Banks that are behaving bad.

[Herodes]

Not a bank, but relevant:
http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2013/01/29/apple-structured-note-goldman-sachs/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+fortuneapple20+%28FORTUNE%3A+Apple+2.0%29

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[Herodes]

More bad banks:
http://news.slashdot.org/story/13/01/29/2326242/the-biggest-financial-fraud-of-all-time

Seems like rather there should be some kind of database where all the mischief of the banks could be recorded. Haha. Anyone want to take on that task. Then we could send diplomas to the executives of the top fraud banks every year:

Congratulations, your bank paid 2.2billions in fines this year, and participated in money laundering, tax evation, inside trades, mortage rates manipulations etc. Well done. Be proud! You're a man of great integrity, honesty, a class-act executive!

[marcus_of_augustus]

lolz

[chmod755]

If you guys ever find a bank with good behaviour - it's not a bank.

[Vandroiy]

Banks are huge, and the world is a big place... this thread might grow out of proportion quite quickly.

IMO, a lot of banks technically misbehaved when they took government money by means of questionable lobbying. Questionable as in: its members were also active in politics. Oh wow. Too lazy to dig it up though, happened in quite a few places iirc.

[Herodes]

Relevant: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/gangster-bankers-too-big-to-jail-20130214

[odolvlobo]

At least 1 person is paying attention: http://www.upworthy.com/elizabeth-warren-asks-the-most-obvious-question-ever-and-stumps-a-bunch-of-bank

[Herodes]

http://www.hvitvasking.no/Nyhetsarkiv/Nordea-Bank-AB-i-Sverige-har-brutt-reglene-for-tiltak-mot-hvitvasking-og-handtering-av-EUs-sanksjonsforordninger-/

Short report in english:

Nordea Bank AB in sweden have broken the rules and countermeasures of money laundering and the sanction rules set by the EU, 16th of April, 2013.

The financeinspector in sweden have given them a warning and a penalty fee of 30 million swedish kroner for these crimes.

The money laundering has been going on for a really long time.



 

[Timo Y]

Why do banks get blamed for things like "drug money laundering"?

When gangsters use Mercedes-Benz Sprinter vans for human trafficking, it's not like Mercedes gets blamed for aiding gangsters.  Unless they knowingly sell a van for this purpose.

[marcus_of_augustus]

Why do banks get blamed for things like "drug money laundering"?

When gangsters use Mercedes-Benz Sprinter vans for human trafficking, it's not like Mercedes gets blamed for aiding gangsters.  Unless they knowingly sell a van for this purpose.

Good point ... only problem is the big banks willingly went along with all these crazy fungibility destroying digital money-tracing rules because they had the regulatory capture and it suited their interests. They can spy on their customers (and syphon off valuable consumer behaviour data for mining purposes) and serves as barrier as entry to small banks and competition in the banking space.

Now they are hoist by their own petard. They have devalued the worth of their money because it is less fungible, and they must constantly face accusations of providing safe harbour to evil-doers because they claim to be able to use money as a tool for law enforcement (not as a pure economic tool for price discovery) when they should have just stuck to banking ... Of course, now we are all the worse off for it and the economy stinks because we have bad money ... corrupted banks and egomaniacal politicians and govt. bureaucrats who think they can trace everybody, everything anywhere and any time for zero cost.

Well, the cost just showed up and it is big brother, crap money and financial collapse ... who coulda thunk?

[Herodes]

Why do banks get blamed for things like "drug money laundering"?

Becasue for instance the US govt. has made rules and regulations for how banks should deal with 'suspicious transactions'. For example, it's is suspicious if you every week come with a suitcase full of dollar bills and deposit his at a local bank branch of the same bank. If they were to follow up on the guidelines they've received from the politicians, they should've looked into this, and stopped it if found to be proceeds from criminal activity (drug trade).

As it is, the banks look through the fingers with stuff like this a lot of the time, or deals are struck through unofficial channels, thus as long as there's a profit incentive and the punishment really isn't that harsh or severe, this will only continue.

[joesmoe2012]

Chase has been known to shut people down for many cash deposits in combination with international wires.

I know people personally who have had their accounts shut down for this.

I also know other people who have had their accounts shutdown solely for depositing alot of cash (multiple times daily to personal account).

Watch out for chase.

[marcus_of_augustus]

Looks like it was Barclays Bank that is mixed up in Liberty Reserve

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/10094589/Barclays-dragged-into-money-laundering-case.html

The client, Arthur Budovsky, is alleged by US prosecutors to have used Liberty Reserve as the vehicle for the biggest ever money laundering business discovered in the US.

Barclays has been asked to surrender details of a personal current account in his name held in one of the bank’s branches in Spain where he is currently under arrest .

[marcus_of_augustus]

From the "so fucked up it has to be true file" ....

http://www.independent.ie/business/irish/inside-anglo-the-secret-recordings-29366837.html

TAPE RECORDINGS from inside doomed Anglo Irish Bank reveal for the first time how the bank's top executives lied to the Government about the true extent of losses at the institution.
...
The plan was that once the State began the flow of money, it would be unable to stop.

Mr Bowe is asked by Mr Fitzgerald how they had come up with the figure of €7bn. He laughs as he is taped saying: "Just, as Drummer (then-CEO David Drumm) would say, 'picked it out of my arse'."

He also says: "If they (Central Bank) saw the enormity of it up front, they might decide they have a choice. You know what I mean?

"They might say the cost to the taxpayer is too high . . . if it doesn't look too big at the outset . . . if it looks big, big enough to be important, but not too big that it kind of spoils everything, then, then I think you have a chance. So I think it can creep up."

Mr Fitzgerald, the Director of Retail Banking, is heard saying: "Yeah. They've got skin in the game and that is the key."

Mr Bowe's comments in the audio recording reveal that Anglo's strategy was to lure the State in, leaving taxpayers with no choice but to continue to provide loans to "support their money".

The recording also shows Mr Bowe and Mr Fitzgerald laughing as they say how there is no realistic chance of ever repaying the loans.

[niko]

Banco Ambrosiano - actual murders, in addition to the usual money laundering and financing terrorist groups.

[marcus_of_augustus]

If anybody was wondering if the law and courts might also to be blame .... ummm, wonder no more.

http://rt.com/usa/california-man-13-prison-banks-237/

Jeff Olson, the 40-year-old man who is being prosecuted for scrawling anti-megabank messages on sidewalks in water-soluble chalk last year now faces a 13-year jail sentence. A judge has barred his attorney from mentioning freedom of speech during trial.

According to the San Diego Reader, which reported on Tuesday that a judge had opted to prevent Olson’s attorney from "mentioning the First Amendment, free speech, free expression, public forum, expressive conduct, or political speech during the trial,” Olson must now stand trial for on 13 counts of vandalism.

In addition to possibly spending years in jail, Olson will also be held liable for fines of up to $13,000 over the anti-big-bank slogans that were left using washable children's chalk on a sidewalk outside of three San Diego, California branches of Bank of America, the massive conglomerate that received $45 billion in interest-free loans from the US government in 2008-2009 in a bid to keep it solvent after bad bets went south.

The Reader reports that Olson’s hearing had gone as poorly as his attorney might have expected, with Judge Howard Shore, who is presiding over the case, granting Deputy City Attorney Paige Hazard's motion to prohibit attorney Tom Tosdal from mentioning the United States' fundamental First Amendment rights.