Foreign Collusion, Naked Shorting (Counterfeiting) & Money Laundering — All Illicit Wealth
Liz Moyer
Forbes, 28 June 2006
So who should be overseeing the $1.2 trillion hedge fund industry? Apparently no one is now. But the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee has two ideas.
Either the nation needs new legislation to tackle allegations of widespread trading abuses by the hedge funds, or law enforcement officials should simply be encouraged to do the right thing with laws they already have at their disposal?
Corporate reform dead; SEC chief should resign
Loren Steffy
Houston Chronicle, 1 March 2006
Corporate governance reform is dead. Its last gasp was stifled by the subpoenas issued last month by the Securities and Exchange Commission against several news organizations and writers.
Last week, Marketwatch .com columnist Herb Greenberg and Dow Jones Newswires columnist Carol Remond acknowledged receiving the subpoenas, which involved stories about Internet retailer Overstock .com.
Where is the US Department of Labor on Theft of ERISA and Retirement Funds
Bud Burrell
Sanity Check via Wayback, 30 January 2006
Where is the Department of Labor in the total breakdown in surveillance of fraud against US individual and other pension and retirement assets? This is a fundamental responsibility of this Agency according to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974. Under their oversight (an oxymoron?), some $4 Trillion or more has been stolen from the savings of US investors placed in their retirement and pension accounts.
Why hasn’t anyone else addressed this issue? Why is the silence of DOL on this issue so total, literally deafening in it silence? It appears everyone responsible for protecting individual investors has deferred to the interests of the very wealthy and their front organizations, particularly hedge funds. What would happen if every small American simply stopped putting money into the market? That is what the markets deserve for their corruption, venality and arrogance.
Offshore Banking: The Secret Threat To America
Lucy Komisar
Hound-Dogs, 1 March 2004
This is a story about a massive money-laundering operation run by the world’s biggest banks. It hides behind the “eyes-glazing over” technicalities of the international financial system. But it could be one of the biggest illicit money-moving operations anyone has ever seen. And it’s allowed to exist by the financial regulators who answer to Western governments.
In these days of global markets, individuals and companies may be buying stocks, bonds or derivatives from a seller who is Clearstreamhalfway across the world. Clearstream, based in Luxembourg, is one of two international clearinghouses that keep track of the “paperwork” for the transactions.
Mighty Merrill Lynch bogs down in legal troubles
Thor Valdmanis
Securities Arbitration, 10 October 2002
Douglas and Deborah Millar are about to become $7.7 million richer. The Pennsylvania couple didn’t buy a state lottery ticket. Instead, they played another popular game of chance: Sue Your Broker.
In granting one of the largest awards on record six weeks ago, a private arbitration panel ruled that Merrill Lynch failed to advise the Millars on how to protect the value of a stake in former Internet high-flier FreeMarkets that in better times was worth $48 million. Merrill has appealed, but legal scholars say arbitration awards are rarely overturned.
THE DOLLAR HAS NO INTRINSIC VALUE : DO YOUR ASSETS?
