The Fee Hand of the Market, Acey Deucy in the Shoesy Dept. 0
StevenD at the Booman Tribune reports on bid rigging by Wall Street:
Unfortunately for them the firms they relied upon as their advisers to get the best deals on the GIC’s they were purchasing were in league with Bank of America, JP Morgan, Cititcorp, Lehman Bros. and a multitude of other banks to rig the bids so that the local municipalities etc. got lower interest rates than the market rate for the GIC’s which they assumed had been bid to acquire the highest interest rates available. The money from these sales of below market rate GIC’s was pocketed by the banks after paying the “adviser” kickbacks ranging from $4,500 to $475,000 per deal.
Read the whole thing.