Prosecutors Suspect Repeat Offenses on Wall Street

[ksen]

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/10...-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=1&

It would be the Wall Street equivalent of a parole violation: Just two years after avoiding prosecution for a variety of crimes, some of the world’s biggest banks are suspected of having broken their promises to behave.

A mixture of new issues and lingering problems could violate earlier settlements that imposed new practices and fines on the banks but stopped short of criminal charges, according to lawyers briefed on the cases. Prosecutors are exploring whether to strengthen the earlier deals, the lawyers said, or scrap them altogether and force the banks to plead guilty to a crime.

That effort, unfolding separately from a number of well-known investigations into Wall Street, has ensnared several giant banks and consulting firms that until now were thought to be in the clear.

Banks mentioned in the article:

Standard Chartered
Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ
Barclays
UBS

Odd that no american banks like Bank of America, Wells Fargo, JP Morgan or Citibank seem to be in danger of having their agreements torn up.

I guess those banks learned their lesson!

 

[Tom Sawyer]

Well, it sounds like a few institutions are going to find themselves on the business end of a fine that's almost a half day's profits and some of their executives will be settling for an annual bonus of only 19.8% instead of the full 20%.

Those bastards will learn their lesson from this.

 

[dismal]

Obama will get them.

He's probably flying his helicopters there for a $10,000 chicken dinner with them now.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

Obama will get them.

He's probably flying his helicopters there for a $10,000 chicken dinner with them now.

That's $10,005 for these bastards, thank you very much.

 

[ksen]

If anything it'll teach those foreign banks to take their us political contributions a little more seriously next cycle.

 

[barbos]

Odd that no american banks like Bank of America, Wells Fargo, JP Morgan or Citibank seem to be in danger of having their agreements torn up.

I guess those banks learned their lesson!

It's other way around - prosecutors learned their lesson.

 

[SimpleDon]

The most terrifying thing that I have read recently, only five banks in the US have 75% of the total amount of deposits in the country.

This is less than twenty years after the repeal of Glass Steagall and the purchase of Solomon Brothers by Citibank, the tipping points in the deregulation of banking. Not to mention the Great Financial Crisis precipitated by the misbehavior of the largest banks six years ago. Can you imagine what kind of "financial innovations” that these deregulated massive banks can generate to cause us problems a few more years from now?

 

[Horatio Parker]

Settlement tba immediately after the election...

Naked Capitalism points out at least one positive:

Sullivan & Cromwell, and in particular bank uber lawyer Rodgin Cohen, is in a league by itself in terms of advising banks on regulatory behavior. Cohen has access and clout second to none. Notice that prosecutors chose to leak to the Times the role that Sullivan & Cromwell played not only in the cases now being reopened, but publicized its earlier, dubious arguments in the BNP Paribas case. The sources made clear that the firm’s “don’t touch that dial” scare talk regarding guilty pleas and other tough settlements was no longer working.

Meaning that the banks and their mouthpieces are no longer immediately taken at their word.

OTOH, though is this:

The reason for initially seeing this story as yet another overhyping of legal actions against banks is that the targets are all foreign banks and hence safe politically. The cases being re-investigated fall into two categories: money laundering and abuses related to Libor fixing settlements.

 

[ksen]

ok, i've just decided that i'm going to start being the most horrible person i can possibly be on the off chance this karma/reincarnation thing is true so i can increase my chances to come back as a banker so i don't have to worry about petty things like

laws

or

society

 

[NobleSavage]

The most terrifying thing that I have read recently, only five banks in the US have 75% of the total amount of deposits in the country.

Walmart is about to get into banking. This is going to be interesting. Keep in mind the banks are only required to have 3-10% reserve.