Financial crisis

Canadian banks received 'secret' bailout: Think-tank

Topics:
0

Peter Henderson – April 30, 2012

Canadians were never told the true cost of a $114-billion "secret bailout" for the country's biggest banks during the financial crisis, says a report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. "We've had a false sense of security," said study author and CCPA economist David MacDonald.

"Ever since the global financial crisis struck in 2008, Canadians have been subjected to a constant refrain: Canada has the 'most sound banking system in the world,'" MacDonald writes in the report. "During the worst of the crisis - 2008 to 2010 - the official line was that Canada's banks did not require the extraordinary bailout measures that were being offered in other countries, particularly in the U.S.

Chilling Dissent on Wall Street

Topics:
2

Eyal Press – March 6, 2012

What’s worse: to be persecuted and indicted for trying to expose an act of wrongdoing — or to be ignored for doing so?

Whistleblowers have been under intense scrutiny in Washington lately, at least when it comes to the national security state.  In recent years, the Obama administration has set a record by accusing no fewer than six government employees, who allegedly leaked classified information to reporters, of violating the Espionage Act, a draconian law dating back to 1917. 

Prosecuting Wall Street: 60 Minutes

Topics:
3

60 Minutes – December 4, 2011

Two high-ranking financial whistleblowers say they tried to warn their superiors about defective and even fraudulent mortgages. So why haven't the companies or their executives been prosecuted?

Eileen Foster, a former senior executive at Countrywide Financial, and Richard Bowen, a former vice president at Citigroup, tell Steve Kroft the companies ignored their repeated warnings about defective, even fraudulent mortgages.

Judge Critical of SEC Practices

Topics:
0

Peter Lattman – October 20, 2011

It is boilerplate language found in nearly every settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission: A company resolves its case “without admitting or denying” wrongdoing.

There it was again in the S.E.C.’s announcement on Wednesday that Citigroup had agreed to pay $285 million to settle a civil complaint that it had defrauded investors in a mortgage securities deal. The bank did so “without admitting or denying” the government’s accusations.

Judge questions SEC settlement with Citigroup

Topics:
0

David S. Hilzenrath – October 27, 2011

A federal judge is trying to determine whether the Securities and Exchange Commission is letting Citigroup off the hook too easily for allegedly misleading investors about a $1 billion investment it sold in 2007 tied to the collapsing housing market.

Judge Jed S. Rakoff issued an order Thursday calling for the SEC and Citigroup to defend the settlement they recently negotiated, and he posed a series of questions. Among them:

Mortgage industry tanks, fraud continues at Countrywide

Topics:
2

Michael Hudson – September 23, 2011

The mortgage market was struggling in March 2007 when Countrywide promoted Eileen Foster to executive vice president and tapped her to take over the company’s mortgage fraud unit.

Home prices were sputtering, borrower defaults were climbing, and the industry leader, Countywide, would soon be forced to ask Bank of America for an infusion of capital to help it keep afloat.

How Bank of America Covered Up Fraud by Silencing Whistleblowers

Topics:
2
Eileen Foster

Michael Hudson – October 13, 2011

In the summer of 2007, a team of corporate investigators sifted through mounds of paper pulled from shred bins at Countrywide Financial Corp. mortgage shops in and around Boston.

By intercepting the documents before they were sliced by the shredder, the investigators were able to uncover what they believed was evidence that branch employees had used scissors, tape and Wite-Out to create fake bank statements, inflated property appraisals and other phony paperwork.

Each $1 Of Lobbying Money Made Banks $500 In Bailout Funds

Topics:
2

Dana Liebelson – October 3, 2011

The 2008 Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP)— the Bush Administration's $700 billion response to the mortgage crisis—was designed to provide capital injections to banks that needed it.

But according to a study published last week, banks that lobbied or had other types of political connections were far more likely to see TARP cash than those that didn’t.

Mortgage industry whistleblower wins case against Bank of America

Topics:
0

Michael Hudson – September 14, 2011

A high-level executive who reported corrupt lending practices at Countrywide Financial Corp. was improperly fired for leading internal investigations that “revealed widespread and pervasive wire, mail and bank fraud” at the lender, a federal agency ruled Wednesday.

The Labor Department ordered Bank of America Corp., which bought Countrywide, to pay the former executive roughly $930,000 and reinstate her.

US Banks Took $6B in Reinsurance Kickbacks, Investigators Say

Topics:
2

Jeff Horwitz – September 6, 2011

Many of the country's largest banks received $6 billion in kickbacks from mortgage insurers over the course of a decade, according to a previously undisclosed investigation by the Inspector General of the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The allegations, since referred to the Department of Justice, stem from lenders' demand that insurers cut them in on the lucrative business of insuring the mortgages they produced during the housing boom.

Syndicate content