CITIGROUP ARE THIEVES & THE FEDs ARE TO !!!

"Failure to prosecute the participants in the plethora of financial frauds is PROOF that America is no longer a Republic."





Enemies of the state.


American Government is inept and it's Court system is corrupt !!!

No sense implementing regulations if they're going to just be ignored. Even regulations that contain an "or else" can be ignored. Regulations that are mere illusions - like Dodd-Frank are worse than nothing. Claiming to eliminate & foreswear bank bailouts while simultaneously creating a bailout insurance fund gives the lie to any pretense of a willingness to take prompt corrective action.

The inept and corrupt SEC alleges that Citigroup Global Markets structured and marketed a CDO called Class V Funding III and exercised significant influence over the selection of $500 million of the assets included in the CDO portfolio. Citigroup then took a proprietary short position against those mortgage-related assets from which it would profit if the assets declined in value. Citigroup did not disclose to investors its role in the asset selection process or that it took a short position against the assets it helped select.

Citigroup has agreed to settle the SEC’s charges by paying a total of $285 million, which will be returned to investors.

To recap, this is what happened:

Citigroup with malice of forthought put together a CDO (a debt obligation) in which it selected "assets" to put into the transaction specifically for their crappiness. That is, they chose assets that they expected would decline in value.

The company then shorted the instrument it created, a position that would lose money if the CDO performed as expected and marketed to investors. They could only make money if the investor lost their shirt.

They did not disclose either their selection of the assets in the CDO or that they took the short to the people who were buying it!

As expected and designed the CDO blew up. The "investors" took a 100% loss; what they bought was valueless as it was a levered instrument and the valuation loss of the underlying assets was sufficient to wipe out their investment.

Citigroup made a lot of money. The instrument performed exactly as Citigroup intended but they did not tell the people who were buying this thing that they expected they would lose every penny they put in up front. In fact they intentionally concealed their fraud role in selecting the assets and that they had taken a short position against them !!!

Now the corrupt and inept SEC steps in and they agree to "settle" this case with what amounts to a fine.

In fact the SEC press release claims that Citigroup knew damn well what they were " selling " was fraudulently misrepresented to the customers:

According to the SEC’s complaints, the Class V III transaction closed on Feb. 28, 2007. One experienced CDO trader characterized the Class V III portfolio in an e-mail as “dogsh!t” and “possibly the best short EVER!”

An experienced collateral manager commented that “the portfolio is horrible.” On Nov. 7, 2007, a credit rating agency downgraded every tranche of Class V III, and on Nov. 19, 2007, Class V III was declared to be in an Event of Default.

The approximately 15 investors in the Class V III transaction lost virtually their entire investments while Citigroup received fees of approximately $34 million for structuring and marketing the transaction and additionally realized net profits of at least $126 million from its short position.


Where are the handcuffs for the obvious false statements and criminal fraud ???

This "transaction" was a clear (and successful) attempt to simply rob and cheat people.

If you or I do something like this through some fraudulent edifice we go to prison. But when a big national bank does it, the feds simply order them to a pay a fine when they get caught.

This makes stealing a simple business proposition:


Since you will not get caught all of the time, there is no reason not to steal. Any time you do not get caught you get to keep all the loot. When you get caught you negotiate to return some of the loot.

It has always amazed me how a local drugged up Bank robber can get 10 years for robbing $3,000 what amounts to petty crimes incomparison. Then these inside bankers & multinational corporations can rip off millions of dollars and break people. You can steal a hell of alot more cash with computer mouse than a gun ask those CEOs on wall street.

Get off with a slap on the wrist. All things considered, more people should be marching on wall street. The power elite Oligarchy of big corrupt government & big thieving business that rule America has ruined America.

This is simply boiler room fraud, plain and simple. Consider that we have had a recent Treasury Secretary who profited from this very type of crude fraud, Hank Paulson. Create toxic securities, bribe willing rating agencies to give them the triple A, profit by selling this crap to dupes, and magnify your profits by shorting the crap out of it, or taking out multiple CDS on the garbage.

And when your poisoned bookie AIG cannot pay, your former criminal CEO, now US Treasury Secretary, ensures that your bookie makes good on your bets with tax payer dollars.

This is not a very sophisticated crime. It is quite amazing for its brazen obviousness, however.

It is the very anatomy of an illegal wealth transfer. This is exactly how it is done.


Failure to prosecute for real crimes against the American people once again. The participants in the plethora of financial frauds is PROOF that Amerika is no longer a Republic !!!


AND WE WONDER WHY INSTITUTION ENGAGE IN THIS SORT OF BLATANT RIPOFF?


The problem is that these settlements all boil down to nothing other than a "cost of doing business." In other words, they'll keep doing this because the cost is negligible. No surprise at all just one big funny game. With the Joke on the American People !!!

Citi was fined and allowed to consent to the charges without admitting or denying any allegations. In other words, Citi is allowed to say "we'll pay the money to make this suit go away, but we didn't do anything wrong", as has happened in other banking settlement agreements.

Will we ever get an admission / verdict of guilt, much less handcuffs ???

Not with co-conspiritors in government !!!


Ps: Oh yeah, there's this pesky statute of limitations problem too. Anyone note the dates? Just draw it out until you can't prosecute - on purpose. This is nothing more or less than an organized looting operation with the full participation of the government in stealing from the victims.

The problem is that these settlements all boil down to nothing other than a "cost of doing business." In other words, they'll keep doing this because the cost is negligible. No surprise at this late stage of the game.