| Online: | |
| Visits: | |
| Stories: |
CITI merry-go-round and scams
~CITIGROUP merry-go-round and Citigroup scams one of the top four banks labeled “too big to fail” is none other than Citigroup Incorporated. Coming up for fifth place is Bank of New York Mellon. Their assets went up 8.8%. The taxpayers bail out under tarp and other government handover of billions added up to trillions for 11 banks. This bailout would not have allegedly happened if not for Citigroup being the only bank that was insolvent at the time. To bailout Citigroup – just one bank – would not have looked too good. After all, Citigroup had Robert Rubin, previous secretary of treasury for eight years behind them. Robert Rubin had been CEO for city until 2009 – city paid him 126 million in cash and stock even during cities bailout by the United States treasury, of course, guiding her was then secretary of treasury – Rubens pick.
The bailout had Larry Summers, Robert Rubin’s previous deputy when Ruben was secretary – then Summers became Treasury Secretary then of course the big backer of Citigroup for Robert Ruben was Rubens hand picked next secretary of the treasury, Timothy Geithner. Then we now have Jacob Lew – very heavy past with Citigroup. Three of these four were Citigroup CEOs, all for became secretary of the US treasury. Where is all this going?
Though works appear to be in the making for another bailout from these bank big spenders unless someone steps up and says – no more. But will that happen after all the last bailout gave billion of dollars in bonuses. You heard right, billions. Millions to CEOs – Citigroup has another CEO, now Michael Corbett – Mr. Corbat’s salary 14.5 million a year plus bonuses of millions more. Super wealthy – Citigroup received the largest bailout over and over. AIG – an insurance company – got 186 billion then turned around to give their employees billions, this created quite a stir. The same employees that put them in need of a government bailout, Citigroup along with the other banks was supposed to put in place a plan after the 2008 crisis. The so-called “stress tests” under Tim Guyton or was supposed to stop any further taxpayer bailouts. They were to create a plan to wind down or go into bankruptcy like other businesses do. They will required to have a resolution plan. The plan dubbed “living wills” – well, that did not happen. Six years later – all 11 banks failed the regulators test including Citigroup which is classified as “too big to jail”. According to Eric Holder, Citigroup doesn’t want to go into bankruptcy. They expect and want more taxpayer bailout like they got in 2008 – 2009, they can keep their jobs. Get their enormous bonuses every year, that’s millions, hefty paychecks and continue their scams and irresponsibility. They have had six years to come up with this required plan. The plan not to destroy the economy or threaten to with their threats. They have failed to do so. Citigroup after all, has gotten away with billions of taxpayers dollars. They took billions – new corporate jets, billions in bonuses, trips, mansions, luxury living and Citigroup Incorporated kicked families out of their homes and still are. City is the only bank not to pay back the full amount they were given as a handout. Too many connections in politics? Too many Citigroup CEOs that became secretary of the US Treasury Department? Under two administrations – Robert Rubin has had positions created for him. Robert Rubin got millions from Citigroup. Before they kicked him out. $126 million in cash and stocks. During his few months activities, he made sure political positions were covered with people to protect Citigroup because of his stocks and investments there. He stayed long enough to see the city bailouts come up with the idea of creating an “economic policy think tank”. He calls that they Hamilton Project and of course, he is the founder of this “think tank”. How much government money did he get for “thinking” up that silly crap tank? And of course, he has his “Africa project” that he came up with and is vice chairman. More taxpayers dollars down the drain for another Rubin think scheme? No proof of help – only disasters for the people. There is a “revolving door” between Washington and Wall Street. Anthony Weiner, a former congressman, denies “the revolving door” because he is part of that door and will attack anyone who comments on the truth, he called one person’s criticism “overblown and petty”. I’m afraid it is Mr. Weiner who is overblown and petty. To even deny that such exist when proof is out in the open. Citigroup is a perfect example. Citigroup CEO Robert Rubin – Citigroup paid him millions – three of the last four secretary of treasury were all Citigroup CEOs – directors of the national economic Council and office of management and budget – millions from Citigroup – then now vice chairman of the Fed and US trade rep received millions from Citigroup. Eric Cantor goes through the revolving door to Wall Street with little experience in financial services – but gets a job with Moelis & Co. shortly after resigning his congressional seat – not bad – not what you know but who you know.
Mr. Weiner, pay attention if you can’t see the door – it could hit you in the – well, you know, or maybe not. 73 former members of Congress became top lobbyist. Know the inside scoop – the tightknit groups, the “Citigroup click” is a dangerous tightrope when jobs are passed around to people without knowledge or experience like a bottle at a frat party. The tightknit groups that hook up to investments – look at Tim Geithner. Just because someone knows someone or when an individual will sell themselves to the highest bidder to get a position keeps the tight clique in place. Look at Geithner or, he was president of the Federal Reserve for seven years and didn’t know what a “regulator” was – did not pay his taxes for years – hired illegal made – but, he knew Robert Rubin and Robert Rubin new Citigroup. Robert Rubin worked to spearhead two presidents into office – positions from these two Presidents were created for Rubin – you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours. And, Ruben Sec. of treasury for eight years. Then his deputy, Larry Summers, got that position. Then Tim Geithner or, then Jacob Lew who was with Citigroup. Robert Rubin under this administration is now the vice president of the “Africa program” along with nine others of course. Formed in 2008 – the second position created for Robert Rubin under this administration. No revolving door, Mr. Weiner? What we have, Mr. Weiner is a Mobius – in Washington and on Wall Street. Until that is broken and the negatives fall out, the country will continue to be in a mess. More bailouts unless that stops. Citigroup will continue in a spiral of deception until someone breaks it up. The scandals for city keep growing but Mr. Corbat sees no breakup for this out of control behaviors. Citigroup was fine to 7 billion but that didn’t seem to slow them down and they still have not obeyed the regulator’s rules of how to wind down if they fail. Citigroup was fined for their “egregious misconduct” – another way of saying crooked dealing and screwing over homeowners. 4 billion was to go to the DOJ – 2.5 billion was for consumer relief. City packaged security loans, mortgage loans into securities then sold them to investors. They totally ignored the homeowners when they securitized their loans under false pretenses – fraud, waste, abuse – ignored. Citigroup paid a fine of 7 billion – a mere slap on the wrist – they still owe 20 billion in TARP funds – not paid. Has any homeowners seen any relief from the 2.5 billion Citi was supposed to aid the homeowners they screwed over and cheated. Tony West, assistant attorney general in an interview with Judy Woodruff said that city was fined for civil abuse but they were not ruling out criminal charges.
Homeowners from Citigroup fine was supposed to receive principal reduction – rate of reduction – refinancing features – affordable housing – this turned out to be a joke. Citigroup got hundreds of billions. Investors lost tens of billions – all except the Citigroup click. Billions it went for bonuses. None of this was disclosed, what executives were involved? Where are these people now? So we have the associate Atty. Gen. looking into Citigroup for evidence of misconduct. We have the SEC charge against Citigroup unit – a Citigroup Lava Flow in $5 million penalty against Citi Lava Flow Inc. is an “electronic communication network”
we have a Citigroup stops in India – international investors put 12.6 billion in Indian equities this year. We have the Citigroup insider-trading ring. Frank Tamayo – worked for city mortgage – lending officer at Citigroup Incorporated in midtown Manhattan across the street from the bank’s headquarters.Mr. Tamayo was part of the alleged ring Citigroup said they fired Mr. Tamayo as soon as he pleaded guilty.
Another case. The Citibank fraudster in India –Shivrag Puri- a Citibank scam “in India fraudsters do not disappear they only lie low for some time before resurfacing on a different turf with a different modus operandi”. Mr. Puri -a relationship manager at Citibank’s Gurgaon India Branch-Fraud case-emoployed 7 years – How did he do this?
1. Channeled money into the market
2. Investors funds were channeled then deposited into account – flowed immediately out of it into three accounts kept by Citibank.
3. Then, the funds were moved out of these accounts to accounts Puri kept With some brokerages.
4. Puri got six “customers” of Citibank to “sign blank checks and drafts and other financial instruments” and then he would take these funds from their accounts put in the “brokerages to be invested in the market”.
5. Puri was arrested and sentenced to overall five years – but he fixed an appeal and was back to business as usual. “Back to his vocation” – people, this was Citibank and India – what is wrong with this picture? This is in 2012 Citigroup paid 158.3 million to settle a whistleblower who sued Citibank and one – by a woman they couldn’t intimidate. In 2006, Citimortgage was buying mortgages from outside lenders with doctored tax forms, phony appraisals and missing signatures. These frauds were covered up by Citi until 2012. One team processed 50 billion in loans a year – only a few loans were checked. In 2007 – 60% of the mortgages Citigroup was buying and selling were missing some form of documentation. Citigroup executives knew of this fraud in 2007, they were told. Whistleblower lost her job at Citigroup. She was moved from vice president to a do-nothing position by 2009. 1000 loans were identified for possible fraud – these were left to play for two years – Citimortgage retail bank unit had been hiding in covering the fraud for years – workers were told to change ratings – fraud unit overlooked the fraud going on – the bank had been selling that mortgages for years way past the 2008 crisis. To top it off, Citi mortgages CEO Sanjiv Das said she was proud of what they were doing and stated “is there something systemically wrong? Absolutely not, absolutely not – maybe her viewpoint but not the Department of Justice nor Citigroup who paid the 158.3 million to settle out of court for their unit city mortgage. Citigroup goes from one fraud mess to another. This year, fraud at Banamex, one of Citi’s big Mexican subsidiary – 400 million this time. After that, the Feds stopped cities from increasing their dividends. Citigroup is a corrupt institution of entities that cannot be humiliated, embarrassed or trusted. That does not say that somewhere down the line they are not good people, just none noticeable that has proven trustworthy. One only has to look at homeowners. Citigroup – Citibank – Citimortgage – Core Citi – Citi this, Citi that – to see the fraud and corruption. Citi market capitalism is approximately $160 billion – but their shareholders are 90% worse off than they were nine years ago Citigroup has no problem handing out big CEO bonuses and salaries at the top. Look at Vikram Pandit when he left Citigroup approximately $180 million in salary and his bonus and his shares. People, that’s almost 200,000,000 for one Citigroup pers to walk out with. This was after the billions of Citigroup got from the government taxpayer bailouts. When Rubin was there he admitted to getting 126 million in cash and stock’s. After Vikram Pandit- Citigroup now has Michael Corbat as CEO. How could a conglomerate so big be so poorly managed? Or was it a deliberate play with the fortunes being directed to wear a few chose for a click group allegedly to offshore accounts foreign bank accounts – again market capitalization 160 billion at city but shareholders are worse off. Homeowners worse off – underwater or still fighting court battles due to cities fraud under city mortgage. Cases where city mortgage under Citigroup are defrauding homeowners, city is spending more in lawyer fees to defraud, lie, cheat homeowners in the homes are worth. One citi mortgage lawyer admitted in an interrogatory “we want the property” – so anyone that thinks city has cleaned up their corruption is mistaken – try to cover up but not clean up. Michael Corbat is the CEO of Citigroup, will be interesting to see how he tries to clean up this disgraceful mess the Citigroup deception. No doubt as the New York Times and others have said, city cannot be managed but needs to be broken up into manageable sections – CITI American retail division is worth around 55 billion cities “core citi” business 132 billion.
Just a tip of the iceberg for cities holding – Madrid, Mexico City – Latin America, Japan – Latin America, chalk up another 1.3 billion for this year. Asia, Hong Kong, India – Citi put a price on these deferred tax asset $50 billion – this is to reduce future taxes – Citi holdings worth 4 billion. Michael Corbat, the CEO apparently thinks he can keep this behemoth together without a breakup. But Citigroup provided no credible or clear path through bankruptcy that did not have unrealistic assumptions and public support. So, it looks like Citigroup is counting on bailouts again – the last bailouts and economic devastation caused by the crisis cost this country 12.8 trillion. To get another bailout the crooks on Wall Street and the bank vultures have fought to kill and got the Dodd Frank Reform that could stop these institutions from stealing more from the taxpayers. “Too big to fail” in 2008 – they are even bigger now, then then, so – where does that leave common sense? We know their motives, the government must act to protect the people – this time not this mismanaged greedy vultures from Wall Street to CEOs and politicians.
More trouble for Citigroup – Citigroup has made 44 divestitures since 2009 and only for acquisitions. Citigroup’s books show Citigroup is a very big risk to come under regulatory action. Does this sound like Citigroup is heading for trouble – not for them – but for taxpayers, yes. Citigroup – this bank outfit is not credible – how will it be dealt with? The FDIC and the Federal Reserve have the authority under Dodd Frank to take the divestitures – but both have to agree to this takeover. The FDIC would manage the process that the Federal Reserve has to agree. And what about the secretary of treasury – will Mr. Lew stand firm and support any case against Citigroup? Geithner bit and scratched hard to protect Citi against the FDIC – the “living will” gives the Fed and the FDIC power to use the “non-credible” designation to rein in on Citigroup’s actions. Eric Holder thinks big banks are too big to jail. Well, there is the idea when too big – cutback. From the New York Times – “why a breakup of Citigroup is still a good idea”.
From the British regulators meeting this week, Citigroup Incorporated is facing a $261 million fine in a settlement charged by the British for Citigroup’s involvement in interest rate ranking. Came after a long investigation of possible “manipulation of currencies markets”. The UK expects this to be settled in the next few weeks. While the US authorities are conducting their own investigation into currencies market manipulation but the US cases probably dragging out. Citigroup Inc. charge customers for services they never received or ask for. Illegal Billings added onto homeowners payments. As one Senator said, the American taxpayer deserves regulators will fight each day on their behalf. Period the people do not need those who promote Washington – Wall Street click.
Sources: Wall Street Journal, Huffington Post, LiveMint
This article is nnot intended to give any advice – the contributor is not an attorney.
