Citigroup Snagged for Billions - Who Else?

But it doesn't stop there!

Federal and state regulators have been investigating marketing of the securities by a number of big banks. Another case surfaced this week: the Massachusetts attorney general's office reached a settlement with investment firm Morgan Stanley for allegedly selling the risky auction-rate securities to cities and towns, but presenting the investments as safe.

As part of the settlement filed Wednesday, Morgan Stanley agreed to repurchase $1.5 million in the securities it sold to a pair of local municipalities, and fully reimburse any city or town that invested in auction-rate securities. The New York-based company said it was pleased to settle the case without financial penalty.

Cuomo's office sued the Swiss bank UBS AG last month over billions of dollars in sales in auction-rate securities, and other states have filed similar complaints. Massachusetts last week accused Merrill Lynch of fraud in promoting the sale of auction-rate securities. In May, Wachovia Corp. disclosed that it has received requests from the SEC for information regarding sales of auction-rate securities.

BofA said in a regulatory filing Thursday that various state and federal regulators are looking into its dealings with the securities. In addition, the Charlotte, N.C.-based bank said four purported class action lawsuits have also been filed against it on behalf of purchasers of auction-rate securities.

my.earthlink.net.../489a7340_3ca6_15526200808071761955719

Citigroup will be buying back billions in securities in a settlement that will also include millions in civil fines and penalties. These are huge Banks that obviously were getting away with a lot....till now? There seems to be more coming down the pike. In the big picture one has to wonder where this one will lead. but the article explains that this will not cause any significant losses to the bank.

Of course, the settlement does not include any admission of wrongdoing.

Oops. Here's some more fresh names in this article.

UBS was last night thought to be close to its own settlement, while dozens of financial institutions have been subpoenaed by the New York Attorney General, including the Bank of America and the Royal Bank of Canada.

Merrill Lynch last night offered to buy back $10bn worth of the securities sold to 30,000 of its clients, while Credit Suisse is being sued by French firm ST Microelectronics for placing $450m of its cash into auction-rate securities without permission.

www.cityam.com...

I guess the problems are going to be resolved through lawsuits in lieu of REGULATIONS that should have prevented these messes.

regulation is only used if the big shots don't want to pay their way through the world.

my guess is that no write-downs will occur because when they buy something at a certain value, they can proceed to a) write it into the books and b) take loans out on it from other banks (and vice versa.

..which leads me to believe that the recent slew of bank failures were either accidents or an effort to fleece FDIC and customers while the socalled mortgage crisis is nothing more than a selective contraction of the money supply.

Wow, SEC sure missed this one.. every major institution committing fraud simultaneously lol .. and they never caught on ..

It took a pissed off Attorney General of New York to stop these bastards.. only after several municipalities where swindled out of their money (you know, your local tax dollars... no big deal..)

This is interesting, but it's not major. The banks clearly misrepresented the risk of these ARS instruments as "comprable to a money market", and know that they don't have a hope in hell of winning in court. Fortunately for the banks the ARS stuff hasn't degraded all that much it's maybe .95 on the dollar wherass Merryll just sold some mortgages CDOs for .22 on the dollar.

What will be really interesting is when holders of some of the mortgage backed stuff start trying to put it back on whoever wrote it or packaged it. I think I've seen that one of the monolines is already trying this to get out of paying on CDS written against it.

Originally posted by Rockpuck
It took a pissed off Attorney General of New York to stop these bastards..

Fortunately, with this plea agreement apparently recorded, Citi avoids the discovery process associated with 'obstruction of justice' and related criminal charges. What degree of skulduggery that might have been exposed? In the seedy world of corporate monopoly, the agreed-upon 7.2BB buyback was probably viewed as a cheap stay-out-of-jail card.

I won't be surprised if a % of this debt is ultimately reflected in the balance of taxpayer liabilities.

Let the write-downs begin

Originally posted by OBE1
In the seedy world of corporate monopoly, the agreed-upon 7.2BB buyback was probably viewed as a cheap stay-out-of-jail card.

I won't be surprised if a % of this debt is ultimately reflected in the balance of taxpayer liabilities.

Let the write-downs begin

From your link - Yeah the Citigroup hit is peanuts compared to to the UBS settlement. Wonder how all these hits will add up, and I agree, somewhere down the line this "get out of jail" card, though not exactly free is allowing the banks to walk from this without exposing the real truth about what they were knowingly up to, at our expense.

UBS is close to resolving the claims by promising retail and institutional clients it will buy back the securities, valued at $25 billion by regulators, the person said. Merrill Lynch offered yesterday to purchase about $10 billion in auction-rate debt from individual investors.

Citigroup set a framework for settling state and federal regulators' claims yesterday when it agreed to buy $7.3 billion of debt from individual investors, pledged to help 2,600 institutional customers unload $12 billion of securities and said it will pay $100 million in fines. Bank of America Corp. analyst Jeffrey Rosenberg estimates banks that purchase the auction-rate debt may have to write it down by a total of $4 billion.

reply to post by Relentless


I don't know if you like to read or not, Relentless, but you should read this book.

Wall Street and the Rise of Hitler

You will be extremely surprised as to what "Citigroup", "CitiBank", "Morgan Stanley", and the huge "J.P. Morgan", all of those banks were connected to, and or are still connected to.

My review from Amazon :

This book is quite literally a tell all of all the names of who financed Adolph Hitler's rise to power by financial means. The man didn't get into power just by his lies, but by lies of other men too, the men with power, with money, and influence, and the access to Wall Street. You would be surprised to see the names within this book that financed "the funny little man, with the funny little mustache" that almost took over the entire world.

I will not ruin the book for you by telling all the names in it, but I will tell you two men's name I know you will instantly recognize.

Henry Ford & Edsel Ford. Yes, those "Ford's", from Ford Motor Company. Henry Ford even got the highest award the Nazi's could give to a foreigner, in recognition of his assistance to Adolph Hitler, and his picture hung in Hitler's office.

Just so you know, I am not a fan of the Nazi's, nor am I a racist of any kind, nor a fan of Adolph Hitler. I'm following a papertrail to find out all the names of who helped the man get into power to begin with, because I am someone who knows there's more to history than what they teach you in school. It doesn't just come down to the lies a politician tells the people who put them in office, but to the power-brokers who finance the man. Adolph Hitler was a politician, plain and simple. He knew how to lie to the people and give them comfort through manipulative persuasion and then when the people willingly gave him the power he went for the throat of the world.

Another good book that tells the details of who assisted Hitler that you may be able to find here on Amazon is, "IBM and the Holocaust."

Yes, I am talking about that "IBM" here too. They helped Hitler track down the Jews and other "undesirables" (Hitler's words, not Mine) through the use of the census and the Hollerith Card Sorting Machine.

[edit on 9-8-2008 by SpartanKingLeonidas]

Thanks Spart, though I must admit I have some books on my list I haven't gotten to yet.

But this raises and interesting question. If this type of thing is still going on today, who are the culprits now manipulating world affairs, and exactly where/what are they supporting?

We need to know this, and we need hard proof. The current world agendas have to be exposed.

Originally posted by Relentless
Thanks Spart, though I must admit I have some books on my list I haven't gotten to yet.

But this raises and interesting question. If this type of thing is still going on today, who are the culprits now manipulating world affairs, and exactly where/what are they supporting?

We need to know this, and we need hard proof. The current world agendas have to be exposed.

All you had to do is ask.

* Carlyle Group

* Brown Brothers Harriman & Company

* Halliburton

Just those three and some of the people who are leading them, or were leading them, will make your eyebrows raise, I guarantee.

Also, Relentless, take a look at the links below in the signature, there's more there as well.

* Council on Foreign Relations

* Bilderberg Group

The Bilderberg Group hold the reigns of the Council on Foreign Relations, and Council on Foreign Relations is all around President George W. Bush.

I think this thread was about Citigroup though, so to get back on topic, so I'm not pinged for de-railing your thread, Citigroup is just one of the huge corporations that finance American business. There's an entire whole conspiracy to how they're connected through various insiders back through Wall Street and overseas.

You could follow their papertrail your whole lifetime, and still not find all the details.

While I am aware of all the info you provided, my point is that it's really hard to "prove" this stuff, and my concern is that while some of it is likely true, a lot of it could be speculation and flat out diversions, it can get kind of convoluted.

But anyway, back on topic, keep your eyes peeled all for more banks being sued by State AG's and what is coming of it.

I think we have 4 - 5 States so far going after Countrywide for their lending practices, which should be interesting due to the fact that they were bought.

The bottom line is, all these "settlements" aren't giving us the whole truth about how deep the problems were/are, since no admission of wrongdoing comes out of a settlement.

Originally posted by Relentless
While I am aware of all the info you provided, my point is that it's really hard to "prove" this stuff, and my concern is that while some of it is likely true, a lot of it could be speculation and flat out diversions, it can get kind of convoluted.

But anyway, back on topic, keep your eyes peeled all for more banks being sued by State AG's and what is coming of it.

I think we have 4 - 5 States so far going after Countrywide for their lending practices, which should be interesting due to the fact that they were bought.

The bottom line is, all these "settlements" aren't giving us the whole truth about how deep the problems were/are, since no admission of wrongdoing comes out of a settlement.

I don't know if you know about the website or not, Relentless, but here's the S.E.C.'s site.

Security and Exchange Commision : Government Website

Click on "Search" on the far right hand side, and enter the company name, or stock ticker symbol if you know it.

You can do your own independant research if you would like. Hope that helps.

I've played around on it some, so if you want or need help, I'm a U2U away.

Here comes more.....

my.earthlink.net.../489fb940_3422_1334620080811-2072604023

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said Monday he is expanding his investigation into the collapse of the auction-rate securities market to include JPMorgan Chase & Co., Morgan Stanley and Wachovia Corp.

Last week, Cuomo's office and the Securities and Exchange Commission reached settlements that forced Swiss bank UBS to repurchase $18.6 billion in the securities, while Citigroup agreed to buy back $7 billion of the securities. UBS will also pay a fine of $150 million, while Citigroup will pay a $100 million fine.

"This is an industrywide problem," Cuomo said in an interview. "This is not about one or two institutions. We are now working with the other players in the industry."

I still find it highly frustrating that none of this would be getting addressed except for the State AG's taking it on. Everyone knew it was happening, and this should have been reigned in a long time ago at the Federal level.

As an aside, Elliot Spitzer was in the thick of it (the bank abuses) when his life collapsed from the "scandal". Let's just hope no one else who is speaking out has any "skeletons" in their closets.

AND .........WE GOT ANOTHER!!!

my.earthlink.net.../48ace840_3426_1335020080821-1205385179

NEW YORK - New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said Thursday he will file suit against Merrill Lynch & Co. over its role in selling auction-rate securities if an agreement is not reached by the end of the day.

Cuomo, who along with other regulators has reached $42 billion worth of settlements with five major Wall Street banks, said talks with the world's largest brokerage were at an impasse.

He said his office had given Merrill a five-day warning that it planned to take legal action; the warning expires Thursday. The attorney general pledged to file suit in New York State Supreme Court by Friday morning.

Wonder when someone will finally file against the ones who were suppossed to be regulating these leeches?

I have a feeling this won't be settled for trinkets, mirrors, and a Summer pass to Disney-World....more likely, the Chrysler Building.

Wait a minute! Abu Dhabi already owns the Chrysler Building.

Nevermind

Abu Dhabi Bank Sues Morgan Stanley, Bank of NY and Ratings Agencies for Fraud

Yuppers, that Abu-Dabi lawsuit was something I was wondering when not if it was going to happen. How long before more foreign entities pile on? I didn't see anything in the original Rueters article about whether it was a "private" bank or a SWF. I'd imaging a SWF has more leverage than a "private" institution i.e. "Make us whole or we stop buying GSE debt or even Treasuries".

Prominent commercial bank. Probably a just warm-up for Citi

What is it about bankers?

Interpol issues warrant for Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank CEO

I'd rather have dinner with Hannibal Lecter.