The days of banks being trusted institutions to help protect your savings & retirement are over. First, it was the banks gambling on derivatives that blew up the global economy in 2008 and cost citizens trillions in savings & retirement. Then, it was the banks turning over customer accounts to the IRS & police for total seizure without due process of law. Next came reports that banks are abolishing our ability to use & store cash. And now comes a frightening report that banks have agreed to pay $81 BILLION in restitution & penalties for criminal & civil abuses against the public and their own customers. So more than ever, if you want real protection of your savings & retirement, you better move it out of the bank. Fast.
Banks Commit Historic Fraud against the Public & Customers
In a recent report by McClatchy detailing the millions in speaking fees the Clintons have received from banks, McClatchy drops a bombshell: the same banks that have been supporting the former (and possibly next) president of the United States have agreed to pay $81 BILLION in restitution & penalties to resolve federal investigations into alleged corruption and to avert criminal and civil trials. In other words, the banks paid their way out of jail after defrauding you and me for years. Some of the crimes & penalties are as follows:
Bank of America
Restitution & Penalties: $27.8 Billion. Defrauded homebuyers with risky mortgage loans, committed mortgage servicing abuses, and engaged in unsound foreign exchange practices.
JP Morgan Chase
Restitution & Penalties: $17.6 Billion. Rigged currency exchange rates, facilitated Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, sold risky mortgage securities, and engaged in mortgage servicing abuses and unsound banking practices.
Wells Fargo
Restitution & Penalties: $5.3 Billion. Engaged in mortgage servicing abuses, and is now at the center of a scandal involving the opening of bogus customer accounts without customer knowledge.
Morgan Stanley
Restitution & Penalties: $3.9 Billion. Misled investors in sale of risky mortgage securities.
Citigroup
Restitution & Penalties: $3.5 Billion. Manipulated currency exchange rates, engaged in mortgage servicing abuses, and extended toxic loans.
UBS
Restitution & Penalties: $3.5 Billion. Manipulated benchmark interest rates, helped Americans evade taxes, and sold toxic mortgage securities.
HSBC
Restitution & Penalties: $2.5 Billion. Sold toxic mortgage securities and laundered money to violate U.S. sanctions against Sudan, Cuba, Iran, Libya & Burma.
Goldman Sachs
Restitution & Penalties: $1.7 Billion. Duped investors in offshore sale of risky mortgage securities and scammed Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac.
The Bankers’ Fraud Continues
While these financial penalties represent historic records, they are a drop in the bucket compared to the hundreds of billions banks earned from scamming the public & its own customers for years. Yet not a single banker has gone to jail after committing these horrible, criminal offenses!
And here’s the really scary part: Despite paying $81 billion in restitution & penalties, banks are still gambling with your money. Congress recently passed a new spending bill that allows banks to once again use your deposited money to bet on those insanely risky derivatives that caused the global financial collapse of 2008! So apparently the Clintons aren’t the only politicians in bed with the banks.
What’s more, the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and other publications have exposed the banks for conspiring with the IRS & police to confiscate customer accounts without any due process of law. So with this kind of collusion between the government & banks, is it any wonder that the government has refused to jail one single banker for their massive fraud?!
