The independent review, commissioned by Boris Johnson, will be led by the legal expert Nigel Boardman, a non-executive board member of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. Continue reading “Article: Greensill scandal: government orders inquiry into Cameron lobbying”

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Article: Senate Banking Chair Probes Banks Over Archegos Collapse

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Senate Banking Chair Probes Banks Over Archegos Collapse

Dean Seal, 08 April 2021

The chairman of the Senate Banking Committee is asking Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs and other Wall Street giants that brokered for Bill Hwang’s Archegos Capital Management to explain their involvement in the fund’s high-profile collapse.

In letters released Thursday, Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, told higher-ups at the Swiss bank, Goldman, Morgan Stanley and Nomura that he was “troubled, but not surprised” that risky derivatives transactions between the banks and Hwang’s generally unregulated family office were connected to a shocking multibillion-dollar firesale on stocks in late March. Continue reading “Article: Senate Banking Chair Probes Banks Over Archegos Collapse”

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Article: Matt Gaetz investigation: Feds examining whether congressman used cash, drugs in soliciting young women

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Matt Gaetz investigation: Feds examining whether congressman used cash, drugs in soliciting young women

Evan Perez, David Shortell, Paula Reid and Pamela Brown, 2 April 2021

WASHINGTON — Federal investigators looking into Rep. Matt Gaetz’s relationships with young women have examined whether any federal campaign money was involved in paying for travel and expenses for the women, a person briefed on the matter said.

Investigators are examining whether the Florida Republican engaged in a relationship with a woman that began when she was 17 years old and whether his involvement with other young women broke federal sex trafficking and prostitution laws, according to that source and another person briefed on the matter. Continue reading “Article: Matt Gaetz investigation: Feds examining whether congressman used cash, drugs in soliciting young women”

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Article: Five ways Biden could crack down on dirty money and financial secrecy

Article - Academic, Publications

Five ways Biden could crack down on dirty money and financial secrecy

Brenda Medina, 01 April 2021

Early rhetoric from the Biden administration has encouraged anti-corruption advocates that the new president’s tenure in the White House may mark a turning point in the fight against dirty money and tax haven abuse — two overlapping problems made worse by a veil of secrecy that shields vast sums of money from tax collectors and law enforcement authorities.

“We will crack down on tax havens and illicit financing that contribute to income inequality, fund terrorism, and generate pernicious foreign influence,” the administration’s Interim National Security Strategic Guidance, released last month, says, identifying the fight against global corruption as a top security priority. The strategy mirrors promises Joe Biden made during his candidacy.

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Article: The Unfinished Business Of Air Ambulance Bills

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The Unfinished Business Of Air Ambulance Bills

Erin C. Fuse Brown, Loren Adler, Karan R. Chhabra, Barak D. Richman, Erin Trish, 26 March 2021

On December 27, 2020, tucked into the year-end coronavirus relief package and spending bill, Congress passed the No Surprises Act, largely ending the practice of surprise out-of-network medical bills. In a win for patients, the law applies to air ambulance operators as well as out-of-network providers and facilities that provide emergency and non-emergency health services. Nevertheless, the law’s consumer protections don’t go far enough to protect patients from the financial risks of an air ambulance transport.

Effective January 1, 2022, the No Surprises Act generally prohibits out-of-network providers in emergencies and at in-network facilities from billing patients for more than their in-network cost-sharing amounts (eliminating patient balance-billing) and sets up a dispute resolution process to determine the amount the patient’s health plan will pay for the out-of-network care. Continue reading “Article: The Unfinished Business Of Air Ambulance Bills”

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Article: Madoff Client Ordered To Pay Back $3M In Fake Profits

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Madoff Client Ordered To Pay Back $3M In Fake Profits

Vince Sullivan, 24 March 2021

A client of the notorious Ponzi scheme run by Bernard L. Madoff must return nearly $3 million in fictitious profits it received from the scheme after a New York federal judge found in favor of the trustee overseeing the Madoff fund’s liquidation.

U.S. District Court Judge John G. Koeltl granted summary judgment to Irving H. Picard, the trustee for the Substantively Consolidated SIPA Liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC and Bernard L. Madoff, and ordered JABA Associates to fork over $2,925,000 in payouts it received in the two years before Madoff’s scheme crumbled in December 2008. Continue reading “Article: Madoff Client Ordered To Pay Back $3M In Fake Profits”

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Article: Huge Winter Storm Gas Bills Push Cities to the Brink

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Huge Winter Storm Gas Bills Push Cities to the Brink

Alex Brown,  23 March 2021

The tiny city of Denison, Kansas, came to the brink of insolvency so fast last month that its leaders hadn’t figured out how to begin the bankruptcy process.

“We don’t even know how to go under,” said Vickie Wold, the city council president. “How the city fails, what happens here—we’re just hoping and praying.”

Denison has fewer than 200 residents, and in a typical February, the city pays about $4,000 to provide them with natural gas to heat their homes. Last month, the bill came to $242,498.

“We can’t write that check,” Wold said. “There’s no way we can pay that, and we can’t pass it on to these people, some of whom are struggling to keep their utilities paid as it is.”

Many cities in the Midwest are facing a similar crisis. A variety of towns large and small operate their own municipal utilities, providing services such as gas, electricity and water to residents. Some small towns exist as political entities primarily to provide those services. Continue reading “Article: Huge Winter Storm Gas Bills Push Cities to the Brink”

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

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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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Article: Here’s what to expect at the congressional hearings on GameStop and Robinhood

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Here’s what to expect at the congressional hearings on GameStop and Robinhood

Scum sucking sack of shit lawmakers will seek to make headlines, not legislation — and all the witnesses are probably RICO eligible!

Chris Matthews, MarketWatch, 16 February 2021

Executives at Robinhood, market maker Citadel Securities, hedge fund Melvin Capital, social media firm Reddit, and Keith Gill, an independent investor who found fame and riches with his early purchases of GameStop Inc. GME, -5.52% shares, will all testify at the hearing, scheduled for noon on Thursday. Here’s what to expect:

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Article: The Gamers’ Uprising Against Wall Street Has Deep Populist Roots

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The Gamers’ Uprising Against Wall Street Has Deep Populist Roots

Wall Street may own the country, as Kansas populist leader Mary Elizabeth Lease once declared, but a new generation of “retail” stock market traders is fighting back.

Ellen Brown, SheerPost, 10 February 2021

A short squeeze frenzy driven by a new generation of gamers captured financial headlines in recent weeks, centered on a struggling strip mall video game store called GameStop. The Internet and a year off in this shut down to study up have given a younger generation of investors the tools to compete in the market. Gerald Celente calls it the “Youth Revolution.” A group of New York Young Republicans who protested in the snow on January 31 called it “Re-occupy Wall Street.” Others have called it  Occupy Wall Street 2.0.

Continue reading “Article: The Gamers’ Uprising Against Wall Street Has Deep Populist Roots”