Bankster criminality reaching 2007-levels again

Four events happened during the last two weeks that displayed levels of criminality that you rarely see outside of the mafia.

Two weeks ago the overnight loan market nearly froze up.
The Federal Reserve was forced to inject $100 billion a day. Who needed all of this money?
JP Morgan Chase.

The other notable thing to occur on September 16 was this: The largest bank in the United States, JPMorgan Chase, had its precious metals desk charged by the U.S. Department of Justice with being a criminal enterprise for approximately eight years as it rigged the prices of gold, silver and other precious metals. The head of that desk and two other precious metals traders were charged with racketeering under the RICO statute that is typically reserved for organized crime. The Justice Department said that the traders and their co-conspirators (others may be named at a later date) “conducted the affairs of the desk through a pattern of racketeering activity, specifically, wire fraud affecting a financial institution and bank fraud.”

Wall Street veterans cannot remember any other time in history when the RICO statute (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) was used against a large bank in the United States. It was, however, used to indict members of the Gambino and Bonanno crime families in 2017.

A major bank being labeled a criminal enterprise under the RICO statute is out of the ordinary, but what makes this unprecedented is that JPM had admitted to three criminal felony counts within the past five years, and was still under probation in its plea agreement for the role it played in rigging the foreign currency exchange market.

As part of its plea agreement, JPMorgan Chase agreed to “not commit another crime in violation of the federal laws of the United States” during the term of probation.

So now JPMorgan Chase is getting $150 billion in emergency loans from the Fed, while getting accused of racketeering, after pleading guilty to three criminal felonies, and...

where are the congressional hearings?

Around the same time, Deutsche Bank’s headquarters office in Frankfurt, Germany was being raided by police for the second time in less than a year.
Deutsche Bank has been on a losing streak.

Its latest plan is to fire 18,000 workers and create a good bank/bad bank, isolating off unwanted assets that it plans to sell. Deutsche Bank has run through four different CEOs in the past four years and incurred losses in three of those years. Its share price has lost 90 percent of its value over the last dozen years

However the biggest problem with working at Deutsche Bank is the tendency of employees to turn up dead.

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On Wednesday, Mr. Rehe was found dead, an apparent suicide, in his backyard in Tallinn, the Estonian police said.
Mr. Rehe’s death is another twist in the money-laundering scandal, which prompted a criminal investigation and forced Danske Bank, Denmark’s largest lender, to withdraw from Estonia and other Baltic countries.
...
The scope of the investigations widened Wednesday when prosecutors in Frankfurt confirmed that they were investigating Deutsche Bank’s role as an intermediary that helped Danske Bank process transactions in United States dollars for suspect customers. The New York Times has reported that Danske Bank was part of a federal investigation of whether Deutsche Bank complied with laws meant to stop money laundering and other crimes.

Deutsche Bank has a common stock market capitalization of $15.63 billion with a derivatives book of $49 trillion, showing strong similarities to Citigroup in 2008.

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thanatokephaloides's picture

Deutsche Bank has a common stock market capitalization of $15.63 billion with a derivatives book of $49 trillion, showing strong similarities to Citigroup in 2008.

When will we learn -- and ban the derivatives trade?

Diablo

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"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

wendy davis's picture

@thanatokephaloides

#2BigNot2Bail!

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thanatokephaloides's picture

@wendy davis

These damn derivatives have a combined notional value several times what the entire Earth is worth in monetary terms!

Literally "Too Big TO Bail"!!

We need to ban the derivatives trade.

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"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

wendy davis's picture

@thanatokephaloides

#2BigNottoBail, as per Obomba. at my.fdl i'd been instructed religiously on one of my diaries by an e-friend (capitalist) that *if derivatives were handled well* on public exchanges* on mr. market public transactions (by gary gensler at the time (who'd burned brooksley borne who'd rung the bell earlier, and all had disregarded before, iirc, lehman brothers failed at the time) they should and would be guaranteed by the FDIC if they failed, as was happening from that moment forward.

i've never even known how to look that up, even had i had the time and acute desire, but i do think of it now and again.

and then there was also at the time lanny davis's banksters 'deferred prosecutions' as in: 'we'll be watching you, behave!' kewl.

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The Liberal Moonbat's picture

@thanatokephaloides Someone needs to explain to the public (probably including Congress and the White House) what the hell that is and why it matters.

Can't you see we've already got our hands full trying to sort out the definitions of arcane words like "racism", "assault", "science", "fun", and "they"?!?

Seriously, though: I was pretty thoroughly insulated from the 2008 crash - and aside from general back-and-forth about the merits/needs/ideological pedigree of bailouts, I never really understood what the anger was about until I happened (years later) to see this:

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In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.

Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!

edg's picture

Hearings on JP Morgan? There's no time for that!! We must impeach Trump!! Congress has priorities, you know. Sheesh.

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@edg
Warren should be screaming about JPM right now.
Or is $150 billion to a criminal organization just not enough to care about?

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Lily O Lady's picture

@edg

(or should I say “shit show”) will distract attention from the more significant crimes which will cripple our country and send even more money into the hands of the 1%.

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"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

@edg The House Financial Services Committee has been looking into Trump's dubious financial transactions with DB well before Ukrainegate. Apparently he went to them after numerous major US banks turned down his big loan requests b/c he wasn't considered a credit-worthy customer.

Maybe the committee can arrange to spin off a special Chase Bk subcommittee to look into those shenanigans.

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Anja Geitz's picture

@wokkamile

To Deutsche Bank while at the same time ignoring any one else's malfeasance so they can lock up a win in the 2020 election.

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There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

@Anja Geitz link

The son of a Deutsche Bank executive who died by suicide in 2014 has been cooperating with FBI agents investigating the bank and has spoken to a congressional committee investigating President Donald Trump's ties to the financial giant, The New York Times reported.

The Times' David Enrich on Tuesday published a profile of Val Broeksmit, 43, the adopted son of William Broeksmit. According to the report, after William Broeksmit's death, Val Broeksmit discovered a trove of bank records — including minutes of board meetings, spreadsheets, and financial plans — in his father's email account.

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@Anja Geitz passed a law declaring the day is now 36 hours long and allocating $6B towards investigation, there wouldn't be enough time and resources to investigate all the other malfeasance, misfeasance, nonfeasance and other questionable feasance that occurs politically in this country, let alone in other areas of life.

You deal with the case that is in front of you, not the other ones which could possibly be brought.

And Congress was going nowhere anyway -- nice liberal legislation passed in the Dem House always blocked or not considered in Moscow* Mitch's senate. No big surprise there. Moscow is the modern day Dr No who, probably, also had ties to Moscow.

Plus taking all these 2-week recesses. I can understand the wish to have fun on playground equipment and run around on the grass for maybe 2 hours. But 2 weeks at a stretch seems excessive.

* Moscow Mitch -- I'm only in it for the alliterative fun and for want of a better nickname currently.

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@wokkamile Frozen molasses, that is.

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snoopydawg's picture

@tle

"Nancy you go ahead and pass as many progressive bills as you want and I'll not let them come up for a vote. This way you can look like you are doing your best to help your voters whilst I come out looking like the bad guy. Meanwhile you keep letting your members help us pass legislation that helps our donors."

Anyone think that this couldn't be what's happening? As far as I know the only bill democrats haven't voted for was the tax bill. Okay. They didn't vote for the one that got passed, but they are helping them clean it up.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

OzoneTom's picture

@snoopydawg

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@wokkamile

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The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.

The Liberal Moonbat's picture

@wokkamile "Mitch the Bitch"?
"Mitch, Mitch, Wicked Witch of the Rich"?
"Teenage Mutant Mitch McConnell"?
"Management Mitch"?
"Old McConnell Has-No-Charm"?

Or just...

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In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.

Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!

edg's picture

@wokkamile

After the Ukrainegate mania fails, like the Russiagate mania failed, will the next faux criminality meme against Trump be Chinagate? After all, Trump just asked them for help investigating how Biden's son got a $1.5 billion Chinese investment just days after VP Joe Biden's visited there.

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@edg advise the Ds to consider adding it the ever-growing list of possible articles of Impeachment against the Don.

And if that investigation proves the thing that dings China Joe out of the race, then I would consider it a nifty two-fer, almost as nice as picking up that difficult 7-10 split in bowling, if anyone here remembers that indoor activity.

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$100 billion with a "b" and a day, as in "a day"?

Two weeks ago the overnight loan market nearly froze up.
The Federal Reserve was forced to inject $100 billion a day. Who needed all of this money?

I can tell you who needed all of this money and it wasn't JPMorgan!

The Federal Reserve was forced? Who forced them?

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Banksters em>are the mafia.
They are the ones that went 'legit'.

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