Article: The LIBOR Scandal

Article - Media, Publications

The LIBOR Scandal

Jason Fernando, 24 February 2021

What Is the LIBOR Scandal?
The LIBOR Scandal was a highly-publicized scheme in which bankers at several major financial institutions colluded with each other to manipulate the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR). The scandal sowed distrust in the financial industry and led to a wave of fines, lawsuits, and regulatory actions. Although the scandal came to light in 2012, there is evidence suggesting that the collusion in question had been ongoing since as early as 2003.

Many leading financial institutions were implicated in the scandal, including Deutsche Bank (DB), Barclays (BCS), Citigroup (C), JPMorgan Chase (JPM), and the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS).

As a result of the rate fixing scandal, questions around LIBOR’s validity as a credible benchmark rate have arisen and it is now being phased out. According to the Federal Reserve and regulators in the U.K., LIBOR will be phased out by June 30, 2023, and will be replaced by the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (SOFR). As part of this phase-out, LIBOR one-week and two-month USD LIBOR rates will no longer be published after December 31, 2021. Continue reading “Article: The LIBOR Scandal”

Naked Short Selling: The Truth Is Much Worse Than You Have Been Told

Article - Media

Naked Short Selling: The Truth Is Much Worse Than You Have Been Told

By James Stafford – Feb 02, 2021, 3:20 PM CST, OilPrice.com

There is a massive threat to our capital markets, the free market in general, and fair dealings overall. And no, it’s not China. It’s a homegrown threat that everyone has been afraid to talk about.

Until now.  That fear has now turned into rage.

The naked truth is this: Investors stand no chance in the face of naked short sellers. It’s a game rigged in the favor of a sophisticated short cartel and Wall Street giants.

Continue reading “Naked Short Selling: The Truth Is Much Worse Than You Have Been Told”

A Trading Forum on Reddit Leads a Stock to Surge over 1700% in Just One Month! Who is the Villain in the GameStop Saga?

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Continue reading “A Trading Forum on Reddit Leads a Stock to Surge over 1700% in Just One Month! Who is the Villain in the GameStop Saga?”

Article: Five Banks Settle LIBOR Manipulation Suit for $22 Million

Article - Media, Publications

Five Banks Settle LIBOR Manipulation Suit for $22 Million

Meg Slachetka, 13 October 2020

Last week, Judge Naomi Buchwald of the Southern District of New York provided final approval of a nearly $22 million settlement between a class of indirect investors and five Wall Street banks that the plaintiff investors accused of manipulating the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) in violation of the Sherman Act. The plaintiffs are over-the-counter (OTC) investors who indirectly interacted with the defendant banks via interest rate swaps and other transactions.

These plaintiffs made purchases from other banks that are not defendants in the case; the five settling defendants are JPMorgan, Citibank, Bank of America, HSBC, and Barclays. The suit is one of many filed after Barclays admitted in 2012 that it had manipulated LIBOR. Continue reading “Article: Five Banks Settle LIBOR Manipulation Suit for $22 Million”

Subject: Rachel Lord

Subject of Interest

Rachel Lord is a member of BlackRock’s Global Executive Committee. She is a Senior Managing Director, is Head of Europe, Middle East and Africa for BlackRock. Prior to assuming her current role in September 2017, she was EMEA Head of iShares and Head of Global Clients, ETF and Index Investments. Lord joined BlackRock in November 2013 from Citigroup where she was the Global Head of Corporate Equity Derivatives. She joined Citigroup in 2009 after thirteen years at Morgan Stanley. She graduated in 1987 from the University of Leeds with a BA (Hons) First Class in International History & Politics.

Biography

Black Rock, Inc 

Subject: Gary Shedlin

Subject of Interest

Gary Shedlin is a member of BlackRock’s Global Executive Committee and is BlackRock’s Chief Financial Officer. Prior to joining BlackRock in 2013, Shedlin was at Morgan Stanley where he was a Vice Chairman, Investment Banking, and a Managing Director in the Financial Institutions Group. Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, Shedlin was Chairman of Citi’s Financial Institutions Group and a Managing Director and Co-Head of the Financial Institutions Group at Lazard. Shedlin received a BA in Economics, summa cum laude, from Colgate University, and his MBA from Harvard Business School.

Biography

Black Rock, Inc 

Subject: Robert Edward Rubin

Subject of Interest

Robert Edward Rubin is an American retired banking executive, lawyer, and former cabinet member. He served as the 70th United States Secretary of the Treasury during the Clinton administration. Before his government service, he spent 26 years at Goldman Sachs. During the Clinton administration, Rubin oversaw the loosening of financial industry underwriting guidelines. His most post-government role was as director and senior counselor of Citigroup, where he performed advisory and representational roles for the firm and resigned from the company on January 9, 2009. He received more than $126 million in cash and stock during his tenure at Citigroup, up through and including Citigroup’s bailout by the U.S. Treasury. Additionally, Rubin serves as counselor at Centerview Partners, an investment banking advisory firm based in New York City.

Biography

Federal Reserve Bank of New York

Subject: Stanley Fischer

Subject of Interest

Stanley Fischer took office as a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System on May 28, 2014, to fill an unexpired term ending January 31, 2020. He resigned on October 13, 2017. Prior to his appointment to the Board, Dr. Fischer was governor of the Bank of Israel from 2005 through 2013. From February 2002 to April 2005, Dr. Fischer was vice chairman of Citigroup. Dr. Fischer served as the first deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund until August 2001. From January 1988 to August 1990, he was the chief economist of the World Bank. Dr. Fischer was born in Lusaka, Zambia, in October 1943. He received his BSc and MSc in economics from the London School of Economics. He received his PhD in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Biography 

Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System

Web: Our Financial Oligarchy; Emperors of a Brave New World

Web

Our Financial Oligarchy; Emperors of a Brave New World

They own the regulators; they own the brokerage houses; they own the clearing houses; they own all of your investments; and it’s even been shown that they can exert complete control over the government.

To understand how these banks exert complete control over our financial system, one must first understand the securities clearance system.

In the United States of America, there is only one central clearinghouse: The Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation, and for almost 50 years they have maintained a virtual monopoly over this essential service.

It is a private corporation that is owned by these mega-banks and brokers.

Read full free book online with many illustrations

PDF (470 Pages): Our Financial Oligarchy Back-Up

Article: Pandemic May Disrupt Discovery In Credit Suisse Forex Case

Article - Media, Publications

Pandemic May Disrupt Discovery In Credit Suisse Forex Case

Dean Seal, 17 April 2020

Counsel for investors and Credit Suisse cited the COVID-19 pandemic Monday when they asked a New York federal judge to push their discovery deadlines in a suit over alleged foreign exchange market manipulation by nine weeks.

In a letter to U.S. District Judge Lorna G. Schofield, attorneys for both sides in the long-running litigation said that in light of the threat to public health posed by the novel coronavirus, as well as the disruptions it has caused in air travel, continued discovery efforts would be risky and exceedingly difficult. Continue reading “Article: Pandemic May Disrupt Discovery In Credit Suisse Forex Case”

Article: The Tide Is Going Out and JPMorgan, Deutsche Bank and AIG Appear to Be Swimming (Read Trading) Naked

Article - Media

The Tide Is Going Out and JPMorgan, Deutsche Bank and AIG Appear to Be Swimming (Read Trading) Naked

Pam Martens, Russ Martens

Wall Street on Parade, 29 March 2020

Warren Buffet is credited with the quote: “Only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked.”

Friday’s closing prices among some of the heavily interconnected mega Wall Street banks and insurance companies known to be counterparties to Wall Street’s derivatives appeared to show who’s swimming naked in the realm of derivatives – naked meaning who has sold derivative protection (gone short the risk) on something that is blowing up.

Read full article.

Paper: Market Manipulation and Directors Fiduciary Duty of Care

Paper

Market Manipulation and Directors Fiduciary Duty of Care

Market manipulation of emerging or small cap companies is pervaasive on Wall Street and according to the SEC has increased over 37% in the last decade. The nature and scope of market manipulation schemes is limited only by the creativity and audacity of their perpetrators.  While the substance and mechanics of market manipulation schemes may differ, the objective is the same – to inject false information into the marketplace that artificially affects the price of the  target companies securities by “interfering with the natural interplay of the forces of supply and demand.” The proliferation of market manipulation scshemes has created challenging risk-management and best practice issues for the directors of targeted companies, which require directors to continuously assess the nature and scope of their fiduciary duty of care.

Continue reading “Paper: Market Manipulation and Directors Fiduciary Duty of Care”

Fined: Citigroup Global Markets Inc. Fined by FINRA

Fined

Citigroup Global Markets Inc. Fined by FINRA

An AWC was issued in which the firm was censured, fined $225,000 and required to revise its supervisory system and WSPs. Without admitting or denying the findings, the firm consented to the sanctions and to the entry of findings that it effected a short sale for its own account without borrowing the security or entering into a bona fide arrangement to borrow the security, and without documenting its compliance with the locate requirement for short sale transactions.

Read full report.

Article: FINRA sanctions Citi, JPMorgan, LPL Financial, Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, and Merrill Lynch

Article - Media

FINRA sanctions Citi, JPMorgan, LPL Financial, Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, and Merrill Lynch

Mario Nikolova

Finance Feeds, 26 December 2019

The United States Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) today announces that it has sanctioned Citigroup Global Markets Inc.; J.P. Morgan Securities LLC; LPL Financial LLC; Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC; and Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated, over the firms’ failure to reasonably supervise compliance with FINRA’s “Know Your Customer” rule.

In settling this matter, the five firms paid combined fines totaling $1.4 million, and agreed to review their policies, systems, and procedures to ensure that they are reasonably designed to supervise custodial accounts and to achieve compliance with FINRA Rule 2090. The firms neither admitted nor denied the charges, but consented to the entry of FINRA’s findings.

Read full article.

Article: These Are the Banks that Own the New York Fed and Its Money Button

Article - Media

These Are the Banks that Own the New York Fed and Its Money Button

Pam Martens, Russ Martens

Wall Street on Parade, 20 November 2019

The New York Fed has now pumped out upwards of $3 trillion in a period of 63 days to unnamed trading houses on Wall Street to ease a liquidity crisis that has yet to be credibly explained. In addition, it has launched a new asset purchase program, buying up $60 billion each month in U.S. Treasury bills. Based on the continuing escalation of its plans, it appears to be testing the limits of what the public will tolerate. We thought it was time to answer the question: who exactly owns the New York Fed and its magical money spigot that can pump trillions of dollars into Wall Street at the press of a button.

Read full article.

THE DOLLAR HAS NO INTRINSIC VALUE : DO YOUR ASSETS?