#banking scandal

[kladamsauthor]

When Trust Breaks: Inside First NBC Fraud

For years, First NBC Bank was presented as a regional success story—expanding branches, confident public messaging, and the appearance of stability in a post-crisis financial landscape. To customers and observers, it looked like progress. But beneath that surface, warning signs were quietly accumulating. First NBC Fraud is a nonfiction investigation into how institutional failure often…

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[justmebeingdifferent33]

Bankers Smile

Here’s a song I wrote along with a video I (very cheaply) put together.Not the most professional of recordings but there never was any from my end in those days. This song is on my old Youtube channel. Please do consider showing your support for an underdog and subscribing to my NEW YOUTUBE CHANNEL at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzvkV8425oHt7jozbeOdMTQ Huge thanks for your support…

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[consciousearthlings]

Someone stole $1 billion from Moldova. That's an eighth of its GDP.

Someone stole $1 billion from Moldova. That’s an eighth of its GDP.

About $1 billion disappeared in an apparent banking scandal that’s mystified Europe’s poorest country.  The money reportedly vanished in a series of murky loans dealt out last November by three major banks — one of them state-owned — to as yet unknown recipients.

Despite the growing prominence of pro-Western politicians who pledge to pull Moldova closer to Europe, critics claim the authorities…

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[theageingone]

ONE  MAN’S  VIEW

Wallowing in self-pity after collecting a bug following my return earlier this week, I stay inside whilst it slowly clears.

Nonetheless, and although not yet daring to distance my body from certain facilities, my mind has been dwelling on the thousands of people likely to be unemployed - seemingly resultant upon the actions/omissions of those who relentlessly seek to add surfeit to already obscene wealth.

Quite correctly, the brief for the administrator in the BHS (seeming) scandal has been widely described as having to make utterly cold, impersonal judgements on the future or otherwise of the store chain.  We are told that a decision had to be reached solely on the basis of what was best for the benefit of ALL the chain’s creditors - including those whose very personal contributions to the company’s pension scheme(s) remain at risk.  The administrator could not, we are told, be swayed by sentiment, personalities, public opinion or other influences.

I suggest that the same approach must be continued by the authorities in their investigations into the root causes of this failure and in particular, into the past actions or omissions of diverse responsible parties.  

It is essential that truth and total transparency should be maintained throughout such investigations and any persons found culpable (whether through intent or omission) should individually be held to book.  

Why?  Well, for two reasons.  

Firstly, to ensure that wherever possible, assets of culpable parties are set aside for use in reparation.  In these days of ‘corporate’ responsibility, rarely does adequate action appear to be taken, against those individuals who bear personal responsibility.

Secondly, as the French so adequately describe it – pour encourager les autres.

Turning to another matter, I consider that in tandem with this procedure, a similar approach should be taken by the authorities in a still relatively recent national outrage – albeit somewhat tardily.   I refer of course to the investigation and pursuit of those individuals believed responsible for the banking outrages.

Why? Well because amid all the political blusterings, ‘reasonings’ and general obfuscation by both main parties and the general establishment, it has been so easy to forget the enormity of what occurred.  In effect, the ‘establishment’ in its many forms, appears to have successively dulled both our recall and our justifiable thirst for proper reparation.

I believe that continuing absence of penalty will merely encourage repeat abuses of the system, albeit in different forms.

Although I suspect our collective complacency may well ensure that proper penalties will never be applied, those who seek to achieve such a result would do well to remember that it is the British taxpayers, who ultimately ended up as the creditors in that particular debacle - and one enlightened day, the national worm may just turn.  

I ask the question, are the British taxpayers not still entitled to reparation, just because time and attitudes have moved on?

[julianworker]

This money comes from mafia, drug traffickers, blood diamonds, and tax evasion.

HSBC whistleblower Herve Falciani interviewed on video – “this money comes from mafia, drug traffickers, blood diamonds, and tax evasion”.

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[uncover777]

25 Biggest Corporate Scandals Ever

[terminalpolitics]

Icelandic Bankers Sentenced to Prison for Market Abuse

The Reykjavík District Court today handed four former key executives and majority owners of Kaupþing Bank the heaviest sentence ever given in Iceland for economic fraud in the so-called Al-Thani case. The four were charged with market manipulation in relation to Sheik Mohammed Bin Khalifa Al-Thani of Qatar’s acquisition of more than five percent of shares (worth ISK 25 billion) in Kaupþing Bank shortly before it collapsed in autumn 2008.

Photo: Kaupþing headquarters. Copyright Icelandic Photo Agency. Hreiðar Már Sigurðsson, former director of the bank, got the longest sentence at five and a half years. Sigurður Einarsson, former chairman of the board, got five years while investor, and one of the bank’s biggest shareholders, Ólafur Ólafsson, got three and a half years Magnús Guðmundsson, director of Kaupthing Luxembourg, got three years, visir.is reports. 

[apeckofpointlessness-blog]

Are the public LIBOR-ed of the middle ground?

It would seem that yet another reason for the public to hate bankers is emerging through the Libor scandal. Obviously, this needs to be investigated and why it was heartening to see politicians initiating the process to take the perpetrators to task through the questioning of Bob Diamond by the Treasury Select Committee.

Isn’t there something broader at stake here though? It could be suggested that the boredom, or more accurately the lack of attention to detail that eventually accompanies these types of story, comes not from the busy lives of the public but from apathy shown towards politics. The seemingly perpetual fight for the middle ground by the parties could be seen to churn out politics that turns people off the main story. The start of the LIBOR scandal is a prime example. At this point it seems like no party will stake a bit of their polling on a harsh opinion of the Bankers actions. Obviously with the lack of the full evidence it is natural to be cautious, but this is detrimental both to politics but also to the public. The belief that real action will be taken by politicians over scandals such as this is important. The political process needs to be trusted and valued by the public. I believe there is enough evidence already to, at the very least, intonate a legislative move for harsher punishment in the form of fines for LIBOR corruption. This would demonstrate unequivocally that politicians are taking action on behalf of the public. Surely this is the perfect time for Labour, minus the shackles of the coalition, to strike out and make a move towards this type of regulation?  Let’s be honest, it looks like they’ve got good reason to.