PROBABLY THE ONLY TRUTH OBAMA
EVER TOLD THE AMERICAN PEOPLE WAS THAT HE WAS “NOT HERE TO PUNISH BANKS!”…
NOPE, AND HE NEVER HAS. THEIR CRIMES, LOOTING AND PROFITS HAVE SOARED UNDER
OBAMA.
YOU WOULD NOT HAVE FOUND OBAMA’S
DOJ GOING AFTER OBAMA’S PALS AT JP MORGAN. HOLDER IS TOO BUSY HISPANDERING FOR
LA RAZA, SUING AMERICAN STATES AND SABOTAGING OUR LAWS AND BORDERS SO THE
OBAMANATION CAN BUILD HIS LA RAZA PARTY BASE of ILLEGALS.
“Records show
that four out of Obama's top five contributors are employees of financial
industry giants - Goldman Sachs ($571,330), UBS AG ($364,806), JPMorgan Chase
($362,207) and Citigroup ($358,054).”
OBAMA’S OLD PALS
J.P.MORGAN STILL FUCKING OVER CONSUMERS… IT’S LIKE OLD TIMES FOR THE BANKSTERS!
Headline:
California lawsuit alleges illegal collection practices by JPMorgan Chase
Will Bankers at JPMorgan Chase
Finally Pay for Their Misdeeds?
Posted: 05/11/2013 6:19 pm
Will
California Attorney General Kamala Harris hang tough in her new lawsuit against
JPMorgan Chase, the first to target individual bankers accused of defrauding
the public? If so, it would be the first time in five years that executives at
a major bank have personally paid a price for their misdeeds.
Weekend at Jamie's
Recent revelations have shown the
world that JPMorgan Chase comes as close as any institution in America to
embodying all this is corrupt, contemptible, and criminal about today's megabanks.
This is gratifying, at least on a personal level, since that was not a popular
position when we first started writing about JPM and CEO Jamie Dimon a few
years back. In those days Dimon was help up as the "good banker" by
the president and the press. His institution was considered well-managed and
ethical by some of the more shallow members of the popular press, despite the
plethora of scandals and crimes like the Alabama bribery case.
Since then we've had a variety of
Chase revelations: the "Burger King
kids" details behind its massive foreclosure fraud; its confessed
criminal mistreatment of active duty military personnel; its deeds in fraudulently
propping up a failed mortgage lender (it was like a financial Weekend
at Bernie's); and (speaking of "Bernies") its negligence
(at best) in the handling of the fraudulent Madoff accounts, which should have
triggered all sorts of red-flag warnings.
Now there's the London Whale
scandal and what appears to be a subsequent case of investor deception.
The bank wound up paying a
staggering $16
billion in fines and settlements over a four-year period, more than 12
percent of its net income during that time.
The Scandal of Our Time
An ethically healthy society
would never have lionized a CEO like Jamie Dimon or an institution like
JPMorgan Chase. That's why we've called it "the scandal of our time."
What explains Dimon's inability to stem the lawbreaking and correct his
organization's broken ethical system? The most generous interpretation is that
he's an incompetent manager -- so incompetent that, even after numerous suits,
revelations, and settlements, "Jamie didn't know"
about all the illegal and unethical behavior that continued unabated in his
institution.
Needless to say, there are more
plausible explanations.
And yet, in those cases where the
bank has been called to account with fines and settlements, it has been
shareholders and not the wrongdoing bankers themselves,who have paid cost.
Ironically, that even happens when the shareholders themselves are the ones who
were defrauded. That's why we say that bank fraud is the only crime on Earth in
which the victims make restitution on behalf of the wrongdoers.
Is this ugly pattern finally
changing?
Meet the Does
Blogger and finance expert Yves
Smith thinks
so. California Attorney General Kamala Harris is suing JPMorgan Chase and
individual bankers (named as "Does 1 through 100") for
"commit(ting) debt collection abuses" against Chase credit card
holders, "flooding California's courts with... collection lawsuits based
on patently insufficient evidence."
The Harris suit calls on the
Court to assess $2,500 against each defendant for each violation of
"Business and Professions Code section 17200," and an additional $2,500
penalty for each violation perpetrated against a senior citizen or disabled
person.
That may not sound like a lot of
money for a banker but, as Smith
points out, there are more than 100,000 potential violations. Smith writes:
"If (Harris) can get the individuals who were supervising the robosigning
operations (better yet, the C level execs ultimately responsible) and the
complicit law firms, she might bankrupt some well-placed people. This could be
extremely entertaining." Indeed. In fact, I'll buy the popcorn.
Walking the Walk
Fro Yves Smith:
"Now Harris
has been widely depicted as an opportunist. But she's kicking up more dirt on
the banking front right now than any other official ... This case has enough
headline value that Harris might go a few rounds before settling. JP Morgan is
known for throwing vast amounts of lawyers at opponents to bury them in legal
costs and busywork, so this case, sadly, is unlikely to go to trial. But if she
can get the goods on the right sort of DOES, she might make some individuals
pay in a serious way, which would have far more deterrent effect.
Adds Smith: "If nothing else, we should applaud what she's so far and
press her to keep
going."
I generally agree with all of the
above. But some of us have been burned by even the most cautious cheerleading
for seemingly promising Wall Street investigations and lawsuits. That's
especially been true when the actions in question are being conducted by elected
officials with any sort of connection to the Obama White House, an institution
which has become synonymous with efforts to protect bankers and restrict their
punishment to the merely symbolic.
Attorney General Harris is
considered close to the president. She's undoubtedly being either cajoled or
pressured (or both) to cave on this issue.
Reaching Out
So I'm going to emphasize the
words "press her" in Smith's last sentence. If Harris is
determined to see this through, her suit is potentially the kind of sea change
in banker law enforcement we've been waiting for. But that means she'll need
emphatic expressions of support to strengthen her resolve (and to explain to
the Administration why she can't and won't back down).
And if this is merely another
publicity stunt, she needs to know that a choreographed cave-in will be very
poorly received by her constituents.
Harris therefore deserves strong
expressions of support, along with statements that citizens expect her to see
this action through -- at least far enough to ensure that the malefactors
involved pay some personal penalty for their misdeeds.
(Contact information for Kamala
Harris, Attorney General for the State of California, can be found here.)
Follow Richard (RJ) Eskow on
Twitter: www.twitter.com/rjeskow
OBAMAnomics: FROM THE MAN THAT HATED
AMERICAN BUT LOVED AMERICAN BANKSTERS:
OBAMA, THE BANKSTER OWNED LA RAZA
DEM
“The response of the
administration was to rush to the defense of the banks. Even before coming to
power, Obama expressed his unconditional support for the bailouts, which he
subsequently expanded. He assembled an administration dominated by the interests
of finance capital, symbolized by economic adviser Lawrence Summers and
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.”
OBAMA’S HAREM OF CORRUPT BANKSTERS… DO A GOOGLE
FOR HOW MANY ENDED UP WORKING IN HIS ADMINISTRATION.
“Records show that four out of
Obama's top five contributors are employees of financial industry giants -
Goldman Sachs ($571,330), UBS AG ($364,806), JPMorgan
Chase ($362,207) and Citigroup ($358,054).”
OBAMA, THE BANKSTER OWNED LA RAZA
DEM
“The response of the
administration was to rush to the defense of the banks. Even before coming to
power, Obama expressed his unconditional support for the bailouts, which he
subsequently expanded. He assembled an administration dominated by the
interests of finance capital, symbolized by economic adviser Lawrence Summers
and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.”
CRONY KING
OBAMA: CURL: The Obamas live the 1 percent life
*