Masters of the Universe category archive

Sadly, it’s in civil, not in criminal court.

Federal bank regulators sued 17 former directors and officers of Silverton Bank on Monday, accusing the officials of gross negligence and corporate waste in the biggest bank failure in Georgia history.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., in a 102-page civil lawsuit, accuses the bank of slipshod lending practices that violated its internal controls, and for spending lavishly as the bank’s condition worsened and the economy teetered on the brink of collapse.

Brendan reports that Budweiser shills its dishwater as “craft beer.”

And this surprises us how?

In a 78-page letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission, William Harrington outlined how the committees that make the ratings decisions are not independent and how managers often intimidated analysts.

“The management of Moody’s, the management of Moody’s Corporation and the board of Moody’s Corporation are squarely responsible for the poor quality of previous Moody’s opinions that ushered in the financial crisis,” he wrote.

“The track record of management influence in committees speaks for itself — it produced hollowed-out (collateralized debt obligation) opinions that were at great odds with the private opinions of committees and which were not durable for even a short period after publication,” he added.

Matt Taibbi on how the SEC buried its investigations:

Thom Hartman explores Congressman Darrell Issa’s (R–Banksterz) campaign to give the banksters a free hand in everything.

More here.

These are not nice people.

Excerpt:

So closing a few corporate tax loopholes and returing the top marginal tax rate to the 90s economic boom time levels is “class warfare.”

Via Raw Story.

Er, yeah.

Seventy-year-old Sharon Bullington may lose her home because she paid her mortgage a week early.

That may not make much sense to the thousands of homeowners who are behind on their mortgages in Florida. But it seems it does to Bank of America, which has filed to foreclose on Bullington and her husband, James, 78, who is terminally ill.

Read the whole thing. It lays out the details.

As has happened so often, they did what the bank told them to.

Of course, one should never question the good faith of the bank.

Also, pigs, wings.

The FDIC has resumed its program of rewarding responsible fiscals for their mastery of the universe.

• First Choice Bank, Geneva, Illinois
• First Southern National Bank, Statesboro, Georgia
• Lydian Private Bank, Palm Beach, Florida
• Public Savings Bank, Huntingdon Valley, Pennsylvania

In the Boston Globe, Brian McGrory visits a farm to figure out why financial types show so much herd behavior. Here’s how he frames the issue:

If I had my way, we’d go directly to the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, where we would ask the over-caffeinated traders who are always bleating “Buy!’’ or “Sell!’’ how a national economy can be reasonably sound in the morning and be hurtling toward a depression by lunch.

Short of that, we would visit expert investment managers in their plush downtown offices to learn why a company like Bank of America is as safe as Fort Knox in July and has the same basic value as a warm bucket of spit in August. But all these important executives are too busy drowning people’s 401(k) plans in a river of tears to allow me through their hallowed doors.

Click to read what he found out.

Friday is responsible fiscal day, when the FDIC culls the herd:

The First National Bank of Olathe, Olathe, Kansas

More pillars of the community turn into pillars of salt.

Bank of Whitman, Colfax, Washington

Bank of Shorewood, Shorewood, Illinois

The American Banking Community, an example for the world.

More blanked banks. They exceeded their debt ceilings:

Integra Bank, National Association, Evansville, Indiana

BankMeridian, N.A., Columbia, South Carolina

Virginia Business Bank, Richmond, Virginia

More banks go blank:

LandMark Bank of Florida, Sarasota, Florida

Southshore Community Bank, Apollo Beach, Florida

Bank of Choice, Greeley, Colorado

Grants of immunity usually come after charges are filed.

A push by U.S. banks to win broad liability releases has become one of the main obstacles in talks to resolve a nationwide probe of mortgage-servicing and foreclosure practices, two people briefed on the matter said.

The mortgage servicers want protection from additional state and federal claims over their mortgage practices as part of reaching a settlement that may exceed $20 billion, according to the people, who declined to be named because the talks are private. The banks are seeking releases that go beyond servicing of mortgages to include lending and securitization of loans, one of the people said.

These are not nice people.

The use of bogus patent and trademark suits as a tactic to stifle competition is growing.

It’s nice to see one squelched.

The U.S. arbiter for trade disputes has spurned Apple Inc.’s digital-camera patent claims against Eastman Kodak Co., a 131-year-old photography pioneer caught in a perilous race to redefine itself in the cutthroat digital-imaging arena.

(snip)

In a ruling late Monday, the U.S. International Trade Commission’s six-judge panel affirmed a preliminary decision in May that Kodak’s technology doesn’t infringe on Apple’s patent rights and that one of the two patents in dispute is invalid.

Mortgage industry employees are still signing documents they haven’t read and using fake signatures more than eight months after big banks and mortgage companies promised to stop the illegal practices that led to a nationwide halt of home foreclosures.

It really is time to start rounding up banksters and putting them in jail.

Not the street hoods. The Moriaritys.

Georgia continues to solidify its lead as the home of ex-banksters.

Two more today:

High Trust Bank, Stockbridge, Georgia

One Georgia Bank, Atlanta, Georgia

We’ll see whether other states mount a challenge.

(Later) A new entrant:

First Peoples Bank, Port Saint Lucie, Florida

And, finally,

Summit Bank, Prescott, Arizona

It looks as if all those out-of-work mortgage salespersons have found employment.

For some time, The Nation has warned subscribers to beware of phony subscription renewal mailings. The warning includes a statement that renewals sent through those companies may not even show up at the magazine. I’ve gotten some of those myself.

But today I saw a new twist: three mailings all designed to look like renewals to magazines that to which I don’t (and wouldn’t*) subscribe. They do include the phrasing, “Notice of Renewal/New Order,” but they are clearly designed to trick persons into thinking they are renewals.

Watch out for items like these:

_________________

*Time has degenerated into a sideshow, the New Yorker is too provincial (plus I can read the cartoons at the doctor’s office), and The Nation is progressive enough for me.

They are working on plans to market you to retailers. They aren’t planning to sell your data, just allow others to use your purchasing history “for marketing purposes” (i.e., spam).

The privacy work-around it this: The banks will keep the data and serve as intermediaries for the spammers.

Just as Facebook allows advertisers to specifically target certain kinds of users based on their profile information (without actually providing that profile information to the advertisers), banks plan to allow advertisers to send deals and coupons to their customers based on what they’ve bought before. That way, no user data actually leaves the network — instead, deals just enter the network. Each time a customer cashes in on one of those deals, the bank gets a commission.

Getting someone to sign up for your card — $95 (annual fee). Having them miss a pay date — $25 (late fee). Being able to monetize information about everything they buy — Priceless. Well, not priceless exactly. An analyst estimates it could generate over a billion dollars yearly in additional revenue for banks — and could be a problem for start-ups in the same space.

H/T Todd at GNC for publicizing this.