Another Day, Another Questionable Bank Settlement

Good thing everyone is now distracted and divided on the whole gun debate so the banksters can once again get off with a slap on the wrist for financial crimes against humanity.  For those that have forgotten what LIBOR is, I wrote about it in my piece My Two Cents on LIBOR-GATE.  This is how the CFTC itself described LIBOR this summer:

The American public and our markets rely upon the integrity of benchmark interest rates like LIBOR and Euribor because they form the basis for hundreds of trillions of dollars of transactions and affect nearly every corner of the global economy,” said David Meister, the CFTC’s Director of Enforcement.

Now here is the punishment for rigging the most important interest rate in the world.  From the NY Times:

It has also charged two former UBS traders with crimes that include conspiracy, wire fraud and violation of antitrust laws. The subsidiary will pay a $100 million fine, and the traders, if extradited and convicted, could go to jail. But the deal leaves UBS itself relatively unscathed. In all, it will pay $1.5 billion to settle allegations of rate-rigging that span nearly a decade and implicate the bank and its bankers far beyond the wrongdoing of two rogue traders.

According to the investigation by the Financial Services Authority, the British regulator, 40 individuals at UBS, including 11 managers, were directly involved in rate-rigging that was carried out to boost trading profits, while at least two more managers and five senior managers were aware of the practice.

Seen in that light, a subsidiary’s plea on a single criminal charge appears to shield the parent company and the prosecution of two traders appears to shield their managers. And even though a $1.5 billion penalty is large by historical standards, there is little reason to believe that such fines, disconnected from criminal charges against bank officers, will deter future wrongdoing.

So 311 million Americans are supposed to give up their 2nd Amendment right because of the actions of a few crazy people, while the financial terrorists do whatever they want and destroy the lives of billions of people with no consequence?  They sacrifice two traders and save the bosses.  How is this any different than the mafia?

Yeah, keep fighting about guns people. Hook, line and sinker.

Full NY Times article here.

In Liberty,
Mike

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4 thoughts on “Another Day, Another Questionable Bank Settlement”

  1. It’s the same shit, day in, day out.

    When the mob rules…there is no rule of law. One day, we are going to find ourselves sorting this all out again at the end of a gun barrel. Those who don’t remember history are always doomed to repeat it.

    Reply
  2. Great article Mike.

    As long as a small group of people have a government issued monopoly on credit issuance then the 2 billion poor people of the world will continue to be indentured servants to the financial elite.

    Reply
  3. The non-prosecution of HSBC on criminal charges says it all. If you are a “Systemically Important Institution” you skate. What it really highlights is the insidious nature of the phony ‘War on Drugs’.

    Reply

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