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Post by alrich on Oct 20, 2011 10:43:10 GMT -5
Iraq Government allocates 700 billion Dinars to reduce poverty in Iraq Wednesday, October 19, 2011 12:32 GMT Iraqi Ministry of Planning and Development Cooperation declared, on Monday, that the government dedicated more than 700 billion Dinars to support poverty reduction strategy in the country. This strategy aims to reduce poverty from 23% to 16% by 2014, Iraqi government pointed up.
“Iraqi government allocated 717 billion Dinars to support poverty reduction strategy in Iraq,” Ministry’s spokesman Abdul Zahra Al Hindawi told Alsumarianews. “This sum is earmarked to support projects like small loans’ fund, eliminate Iraqi mud schools, build low cost residential compounds and enhance primary health care services,” Al Hindawi stressed.
“The government allocated 125 billion Dinars of these funds to five provinces in support of the construction of rural women development centers and other related activities,” Al Hindawi added. “The 125 billion Dinars came in addition to the sum already reserved to major development projects including projects to support the agricultural sector, build up schools in rural villages and enhance primary health care services all of which require recruiting poor people in poor areas,” he carried on.
“This strategy aims in general to reduce poverty from 23% to 16% throughout the year 2014 by ensuring poor people higher incomes from their work, upgrading their health status, enhancing their education, providing them better living environment and reducing differences between men and women,” he continued.
“The strategy is expected to decrease national poverty by 30% which means dropping from 7 million poor citizen to 5 million ,” Al Hindawi pointed up. “It is also expected to reduce poor’s illiteracy percentage by half from 28% presently to 14% as well as increase poor women contribution to the economy from 13% currently to 19%,” he added. “We also expect to reduce the number of people included in the ratio card system and restrict it to the ones below the poverty line, Al Hindawi concluded.
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Post by alrich on Oct 20, 2011 12:11:45 GMT -5
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Post by alrich on Oct 21, 2011 8:27:27 GMT -5
www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/20/us-hedgefunds-schapiro-idUSTRE79J78Y20111020 Schapiro doubts SEC will ban short-selling Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Mary Schapiro testifies about alleged conflicts of interest in former General Counsel David Becker's handling of aspects of the Madoff scheme, at a joint hearing of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee's TARP, Financial Services and Bailouts of Public and Private Programs Subcommittee on Capitol Hill in Washington, September 22, 2011. Credit: Reuters/Jonathan Ernst NEW YORK | Thu Oct 20, 2011 2:58pm EDT NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Securities and Exchange Commission is unlikely to join the European Union in imposing another ban on short-selling, SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro said on Thursday. "Never say never, but it is hard for me to imagine the SEC ever doing a ban on short-selling again," Schapiro said at a hedge fund industry conference. During the financial crisis in 2008, the SEC limited traders' abilities to bet that certain stocks would fall. Earlier this week, the European Union said it would regulate short-selling of stocks and bonds more strictly and ban "naked" credit default swaps on government bonds to help ensure more stability in financial markets. In a naked swap, the holder has no risk of financial loss if the underlying security falls. Schapiro was the keynote speaker at a conference sponsored by the Managed Fund Association, one of the most prominent lobbying groups in the nearly $2 trillion hedge fund industry. The SEC chief also discussed insider trading in the hedge fund industry, and the controversial use of so-called expert networks by traders and portfolio managers. Expert networks match industry experts with fund managers to help them understand companies better. The SEC and other government agencies have investigated abuses in the use of expert networks -- including the sharing of non-public information -- and several arrests and convictions have resulted in the past year. "There is nothing wrong with doing tremendous due diligence and research to understand a stock," Schapiro said. "But there is a line, and I think it is a pretty bright line." She said the SEC is currently involved in several cases. "Insider trading is absolutely not a victimless crime," she said. Schapiro said the SEC would vote next week on a proposal for SEC-registered investment advisers to work with funds and report information -- including assets under management, use of leverage and trading positions -- to the commission periodically. While the data would be kept confidential, hedge fund managers are nervous that the information would reveal their highly classified and often profitable trading strategies. In February. the Managed Fund Association sent a letter to regulators saying that "it is highly unlikely that any hedge fund is systemically significant at this time." Therefore, the industry should not be the target of increased scrutiny and reporting obligations, it said.
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Post by alrich on Oct 21, 2011 8:38:29 GMT -5
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Post by alrich on Oct 21, 2011 10:41:45 GMT -5
Which investment industry bigshots back OWS. Sympathy for Occupy Wall Street? Bill Gross YES! Jim Chanos YES !Vikram Pandit YES ! Larry Fink QUALIFIED YES! Joe Dear YES! Warren Buffett YES! Bloomberg News Gross, who runs the world’s biggest bond fund for Pimco, said that wage earners are fighting back after three decades of taking it in the teeth. “Class warfare by the 99%? Of course, they’re fighting back after 30 years of being shot at,” Gross said on a Twitter post. www.investmentnews.com/
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Post by alrich on Oct 21, 2011 10:45:04 GMT -5
www.thedailybell.com/3117/Ron-Paul-WSJ-Article-Fraud-of-Central-Banking-Is-Price-Fixing Ron Paul WSJ Article: Fraud of Central Banking Is 'Price Fixing' Friday, October 21, 2011 – by Staff Report Ron Paul: Blame the Fed for the Financial Crisis ... The Fed fails to grasp that an interest rate is a price, the price of time. Attempting to manipulate that price is as destructive as any other government price control. To know what is wrong with the Federal Reserve, one must first understand the nature of money. Money is like any other good in our economy that emerges from the market to satisfy the needs and wants of consumers. Its particular usefulness is that it helps facilitate indirect exchange, making it easier for us to buy and sell goods because there is a common way of measuring their value. Money is not a government phenomenon, and it need not and should not be managed by government. When central banks like the Fed manage money they are engaging in price fixing, which leads not to prosperity but to disaster. The Federal Reserve has caused every single boom and bust that has occurred in this country since the bank's creation in 1913 – Congressman Ron Paul/ Wall Street Journal Dominant Social Theme: The problem is the corporations ... the money ... the manipulations ... Wall Street greed ... Goldman Sachs ... Obama ... Bush ... the wars ... the corrupt peace ... the tax system ... the pollution ... the global warming ... the lack of potable water ... starvation ... Free-Market Analysis: Congressman Ron Paul, the beautiful light of a new century, has written a wonderful article in the Wall Street Journal making the powerful point that central banks FIX the price of money. Perhaps we like the article so much because this is the analogy that we regularly use. Editor's Note: In this article, we return to our theme that central banking is the MAIN problem that needs to be addressed in the modern world. Elsewhere in today's roster of posted stories from DB, a viewer may find a convincing article from the esteemed Lew Rockwell on how the state itself is the number one problem. Theoretically, this is perhaps true. (Who are we to argue with such a wise one?) Nonetheless, from our perspective the fastest way to disassemble an authoritarian state may be to deprive it of its funding. One could even make the argument that the push toward world government would never have come as far as it has were the state itself to rely on past (much blunter and more obvious) tools of enrichment such as conquest and rapine. The mechanism of Modern Power is the prime tool in the arsenal of the world conquering elite; it ought to be brought out into the open where the full gamut of its damage can be explored, assessed and hopefully counteracted. Central banks, and especially the Fed, are run by good, gray men who determine the value and the price of money. They do it every minute of every hour of every day. There's only one problem ... price fixing doesn't work. Never. Ever. Congressman Ron Paul has done a great service by advancing this SIMPLE point on the national stage. Those responsible for central banking will in turn explain all the "good" things the Fed does. In fact, central banking is a weapon aimed by the Anglosphere power elite at the West's (and the world's) middle classes. There is no excuse for them. They ought to be abolished as quickly as possible. Here is more from Dr. Paul's article: Adding new money increases the supply of money, making the price of money over time—the interest rate—lower than the market would make it. These lower interest rates affect the allocation of resources, causing capital to be malinvested throughout the economy. So certain projects and ventures that appear profitable when funded at artificially low interest rates are not in fact the best use of those resources. Eventually, the economic boom created by the Fed's actions is found to be unsustainable, and the bust ensues as this malinvested capital manifests itself in a surplus of capital goods, inventory overhangs, etc. Until these misdirected resources are put to a more productive use—the uses the free market actually desires—the economy stagnates. The great contribution of the Austrian school of economics to economic theory was in its description of this business cycle: the process of booms and busts, and their origins in monetary intervention by the government in cooperation with the banking system. Yet policy makers at the Federal Reserve still fail to understand the causes of our most recent financial The continued existence of an organization that can create trillions of dollars out of thin air to purchase financial assets and prop up a fundamentally insolvent banking system is a black mark on an economy that professes to be free. This is the genius of someone like Dr. Ron Paul. We could never have written this statement so clearly and concisely (though we try every day). The peculiar brilliance of Dr. Paul lies in his adamant insistence on pointing out the REAL problem of the modern world – its endless distortions of money – and his ability to put it into words that everyone can understand. It is really very simple. The underlying problem of the Western world is that its "money stuff" is counterfeit. It is fake. It is phony. And a few good, gray men at the behest of the great central banking families and their enablers and associates can print as much of the stuff as they want to print whenever they want to print it. This endlessly distorts the economy, leads to false euphorias which inevitably then lead to great busts. Over time these massive waves of currency overwhelm the economy entirely and no one knows whether enterprises are solvent or not. The link between economic activity and price information has been severed. Investment and economic growth in such a situation is almost impossible. This is why there are so many banks in the world, in fact. In the US – throughout the Western world in fact – there is a plethora of banks and bank branches. This goes for the developing world as well. Almost every downtown of every major city around the world is crowded with bank skyscrapers. These banking entities are not the REAL problem, of course. They are merely the distributors for CENTRAL BANKING. They are only additional EVIDENCES of the problem, which is central banking itself. Without money manipulation, as Murray Rothbard was fond of saying, economies would likely revert to gold (and silver) and people's savings would gently appreciate as technology drove down cost. The great paraphernalia of the West's investment industry would not be needed anymore. States would have to become far more overt in how they obtained and utilized resources. The violence of it all would become far clearer, leading to substantively more honest conversations. This seems how it worked in days-gone-by. Conclusion: The problem, initially – the ROOT of the modern problem – is 20th and now 21st century central banking. The Internet Reformation itself has allowed us to address the issue publicly and help bring other substantive issues surrounding its presence to light. One day we will learn to explain it as forcefully and eloquently as Dr. Ron Paul! We'll keep on trying ...
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Post by alrich on Oct 21, 2011 11:53:33 GMT -5
YOUTUBE VIDEO: www.thedailybell.com/3108/The-Destruction-of-the-Rule-of-Law-according-to-David-DeGraw "The Destruction of the Rule of Law" according to Ratigan, Black and DeGraw Wednesday, October 19, 2011 – by Staff Report Our lead story discusses the interview between Dylan Ratigan, attorney Bill Black and David DeGraw, one of the founders of the Occupy Wall Street movement. A video clip of the interview is available on DeGraw's AmpedStatus website entitled, in part, "The Destruction of the Rule of Law." This seems to be an expanding promotion within the Occupy Wall Street movement as Julian Assange – someone else we believe may be part of this apparent unfolding of directed history – went out of his way to mention the same thing in his speech in London over the weekend. This emphasis on the "rule of law" (ludicrous as it sounds to us) is a part of a larger meme in our view – a "transparency meme" that we have written about numerous times now and which is vehemently operative in such countries as India. There is even a Transparency International organization founded by a former World Bank executive. Ellen Brown, who emphatically promotes central banking, is a member of Transparency International. Our article "Elite Control of OWS Protests Increasingly Obvious?" presents the point of view that promoting American "justice" as an antidote to Wall Street "lawlessness" is just another kind of sub-dominant elite social theme. At this point in America's decline there is hardly such a thing as US justice and DeGraw's dogged intention to inflict it upon Wall Street brings up serious questions about the movement as a whole in our view. What about the serial wars in which America is engaged, the endless money manipulations of central banks, the culpability of Washington, DC? None of this seems to matter. The train is leaving the station. Wall Street will be made to be the single biggest culprit of the 2008 global economic meltdown – which is a ludicrous assessment in our view and one fraught with difficulties and danger. But don't take our word for it. See for yourself ... (Video linked from YouTube channel: Skamna)
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Post by alrich on Oct 21, 2011 12:20:02 GMT -5
End Central Banks' BIS Boss, Too? Friday, October 21, 2011 – by Staff Report David Rockefeller was apparently intimately involved with the BIS and its workings as he and his family were, as well, with the creation of the IMF, the World Bank and of course the UN, for which they donated land. BIS: Lending To Developed Country Banks Falls by $296B ... Banks cut their international lending to each other during the second quarter, and in particular to lenders in the U.K. and the U.S., according to a report by the Bank for International Settlements. The BIS report released on Wednesday said total cross-border lending fell $185 billion, or 0.6%, in the three months to the end of June, to $35.6 trillion, compared with the first quarter. Cross-border lending rose $634 billion in the first quarter. – Dow Jones Dominant Social Theme: What's the BIS? We can't keep track of all these nonsensical international organizations ... What does the BIS do? What does the B stand for? Is it a global bowling league? Free-Market Analysis: The Bank for International Settlements is the organizing force behind central banking around the world. In this article from the Dow Jones newswire, excerpted above, we can see that the BIS is an authority on central banking, reporting on currency flows and the activities of the 100-plus central banks that basically report to it. What exactly is the BIS? it was established in 1930 initially but underwent changes throughout the 1930s and even after World War II as well. David Rockefeller was apparently intimately involved with the BIS and its workings as he and his family were, as well, with the creation of the IMF, the World Bank and of course the UN, for which they donated land. There is a good deal of danger in having one man so intimately involved in every part of the modern world structure, and this may be a reason for the current state of global affairs. Perhaps in the 21st century a more sane system can emerge. Here is Wikipedia on what the BIS is and does: The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) is an intergovernmental organization of central banks which "fosters international monetary and financial cooperation and serves as a bank for central banks." It is not accountable to any national government. The BIS carries out its work through subcommittees, the secretariats it hosts, and through its annual General Meeting of all members. It also provides banking services, but only to central banks, or to international organizations like itself. Based in Basel, Switzerland, the BIS was established by the Hague agreements of 1930 ... It has representative offices in Hong Kong and Mexico City. What is perhaps most interesting is that the BIS was established by international Hague agreements but is "not accountable to any national government." Just who IS the BIS accountable to? The BIS's establishment and continued operation is as good an evidence of any of the shadowy clique of banking families that are attempting to run the world behind the scenes. in fact, the BIS is seemingly part of a larger elite dominant social theme having to do with the "good gray men" who work in the vineyards of central banking. These men are not to be noticed and thus the idea is perpetuated that they and central banking itself are but minor aspects of the modern financial system. If people want to change the way the system works – and reconfigure the current money system – the BIS itself should be addressed. The BIS has a very low profile, but this belies its importance. Not only does it coordinate central banking policies around the world, it is so important that BIS couriers, by international law as we understand it, are not to be stopped or searched. This alone shows the tremendous power the BIS wields, or rather the Anglosphere power elite that set it up. And the money flows themselves tell a tale about how the financial world really works. Of course, you have to read between the lines ... Lending to banks in developed economies fell $296 billion. Lending to U.K. banks fell $94 billion, while lending to U.S. banks fell $128 billion. Lending to German banks fell $25 billion. By contrast, lending to developing economies rose for the ninth consecutive quarter, by $145 billion. That was a slower expansion than in the first quarter, when lending rose $194 billion. Lending to borrowers in China, including banks, rose $68 billion, to Brazil by $22 billion, and to India by $9 billion. We can see here that BIS movers-and-shakers are quite aware of how capital flows are circulating around the world. They are ebbing in developed economies and flowing toward the BRICs. This means that money shortages will inevitably make the problems of Europe more severe, while additional currency in the BRICs will aggravate price inflation problems. So ... tougher times ahead. Unfortunately, you will not read about such money flows (or the BIS itself) in the mainstream media generally and certainly from a news standpoint. You are far more likely to be educated about Lady Gaga's outfits than on the BIS in today's world. And certainly the powers-that-be like it that way. They would prefer that people are NOT educated about fiat money and central banks, even though it is the world's ubiquitous modern system and a problematic one. Without commodity backing, paper money merely ratchets around the world in search of the highest return. It can be printed in ever larger quantities to maximize "profits" and the BIS supervises this endless inflation. For this reason, as well, the BIS often sends out defensive or warning press releases to ensure that its leadership looks responsible and concerned about the various distortive impacts of money printing. One such release (as part of its annual report) was issued back in June 2011 and summarized by The Australian. Here is part of the article: Age of cheap money must end, warns Bank of International Settlements ... Rising labour costs in emerging countries threaten to set off a global inflationary spiral similar to the one triggered by escalating food prices in the 1970s, the Bank for International Settlements warned today. "Against this backdrop, central banks must remain highly alert to a build-up of inflationary pressures," the bank said in its annual report. Central banks should stay tough against price rises even if this approach would seem to be incongruous with conventional estimates of slack in the domestic economy and price trends, the bank said. "All in all, still we continue to see that monetary policy is too accommodative," but "it doesn't mean we call for raising rates in each country," BIS general manager Jaime Caruana said in response to a journalist's question at a brief media conference concluding the bank's annual general meeting ... Though the situation is different from that in the 1970s, monetary policymakers may confront challenges similar to that era of spiraling prices, the BIS wrote ... The bank also cautioned advanced economies against prolonging the loose monetary policy many deployed during the financial crisis, saying this likely has been an important factor in recent "large capital flows to emerging market economies." Once again, we can see here how the BIS positions itself as a responsible moderator. This is especially ironic as central banks are inflation PRODUCERS. No central bank, no modern money inflation. The BIS and central banks in general don't want people to realize that central banks are the source of the inflation, not the cure. Of course, in the era of the Internet Reformation, this is increasingly difficult. Nearly two years ago we predicted that the Fed and central banking generally were in a great deal of trouble from the standpoint of elite dominant social themes. We argued that the moral case for central banking had collapsed because the Internet had revealed - as mainstream media did not - the sheer outrageousness of how the system really worked. The BIS so far has been immune to criticism because its leadership keeps such a low profile. But it is a central organizing part of the larger problem and we figure sooner or later its turn will come. In asking the question "End the BIS, too?" we are merely prompting examination of the issue by interested parties. Now it is true that we may not have a great deal of clout in the larger scheme of things, but we can certainly work to bring such facilities as the BIS to the fore where others can examine them for themselves. Conclusion: The BIS is indeed big stuff. Because the BIS's influence is so pervasive with at least 100 big central banks around the world, some might consider that global governance is already a fact. Money is the most important factor in social control and central banks print the world's money. This alone should mean that people ought to be paying more attention not just to individual central banks but to the central bankers' bank – the BIS. And to trying to figure out a way to do away with it, or at least moderating its influence. Why on earth do BIS workers apparently have global immunity? That might be a good place to start. www.thedailybell.com/3120/End-the-BIS-Too
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Post by alrich on Oct 21, 2011 12:29:20 GMT -5
Ron Paul: Fed to Blame for Faltering Economy Friday, 21 Oct 2011 08:32 AM
By Julie Crawshaw
Republican Congressman and presidential candidate Ron Paul says that the Federal Reserve is to blame for our faltering economy.
"In many respects the governors of the Federal Reserve System and the members of the Federal Open Market Committee are like all other high-ranking powerful officials," Paul writes in The Wall Street Journal.
"Because they make decisions that profoundly affect the workings of the economy and because they have hundreds of bright economists working for them doing research and collecting data, they buy into the pretense of knowledge — the illusion that because they have all these resources at their fingertips they therefore have the ability to guide the economy as they see fit," the Texas lawmaker wrote. __________________________________________________________
Editor's Note: Exposed: You Owe It to Yourself to Learn What Obama and Bernanke Are Hiding From Americans This gripping Newsmax investigative report reveals the truth about America's economic future and the disastrous path that Obama’s and Bernanke’s reckless policies are taking us down. Watch, learn, and receive a free Survival Guide ($49 value) for your personal financial future. Click Here Now.
__________________________________________________________
"Nothing could be further from the truth. No attitude could be more destructive," Paul wrote.
The Federal Reserve, says Paul, has caused every single boom and bust that has occurred in this country since the bank's creation in 1913.
Ron Paul (Getty Images photo) “It pumps new money into the financial system to lower interest rates and spur the economy,” Paul explains. “Adding new money increases the supply of money, making the price of money over time — the interest rate — lower than the market would make it.”
These lower interest rates affect the allocation of resources, causing capital to be malinvested throughout the economy, making certain projects and ventures that appear profitable when funded at artificially low interest rates are not in fact the best use of those resources.
“If the Fed would stop intervening and distorting the market, and would allow the functioning of a truly free market that deals with profit and loss, our economy could recover,” Paul says.
“The continued existence of an organization that can create trillions of dollars out of thin air to purchase financial assets and prop up a fundamentally insolvent banking system is a black mark on an economy that professes to be free.”
CNN reports that a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) audit says that the Federal Reserve banks need to better prevent conflicts of interest, according to a new government report that highlights transparency issues with financial executives serving on the banks' boards.
All 12 reserve banks should more "clearly document the roles and responsibilities of the (board) directors," the GAO said.
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Post by alrich on Oct 21, 2011 21:34:48 GMT -5
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Post by alrich on Oct 23, 2011 19:56:31 GMT -5
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Post by siriusnews on Oct 23, 2011 20:18:02 GMT -5
nice post Al
Cantor is a loser and now a coward
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Post by alrich on Oct 23, 2011 20:43:45 GMT -5
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Post by alrich on Oct 24, 2011 7:43:34 GMT -5
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Post by alrich on Oct 24, 2011 8:02:08 GMT -5
Banks, FHFA debate how to coordinate 17 mortgage-backed securities suits Jenna GreeneContactAll Articles
The National Law Journal October 20, 2011 Will they hang together or separately? That's the question before the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, where 17 of the world's biggest financial institutions are being sued by the Federal Housing Finance Agency for selling Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac $200 billion worth of sub-par mortgage-backed securities.
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Post by alrich on Oct 24, 2011 8:11:48 GMT -5
2011 China-U.S. Relations Conference kicked off Sunday at Texas A&M University in east central Texas. Former U.S. President George Bush (1st L Front) and Zhang Yesui (2nd L Front), Chinese ambassador to the U.S., attend the opening ceremony of the 2011 China-U.S. Relations Conference, in College Station, the U.S., Oct. 23, 2011. [Photo: Xinhua] Students of Texas A&M University sing the national anthem of China in Chinese language during the opening ceremony of the 2011 China-U.S. Relations Conference, in College Station, the United States, Oct. 23, 2011. english.cri.cn/6909/2011/10/24/1461s664163.htm
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Post by alrich on Oct 24, 2011 9:49:16 GMT -5
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Post by alrich on Oct 24, 2011 9:51:25 GMT -5
GREENSPAN AND BUSH SR. CAUGHT TRADING STOLEN FUNDS STOLEN $12.8 BILLION PAYABLE TO CMKX PER 25 JAN REPORT TRADED ILLEGALLY Thursday 5 March 2009 02:00 GREENSPAN DEFIANTLY TELLS ATTORNEYS: 'NOBODY CAN TOUCH ME'...
... AS HE IS SUPPORTED BY PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA'S INNER CIRCLE:
WHICH MEANS THAT GREENSPAN AND BUSH SR. HAVE PRESIDENTIAL PROTECTION...
REPRESENTING A HUGE ESCALATION OF THE CRISIS FACING OBAMA AND THE REPUBLIC:
GREENSPAN AND SR. SHOULD BE ARRESTED AND PERMANENTLY DETAINED IMMEDIATELY
• OR ELSE: OBAMA CONDONES BRAZEN THEFT AND THE EXPLOITATION OF OTHER PEOPLE'S MONEY FOR PRIVATE GAIN AND PROFITEERING IN TIME OF WAR, OFFENCES THAT DURING WORLD WAR II MEANT PERPETRATORS BEING ARRESTED AND SHOT AT DAWN FOR TREASON.
'THE MONEY THAT YOU MAKE ILLEGALLY USING MY MONEY IS MY MONEY'.
OBAMA ADMINISTRATION SHOWING ITS TRUE FACE AS A CRIMINAL GOVERNMENT
• PLUS: ABOUT $50 BILLION OF THE QUEEN'S MONEY ALLEGEDLY STOLEN PRIOR TO REPATRIATION
•INTERNATIONAL CURRENCY REVIEW, Volume 34, #2: This issue is now well advanced in our print works and will be distributed worldwide soon. As indicated previously and below, it contains three flowcharts which show how the fake 'derivatives' sector represents a gigantic BANKERS' RAMP, how the Paulson TARP operation was designed to reliquefy the likes of Carlyle, Carlyle Capital, George Bush Sr. and other familiar perpetrators, and why ALL derivatives 'products' are frauds – equipped, even, with their own esoteric language, the purpose of which is to prevent ordinary mortals from understanding how these interrelated Ponzi Scheme operations function.
But it is historically true that ALL Ponzi schemes implode sooner of later. What makes the present situation unprecedented in the history of fallen humanity is that (a) what is happening was indeed predicted here long before anyone had ever heard of Roubini, and (b) all the Ponzi operations are interlinked. Hence reports of EIGHT more Ponzi collapses pending in Europe, the panic that is now evident everywhere as it has been realised that hardly any institutions managed to avoid being caught up in the corruption, and the chaotic responses of terrified governments and officials who have not understood the central issue: THE DERIVATIVES ARE FAKE AND HENCE WORTHLESS.
International Currency Review may be ordered direct via this website. To order the forthcoming issue alone, please enter a regular order and ALSO send us an email via the CONTACT US tab to state that you specifically require International Currency Review Volume 34, #2 only. We have to charge a premium for individual issues, as we sell only serials in the normal course of business. On this occasion, we are charging $300 for this issue, incorporating a 50% DONATION mark-up.
All such orders, as with all donations made to assist us with the financing of this research and our necessary exposures, are appreciated and acknowledged by the Editor.
• MADOFF 'VICTIMS' LIST: Two reports were posted on 6th February 2009 containing the entire list of customers of Bernard L. Madoff Securities, Inc.. Because the list is so huge, we divided it into two segments: Clients A-N; and clients O-Z, plus a Miscellaneous Section. See: Archive. Our list is the easiest to load and clearest of the lists that have been reproduced privately on the Internet.
• Globalist hegemony ideology and practice is comprehensively debunked in the Editor's study entitled The New Underworld Order, which can be ordered via the books section of this website. If you want to see what may happen if the angle of decline steepens much further, you could do worse than also order a copy of The Red Terror in Russia, by the brave contemporary Russian eyewitness Sergei Melgounov, another Edward Harle Limited book available direct from this website.
By Christopher Story FRSA, Editor and Publisher, International Currency Review and associated intelligence publications and information services. See this site for details and ordering facility.
• CORRESPONDENCE TO THE EDITOR: We routinely, automatically DELETE all emails which OMIT any element of the requested coordinates. We are not prepared to deal with anonymous spooks and other cowards who are too scared to provide their coordinates, for identification.
• The CONTACT US facility is found in the red box throughout this combined website.
• NEW REPORT STARTS HERE:
On 25th January 2009, we reported as follows [having refreshed your memory, you may wish to skip the earlier text, but it must be displayed first, otherwise what follows won't have context]:
TOP NEW YORK FEDERAL RESERVE OFFICIALS ARRESTED: ROBERT ARMENTA OFFERED CHOICE BETWEEN 25 YEARS IN JAIL IF HE REVEALS ALL HE KNOWS, AND 99 YEARS IN JAIL OTHERWISE The following senior officials of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York were arrested on Friday 23rd January 2009:
• Robert Armenta, Senior Compliance Officer, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, mentioned in our report dated 19th December 2006. On his arrest, Mr Armenta was informed that he would likely be jailed for 25 years if he cooperates and ‘sings’, BUT THAT HE WOULD BE INCARCERATED FOR 99 YEARS IF HE REFUSED.
• Christopher J. McCurdy, Senior Vice President, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, in charge of the payments policy function at the Bank, was also arrested on 23rd January 2009. Mr McCurdy is reported to have destroyed the release codes for the Refunding Programme and Settlement funds, which is specifically why he was arrested. CAN YOU IMAGINE SUCH BEHAVIOUR? Surely, 99 years would not be enough for such criminal sabotage.
EXPOSURE OF A BUSH SR. OPERATION TO STEAL $12.8 BILLION We will now explain in detail how these Fed arrests came to pass, and how the trail exposes an operation masterminded by George Bush Sr. to steal $12.8 billion, which we believe was targeted to provide the Bush ‘Black’ operatives and associates with funds to replenish a depleted ‘bribery pot’ needed, even at this late stage, to corrupt bankers and others at home and abroad.
Specifically, a California-based shareholder of outstanding shares of CMKM Diamonds, Inc. (a Nevada-based corporation traded on the OTC market as CMKX) exposed to us on 18th January 2009 the involvement of a Mr William A Frazell, of Attorneys Frazell & Mosley PLL (Austin, TX), Mr Kevin West (the Chief Executive Officer of CMKX) and Mr Urban Casavant, of Casavant Mining Kimberlite International, in connection with the receipt of over $12 billion being the proceeds of a settlement with CMKM/CMKX, known to the Securities and Exchange Commission following a lawsuit concerning ‘naked short-selling activities’.
The California-based shareholder, who is an Attorney, advised us that CMKM/CMKX was very recently ‘converted out’ from Nevada and moved to Tyler, Texas – a corporate move of which the outstanding registered shareholders, who own more than 800 billion shares, were never legally informed. As noted, the source is a holder of outstanding shares in the Nevada-based corporation.
Our sources confirm that Attorney Frazell, acting for and on behalf of CMKM/CMKX, paid a certain shareholder a sum of money equivalent to $0.02 (two cents in the dollar) per share and that the shareholder was made to sign a non-disclosure document demanded by Attorney Frazell, which allegedly denies any information to the remaining outstanding shareholders.
Non-disclosure documents are essentially illegal and are of no effect, rendering the transaction itself null and void (which is the case anyway, as the payout is fraudulent).
Consequent upon this operation, we were advised that $12.8 billion of Settlement funds are or were initially missing and unaccounted for, while the Attorney, W. A. Frazell, was not cooperating with the other shareholders in any attempt to identify the location of these missing funds. On 20th January 2009, it was confirmed that 639 billion shares were paid out at a price of $0.02 per share, equating to a total payout of $12,780,000,000.
The significance of this detail is that, in an earlier conversation with the authorities, the city of Tyler, Texas had only recently been mentioned in the context of the release of ‘settlement funds’, and in the context of known activities of Bush Sr. associates in Dallas, Austin, and Crawford County, Texas and the relevant background involving Delmarva Timber Trust et al.
The 639 billion shares that were sold short were sold WITH the knowledge of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Under the relevant lawsuit concluded in late 2007, settlement funds were to be paid out to all holders of outstanding CMKM/CMKX shares.
Instead of which Attorney William A. Frazell is reported to us to have taken receipt of the full $12.8 billion in a sham operation in which he signed off illegally on a settlement of $0.02 per share without informing the shareholders. We are advised that these funds were channnelled to the control of a member of the Bush Crime Family operating in Canada.
Specifically, at the direction of George H. W. Bush Sr., these funds were shifted under pretext of a settlement with the knowledge of the SEC from someone else’s account, in typical accordance with the standard Ponzi Scheme model.
The Tyler, TX, Police had to respond immediately because Attorney Frazell had allegedly been contacted by a CMKM Diamonds, Inc. shareholder who happened to be a former agent for the Internal Revenue Service.
The former IRS agent notified Attorney Frazell that the funds had been collected and held by the Despository Trust Clearing Corporation (DTCC) (according to the DTCC), whereupon the former IRS agent was offered a settlement by Frazell; and the non-disclosure document (which is null and void in practice, as the agent will have known) was signed. This information was incorporated with the police complaint report furnished to the Chief of Police in Tyler, Texas.
The DTCC are reported to have separately confirmed that they were and still are, holding funds for the settlement in question.
The Chief of Police in Tyler, TX, was actually notified of this theft/diversion on 22nd January, when documents were submitted to the local police for the purposes of investigation and making the necessary arrests.
• It was as a direct consequence of these developments that Robert Armenta and Christopher J. McCurdy of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, were arrested on 23rd January.
[End of excerpt from our report dated 25th January 2009. NEW INFORMATION:]
STOLEN $12.8 BILLION NEVER RETURNED: IT'S BEING TRADED BY BUSH SR. AND GREENSPAN We have been asked to publicise the following facts concerning the stolen CMKX funds:
• At 11.20pm UK time on 4th March 2009 the Editor was advised that the $12.8 billion that was stolen per the above description has NOT BEEN RESTORED, and that:
• These funds are being traded by Dr. Alan Greenspan (who has been arrested so many times that he couldn't care less), and his 'partner' and fellow world-class criminal, George H. W. Bush Sr.
• All the relevant banking codes and coordinates relating to these trades with the stolen CMKX funds are known and have been presented to law enforcement, which is now required to take immediate action in accordance with their powers of arrest and prosecution.
• Greenspan has informed Attorneys that he intends to continue trading these funds and that 'nobody can touch me' (echoes of the notorious criminal financier Henry M. Paulson Jr.).
• President Obama's inner circle are known to be actively encouraging Dr Greenspan's stance of gross insubordination and defiance of the Rule of Law, with the clear implication that:
• ARCH-CRIMINALS GREENSPAN AND BUSH SR. HAVE PRESIDENTIAL PROTECTION to commit the crimes they are committing with STOLEN FUNDS. These funds were supposed to have been paid out by way of a Court Settlement to certain CMKX recipients, BUT THEY WERE HIJACKED VIA THE CORRUPTION EXPOSED IN OUR REPORT DATE 25TH JANUARY 2009, excerpted above.
OBAMA WHITE HOUSE IS PROTECTING THESE CRIMINALS AND CONDONING THE THEFT Accordingly, it can now be stated that President Obama and his inner circle are not only condoning but appear to be actively encouraging the defiance of Greenspan and Mr Bush Sr. in perpetrating illegal trades with FUNDS THAT HAVE BEEN STOLEN: SEE THE DETAIL SET OUT ABOVE.
Which means that President Obama and key members of his so-called 'Economic Team' (Lawrence Summers, Rahm Emanuel, Leon Panetta, Mrs Hillary Clinton, Timothy Geithner and Vice President Joe Biden, whose authorisation is required before such trades can take place) are all ACTIVE CO-CONSPIRATORS in a theft and in the illegal deployment and trading of STOLEN FUNDS.
Which further means that THE SITUATION IS FAR, FAR WORSE UNDER PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA because the opportunity to clean out this foul nest of scorpions has not only been missed, but the operatives who are now in charge are simply a sub-set from the familiar den of iniquity that has brought the international economy to its present position of near-collapse (the US stock market upswing on 4th March reflecting funds possibly generated out of the STOLEN CMKX MONEY).
• So much for Obama's routine invocation of 'transparency', 'accountability', and the Rule of Law.
ABOUT $50 BILLION OF THE QUEEN'S MONEY ALLEGEDLY STOLEN As previously reported, following the confirmation of the former President of the Reserve Bank of New York, Timothy Geithner, as Treasury Secretary effective 26th January 2009, the owners and lenders of funds totalling $14.0 trillion that had been made available to enable the United States to rectify its chaotic finances by means (in the case of the $6.2 trillion) of transparent Capital Markets transactions in the private sector yielding taxable REVENUE, allowed the White House three days to indicate whether the Obama Administration would now proceed with the on-the-books Refunding Programme that was agreed by the G-7 Financial Powers in 2007 and 2008.
When it became apparent that the Obama White House not only had no intention of doing so, but would be embarking instead upon non-transparent, opaque, off-balance sheet circular financing, contrary to law, creating vast mountains of Treasury debt and using the Obama 'Stimulus Plan' as cover for the re-establishment and invigoration of a coveted self-enrichment Trading Platform, the $14.0 trillion of discretionary real hard cash funds were withdrawn altogether, as we reported.
This information was originally sourced in the United States, but has been independently confirmed to the Editor of this service by British intelligence informants.
What we didn't know until now was that approximately $50 billion of the LOAN funds originally made available via the Bank of England to Bank of New York Mellon on 19-20th June 2007 for placement with the US Treasury Custodial Account system in order to provide the US authorities with a real cash basis to finance the Refunding Program, have been STOLEN or 'are missing'.
The LOAN funds amounted to $6.2 billion, provided mainly by Her Majesty The Queen pro bono Americano atque globalistico publico in conformity with HM The Queen's plea to the G-7 Financial Powers held in northern Germany in June 2007 that the on-the-books Refunding Program should proceed 'for the sake of the whole of humanity'.
Instead of which, the crooks in the Paulson Treasury and the Bush II White House abused the LOAN funds for their own self-enrichment interests, so that the monies were not used for the purpose for which they were intended by the lenders (in the case of the $6.2 trillion) for a period of no less than 19 months. If the United States had not been controlled by organised criminal gangsters during this period, as today, the whole world would have been saved from experiencing the present calamity, and the American people would not be suffering today as they are.
• That is the hideous reality and scope of this scandal.
So, to complete the cycle of criminality, the US crooks have allegedly stolen an estimated $50 billion from The Queen's LOAN funds as well. It is believed that this theft is linked to the Madoff Ponzi operations. No wonder the staged display by Prime Minister Gordon Brown in Washington this week looked so awkward, inappropriate, out of place and faked.
The British Prime Minister was talking out of the wrong side of his mouth: praising the very crooks who are deliberately, knowingly and brazenly CONTINUING WITH THIS FRAUDULENT FINANCE and condoning and PROTECTING a former Chairman of the corrupted US Federal Reserve Board and a notorious ex-President the United States caught red-handed trading STOLEN FUNDS.
Will US law enforcement respond to this latest grotesque display of defiance of the Rule of Law?
'By their actions ye shall know them'.
• FACT: Following submission of documents on 29th December 2008, Pennsylvania Investments, Inc., of which Michael C. Cottrell, B.A., M.S., is the proprietor, was appointed the lead operation to proceed with the approved private sector-based, transparent, on-balance sheet, fully taxable US dollar capital markets trades generating REVENUE, deploying the lenders' funds which had been waiting to be used for that purpose for 19 months, but had instead been illegally leveraged.
These funds, which had been placed into 'lockdown' between 10th and 12th September 2008 on advice, after they had been abused contrary to the lenders' requirements, were finally withdrawn altogether on 29th January 2009, after it had become apparent that Barack Obama was not going to authorise the private sector REVENUE-generating option. Also then withdrawn from US access in tandem was the $7.8 trillion of Chinese sovereign funds, for a total of $14.0 trillion cash.
It is strongly recommended that the delayed REVENUE-generating on-balance sheet capital markets transactions should be implemented from the United Kingdom on the same basis, given that GOOD MONEY pushes out bad money. The REVENUE generated by such operations will be 'good' money because it will be visible, transparent, fully reported, taxed and ON BALANCE SHEET.
By contrast, Government can only generate DEBT. That's why enormous quantities of trash US Treasuries are theoretically to be sold in order to finance Obama's programmes, generating the further debt mountains alluded to above. Choosing the debt route is the WRONG DECISION, as the markets are now confirming. The CORRECT DECISION would be to generate TAXED REVENUE on the books via the private sector capital markets transactions.
By this method, which the G-7 Financial Powers all approved in 2007 and 2008, NO NEW TREASURY DEBT WOULD BE CREATED AT ALL. Simple and straightforward: which is why the G-7 approved it.
LIST OF U.S. STATUTES, SECURITIES REGULATIONS AND LEGAL PRINCIPLES OF WHICH THE CRIMINALISTS, ASSOCIATES AND ALL THE MAIN FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS REMAIN IN BREACH:
LEGAL TUTORIAL: The Steps of Common Fraud:
Step 1: Fraud in the Inducement: “… is intended to and which does cause one to execute an instrument, or make an agreement… The misrepresentation involved does not mislead one as the paper he signs but rather misleads as to the true facts of a situation, and the false impression it causes is a basis of a decision to sign or render a judgment”. Source: Steven H. Gifis, ‘Law Dictionary’, 5th Edition, Happauge: Barron’s Educational Series, Inc., 2003, s.v.: ‘Fraud’.
Step 2: Fraud in Fact by Deceit (Obfuscation and Denial) and Theft:
• “ACTUAL FRAUD. Deceit. Concealing something or making a false representation with an evil intent [scanter] when it causes injury to another…”. Source: Steven H. Gifis, ‘Law Dictionary’, 5th Edition, Happauge: Barron’s Educational Series, Inc., 2003, s.v.: ‘Fraud’.
• “THE TORT OF FRAUDULENT DECEIT… The elements of actionable deceit are: A false representation of a material fact made with knowledge of its falsity, or recklessly, or without reasonable grounds for believing its truth, and with intent to induce reliance thereon, on which plaintiff justifiably relies on his injury…”. Source: Steven H. Gifis, ‘Law Dictionary’, 5th Edition, Happauge: Barron’s Educational Series, Inc., 2003, s.v.: ‘Deceit’.
Step 3: Theft by Deception and Fraudulent Conveyance:
THEFT BY DECEPTION:
• “FRAUDULENT CONCEALMENT… The hiding or suppression of a material fact or circumstance which the party is legally or morally bound to disclose…”.
• “The test of whether failure to disclose material facts constitutes fraud is the existence of a duty, legal or equitable, arising from the relation of the parties: failure to disclose a material fact with intent to mislead or defraud under such circumstances being equivalent to an actual ‘fraudulent concealment’…”.
• To suspend running of limitations, it means the employment of artifice, planned to prevent inquiry or escape investigation and mislead or hinder acquirement of information disclosing a right of action, and acts relied on must be of an affirmative character and fraudulent…”.
Source: Black, Henry Campbell, M.A., 'Black’s Law Dictionary’, Revised 4th Edition, St Paul: West Publishing Company, 1968, s.v. ‘Fraudulent Concealment’.
FRAUDULENT CONVEYANCE:
• “FRAUDULENT CONVEYANCE… A conveyance or transfer of property, the object of which is to defraud a creditor, or hinder or delay him, or to put such property beyond his reach…”.
• “Conveyance made with intent to avoid some duty or debt due by or incumbent or person (entity) making transfer…”.
Source: Black, Henry Campbell, M.A., ‘Black’s Law Dictionary', Revised 4th Edition, St Paul: West Publishing Company, 1968, s.v. ‘Fraudulent Conveyance’.
U.S. SECURITIES REGULATIONS OF WHICH INSTITUTIONS HAVE BEEN SHOWN TO BE IN BREACH [SEE REPORTS]:
• NASD Rule 3120, et al.
• NASD Rule 2330, et al
• NASD Conduct Rules 2110 and 3040
• NASD Conduct Rules 2110 and IM-2110-1
• NASD Conduct Rules 2110 and SEC Rule 15c3-1
• NASD Conduct Rules 2110 and 3110
• SEC Rules 17a-3 and 17a-4
• NASD Conduct Rules 2110 and Procedural Rule 8210
• NASD Conduct Rules 2110 and 2330 and IM-2330
• NASD Conduct Rules 2110 and IM-2110-5
• NASD Systems and Programme Rules 6950 through 6957
• 97-13 Bank Secrecy Act, Recordkeeping Rule for funds transfers and transmittals of funds, et al.
U.S. LAWS ROUTINELY BREACHED BY THE CRIMINAL OPERATIVES AND INSTITUTIONS:
• Annunzio-Wylie Anti-Money Laundering Act
• Anti-Drug Abuse Act
• Applicable international money laundering restrictions
• Bank Secrecy Act
• Conspiracy to commit and cover up murder.
• Crimes, General Provisions, Accessory After the Fact [Title 18, USC]
• Currency and Foreign Transactions Reporting Act
• Economic Espionage Act
• Hobbs Act
• Imparting or Conveying False Information [Title 18, USC]
• Maloney Act
• Misprision of Felony [Title 18, USC] (1)
• Money-Laundering Control Act
• Money-Laundering Suppression Act
• Organized Crime Control Act of 1970
• Perpetration of repeated egregious felonies by State and Federal public employees and their Departments and agencies, which are co-responsible with the said employees for ONGOING illegal and criminal actions, to sustain fraudulent operations and crimes in order to cover up criminalist activities and High Crimes and Misdemeanours by present and former holders of high office under the United States
• Provisions pertaining to private business transactions being protected under both private and criminal penalties [H.R. 3723]
• Provisions prohibiting the bribing of foreign officials [F.I.S.A.]
• Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act [R.I.C.O.]
• Securities Act 1933
• Securities Act 1934
• Terrorism Prevention Act
• Treason legislation, especially in time of war.
• Please be advised that the Editor of International Currency Review and associated intelligence services cannot enter into email correspondence related to this or to any of the earlier reports.
We are a private intelligence publishing house and have no connections to any outside parties including intelligence agencies. The word ‘intelligence’ on this website and in all our marketing material is used for marketing/sales purposes only and has no other connotations whatsoever: see ‘About Us’ on the red panels under the Notes on the Editor, Christopher Story FRSA, who has been solely and exclusively engaged as an investigative journalist, Editor, Author and private financial and current affairs Publisher since 1963 and is not and never has been an agent for a foreign power, suggestions to the contrary being actionable for libel in the English Court.
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Post by alrich on Oct 24, 2011 15:17:44 GMT -5
CMKX BANK TO THE RESCUE: I WISH ! Vatican Calls for ‘Central World Bank’ to Be Set Up October 24th, 2011 11:19 am · Posted in NEWS (Iraq & World Currency) dailycaller.com/2011/10/24/vatican-calls-for-central-world-bank/In a statement Monday, the Vatican called for major reforms in the world financial system, asking for a ”global public authority” to rule over institutions responsible for “inequalities and distortions of capitalist development.” Prepared by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, the 41-page document, entitled “Toward Reforming the International Financial and Monetary Systems in the Context of Global Public Authority,” emphasized the need for a global monetary policy body removed from national interest. The statement even listed specific reforms, including a tax on financial transactions and making bailouts conditional on “virtuous” behavior from banks. Condemning “the idolatry of the market,” the report said the economic downturn “revealed behaviors like selfishness, collective greed and hoarding of goods on a great scale.” In what might have been a reference to Occupy Wall Street, the Vatican warned, “if no solutions are found to the various forms of injustice, the negative effects that will follow on the social, political and economic level will be destined to create a climate of growing hostility and even violence, and ultimately undermine the very foundations of democratic institutions, even the ones considered most solid.” But when the head of the Vatican’s Justice and Peace council was asked if the statement was a veiled endorsement for the anti-capitalist movements that have sprung up around the globe, Cardinal Peter Turkson would not name names, though he did not distance the Holy See from the protesters’ gripes. “The people on Wall Street need to sit down and go through a process of discernment and see whether their role managing the finances of the world is actually serving the interests of humanity and the common good. “We are calling for all these bodies and organizations to sit down and do a little bit of re-thinking.” The report quoted the social teachings of several popes, including Benedict XVI’s encyclical “Caritas in Veritate,” which professed “an urgent need of a true world political authority,” and delved into such un-theological subjects as cyber liberties and intellectual property reform. Still, the council’s urging for a ”minimum shared body of rules to manage the global financial market” and “some form of global monetary management” mark a significant transition in tone from the Vatican. Read more: dailycaller.com/2011/10/24/vatican-calls-for-central-world-bank/#ixzz1bjSMGFNSThe Vatican called on Monday for the establishment of a “global public authority” and a “central world bank” to rule over financial institutions that have become outdated and often ineffective in dealing fairly with crises. A major document from the Vatican’s Justice and Peace department should be music to the ears of the “Occupy Wall Street” demonstrators and similar movements around the world who have protested against the economic downturn. The 18-page document, “Towards Reforming the International Financial and Monetary Systems in the Context of a Global Public Authority,” was at times very specific, calling, for example, for taxation measures on financial transactions. “The economic and financial crisis which the world is going through calls everyone, individuals and peoples, to examine in depth the principles and the cultural and moral values at the basis of social coexistence,” it said. theiraqidinar.com/2011/10/24/vatican-calls-for-central-world-bank-to-be-set-up/
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Post by siriusnews on Oct 24, 2011 15:56:33 GMT -5
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Post by alrich on Oct 24, 2011 20:04:50 GMT -5
Ginger Gutierrez Motion Oct 24 2011 Case 2:09-cr-00132-RLH -RJJ Document 166 Filed 10/24/11 Page 1 of 3 1 CHRIS T. RASMUSSEN, ESQ. Nevada Bar 7149 2 RASMUSSEN & KANG rd 3 330 South 3 Street, Suite 1010 Las Vegas, Nevada 89101 4 (702) 464-6007 5 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 6 7 DISTRICT OF NEVADA * * * 8 9 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, ) ) 10 Plaintiff, ) 2:09-CR-00132-RLH-RJJ ) 11 v. ) MOTION TO COMPEL DISCOVERY 12 GINGER GUTIERREZ, ) PRODUCTION AT GOVERNMENT ) EXPENSE 13 ) Defendant. ) 14 ) ________________________________) 15 16 Defendant, GINGER GUTIERREZ, by and through his attorney, CHRIS T. 17 RASMUSSEN, ESQ., respectfully moves this Honorable Court for an Order requiring 18 Case 2:09-cr-00132-RLH -RJJ Document 166 Filed 10/24/11 Page 2 of 3 1 MEMORANDUM OF POINTS AND AUTHORITES 2 On February 8, 2011, Defendant Gutierrez filed a similar motion requesting 3 disclosure of items that were in the possession of the Securities and Exchange 4 Commission (SEC). At that time, the government prosecutors were not in possession 5 6 of these items. It was agreed that the parties would wait until the government had the 7 opportunity to recover the 107 boxes of information gathered in the investigation of 8 CMKM and the individuals indicted. 9 The government made the 107 documents available inside a small room within 10 the Foley Federal Building. All defense counsel were provided the opportunity to review 11 the discovery. 12 13 On October 17, 2011, this counsel alongside our court appointed paralegal, 14 investigator, computer technician, and copy vendor Legal Document Group (LDG) 15 attempted to review the documents with the index provided by the government. 16 It became apparent that it would be almost impossible to compare the additional 17 107 boxes with the hundreds of thousands of pages of discovery already disclosed. 18 19 After reviewing the first box, we discovered multimedia video and audio that we did not 20 have in our possession along with many pages of documents. Each box that was 21 reviewed appeared to contain new information. 22 LDG informed us that the best way to compare the new items with our current 23 population of discovery would be a digital comparison. (See attached proposal). 24 The issue that presents itself is which party should bare the cost of production. 25 26 The government cannot verify what items are new. The government will declare that 27 many of the boxes have information that is not relevant to this case. However, all of the 28 Case 2:09-cr-00132-RLH -RJJ Document 166 Filed 10/24/11 Page 3 of 3 1 documents were produced as part of the investigation by the SEC in pursuit of the 2 indicted individuals in this case. 3 The burden of production must fall upon the government as the SEC gathered 4 these items in their investigation of those indicted in this case. The documents are 5 6 being secured under FBI escort within a federal building that will make it more difficult to 7 collect the new data. 8 9 Based on the above reasons, we respectfully request that the Government bear 10 the production and cost of duplication. 11 Respectfully submitted 12 13 14 /s/ Chris T. Rasmussen 15 ____________________________ CHRIS THOMAS RASMUSSEN Nevada Bar 7149 16 RASMUSSEN & KANG rd 17 330 South 3 Street, Suite 1010 Las Vegas, Nevada 89101 18 (702) 464-6007 Read more: qbidtalk.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=8534#ixzz1bkdJ9Ict
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Post by alrich on Oct 24, 2011 20:11:45 GMT -5
INTERESTING NOTATION: 19 After reviewing the first box, we discovered multimedia video and audio that we did not
20 have in our possession along with many pages of documents. Each box that was
21 reviewed appeared to contain new information.
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Post by alrich on Oct 24, 2011 20:39:15 GMT -5
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Post by alrich on Oct 25, 2011 8:38:41 GMT -5
I smell a conspiracy, GS case moved out to March 5, 2012 and now this: October 24, 2011> 11:14 AM PT Website Shut Down After Defamation Suit By DARRYL GREER www.courthousenews.com/2011/10/24/BCMoney.pdf VANCOUVER, B.C. (CN) - A penny stock promoter claims former Columbia Journalism Review editor Mark Mitchell and Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne defamed him in an Internet report that linked him to al Qaeda. A judge ordered the website shut down, The Province newspaper reported. Altaf Nazerali claims that Mitchell and Byrne falsely portrayed him as a criminal, an arms dealer and a drug dealer with links to terrorist organizations, on the deepcapture.com website, which is "principally authored" by Mitchell. Nazerali says the defamatory report was part of the defendants' crusade against illegal short selling. The Internet posts also falsely accused him of running fraudulent pump and dump schemes and other market manipulations, Nazerali says in his complaint in British Columbia Supreme Court. Nazerali says the Deep Capture website is run by Mitchell and Byrne and aims to expose "wrongdoing and unsavoury individuals in the stock and financial markets." He claims that several "chapters" on the site, written by Mitchell or Byrne, mentioned him by name and falsely linked him to Al Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden, the Pakistani intelligence service and the Russian Mafia. "The defamatory statements were motivated by express malice of the defendants Mitchell and Byrne, arising from the known publication of falsehoods, continued publication of falsehoods after notification of their falsity, and the treatment of the plaintiff as an 'enemy' in the campaign led by Byrne and Mitchell to seek revenge on people they believe, falsely in the case of the plaintiff, to have engaged in illegal short selling," the complaint states. Defendants include Deep Capture LLC, High Plains Investments LLC, Godaddy.com., Nozone Inc. dba Steadfast Networks, Google and Google Canada Corp. Google was accused of providing links to the defamatory content. The Province newspaper reported that a judge granted an injunction, shutting down the website, on Oct. 19, the day the complaint was filed. The website appears to have been stripped of all its content. Nazerali is represented by Daniel Burnett with Owen Bird Law Corp.
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Post by alrich on Oct 25, 2011 10:00:47 GMT -5
EU finance ministers cancel Wednesday meeting October 25, 2011 BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union finance ministers have canceled a meeting set for Wednesday but the summit of EU leaders and of the euro zone leaders will proceed as normal, an EU spokesman said on Tuesday.
The EU finance ministers meeting, known as an Ecofin, was canceled because the details of issues to be discussed at the meeting have not been finalized, sources told Reuters.
Poland, which holds the rotating EU presidency until the end of the year, is responsible for organizing Ecofins and was responsible for deciding to cancel Wednesday's meeting.
Euro zone financial officials will still meet ahead of the summit, the EU spokesman said, and Ecofin may also meet in the coming days to work on the details of whatever euro zone leaders agree on Wednesday night.
"Ministers of finance may meet in the coming days to fine-tune decisions that will be taken tomorrow," said the spokesman for Herman Van Rompuy, the European Council president. "There is no new summit planned."
EU leaders will meet tomorrow to finalize details of a plan to tackle the debt crisis, including proposals for steeper losses for owners of Greek bonds, a recapitalization of European banks and extending the firepower of the 440 billion euro European Financial Stability Facility.
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Post by alrich on Oct 25, 2011 12:52:43 GMT -5
UPDATE 3-UBS fined in U.S. over improper short-sales inShare.1Share thisEmailPrintRelated NewsUBS salvages Q3 profit with one-off gain 12:25pm EDT UPDATE 7-UBS salvages Q3 profit with one-off gain 10:31am EDT Citigroup to pay $285 million to settle fraud case Wed, Oct 19 2011 Goldman posts quarterly loss, investments sink Tue, Oct 18 2011 BP gets $4 billion from Anadarko for oil spill costs Mon, Oct 17 2011Analysis & OpinionIs the SEC colluding with banks on CDO prosecutions? ETFs: An overview and discussion of recent issues Related TopicsStocks » Bonds News » Bonds » Markets » Tue Oct 25, 2011 12:22pm EDT
* Probably "tens of millions" of orders improper - FINRA
* "Broad, systemic failures" alleged
* "Naked" short sales a concern, more FINRA cases expected
* UBS says pleased to settle, improves oversight
By Jonathan Stempel
Oct 25 (Reuters) - In the largest penalty of its type, Swiss bank UBS AG was fined $12 million by a U.S. brokerage regulator over its "systemic" failure to properly handle millions of short-sale orders.
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority said violations by the bank's UBS Securities LLC broker-dealer unit caused the orders to be mismarked or filled without reasonable grounds to believe the underlying securities could be located.
In short sales, investors sell securities they do not own, hoping the prices will fall so they can repurchase the securities later at the lower price, repay the lender and pocket the difference as profit. Regulators fear that abuses can distort markets, and accelerate declines in share prices.
FINRA said UBS's violations lasted from 2005 to 2010, and that the bank likely processed "tens of millions" of short sale orders for equities and exchange-traded funds improperly.
Many problems were not detected until FINRA's probe caused UBS to review its systems, the brokerage regulator said.
"Broad, systemic failures is the best way to describe it," Brad Bennett, FINRA's chief of enforcement, said in an interview. "The fine reflects the gaps in the system that we found. We didn't identify any specific delivery failures, but that could means the bank just got lucky."
UBS spokesman Christiaan Brakman said the bank was pleased to settle, and has made a "substantial investment" to improve its systems and oversight. It did not admit wrongdoing in agreeing to settle, and also accepted a censure. FINRA said the fine was reduced to reflect UBS' "substantial assistance."
"NAKED" SHORT-SALE ABUSES FEARED
FINRA said UBS violated Regulation SHO, a rule imposed in 2005 by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to thwart abusive "naked" short selling, and ensure that brokerages can deliver shares on short-sale transactions they process.
Naked short sales occur when investors sell short without first borrowing the underlying shares or making sure they can be borrowed.
While the practice is not always illegal in the United States, the SEC has taken steps to limit abuse, including during the 2008 financial crisis when it restricted short sales of some financial stocks.
In July 2009, the SEC adopted a rule requiring that "fails to deliver" in all equity securities be promptly closed out.
"If there were failures to deliver, short selling would have the ability to affect the market, especially in hard-to-borrow, thinly traded stocks," Bennett said.
In the last two years, FINRA has fined Deutsche Bank AG $575,000, Milwaukee-based Robert W. Baird & Co $900,000 and Boston-based National Financial Services Inc $350,000 for Regulation SHO violations over their handling of short-sale orders. None admitted wrongdoing.
Bennett said FINRA will bring more enforcement cases over Regulation SHO and short sales. The independent regulator oversees nearly 4,500 brokerages.
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Post by alrich on Oct 26, 2011 10:23:41 GMT -5
Taibbi: Occupy Wall Street Aimed at WS Corruption NOT Money or Banking Wednesday, October 26, 2011 – by Staff Report OWS's Beef: Wall Street Isn't Winning It's Cheating ... All weekend I was thinking about this "jealousy" question, and I just kept coming back to all the different ways the game is rigged. "Dude," I said. "These people aren't protesting money. They're not protesting banking. They're protesting corruption on Wall Street." ... When you take into consideration all the theft and fraud and market manipulation and other evil s--t Wall Street bankers have been guilty of in the last ten-fifteen years, you have to have balls like church bells to trot out a propaganda line that says the protesters are just jealous of their hard-earned money. People aren't jealous and they don't want privileges. They just want a level playing field, and they want Wall Street to give up its cheat codes. – Rolling Stone/Matt Taibbi
Dominant Social Theme: Occupy Wall Street is a revolutionary force sweeping the country, tearing down whatever is unjust and replacing it with fairness.
Free-Market Analysis: Occupy Wall Street is a populist movement, not a radical one. The powers-that-be are trying their best to position it this way in our view – in opposition to the anti-government Tea Party. This has significant ramifications not only for the movement but for the US economy and for the West in general.
Matt Taibbi's perspective as explained in this post (excerpted above) at RollingStone.com provides us with this insight regarding populism, one we have mentioned numerous times before. Taibbi more than almost anyone has created an upswell of indignation against Wall Street similar to that which occurred back in the 1930s. By focusing people on retribution and envy, larger issues such as central banking and the money system itself remain unscathed. These sorts of article would seem to support that process.
We should note that OWS is a diverse movement and one increasingly factionalized. We learn from Huffington Post and other publications, for instance that today, Wednesday, OWS demands may be formulated that will actually be formal in nature. If this actually takes place, we wonder how comprehensive they may be. The populism surrounding OWS is disconcerting. It is of course, a tool, a kind of dominant social theme.
If popular anger is properly controlled and channeled then the impact of the Internet itself and the emergent clarity of its truth-telling can be mitigated, or that is the hope of the elites encouraging such populism. Change can be absorbed and the system can continue on as it is. The goal in our view is world governance, a scientific system run by a handful of good gray men reporting to the great central banking families and their enablers and associates.
The Internet, however, has put world government at risk and likely changed the plans of the Anglosphere elites behind the move. They have begun to be far more aggressive in terms of domestic policing and military activity. What cannot be gained via the elite's endless fear-based promotions is apparently to be won by force.
The elites, of course, will not give up on their memes. These tools frighten the middle class into giving up power and wealth to carefully crafted globalist solutions. They are not working nearly as well in the 21st century as the 20th.
We can see first in the Tea Party movement and now in OWS that there is genuine anger out there and skepticism about the current Western promotion of so-called civil society. Europe is suffering from the same sort of conditions, with many of Europe's tribes beginning to rebel against the inefficient and exploitative euro (as we previously predicted).
For the elites, the necessity is to control this growing anger by any means possible. In the US, this means recasting it within the mold of the right-left Hegelian dialectic. This is an old elitist trick and is carried out to ensure that radical sentiments are properly managed. First, one manipulates a popular movement in a particular direction (the Tea Party). Then one sets up a controlled opposition (Occupy Wall Street).
Now one is in position to create dissension between the two sides. The anti-government Tea Party and anti-business Wall Street will be set upon each other by the mainstream media. Angry people will be invited to take sides. They may either be anti-government or anti-business and eventually, by various means, a resolution between the two sides shall "evolve."
What will occur is inevitably a compromise whereby government shall be made more efficient (or seemingly so) and business (Wall Street) shall be increasingly regulated to ameliorate abuses. This is to be seen as a very clever trick!
How is it a trick? Because it leaves the modern capitalist system IN EXACTLY THE SAME PLACE as it is now. A massive government (reformed) is supervising a massive (mercantilist) financial industry (also reformed). The net result of the next umpteen weeks, months, years, etc. will be exactly nothing.
Of course, as we've pointed out, this Hegelian trick may be less effective this time around. People are genuinely angry and the Internet Reformation is rapidly spreading the reality of that frustration. What starts as controlled rebellion can easily spread into something far more unmanageable that gives rise to genuine change.
Into this maelstrom step people like Matt Taibbi and others – those whose job it is one way or another (self-appointed or not) to give voice to mass frustration in such a way as to steer it toward the dialectic formula.
Taibbi, a brilliant writer and social commentator, is very good at this sort of thing. Also, as we are not trying to cast aspersions here, we should state it is perfectly possible he believes in the solutions he offers. That makes his arguments even more convincing. Those who believe in their own positions are more credible than those who don't.
For whatever reason, Taibbi has been helping formulate goals for Occupy Wall Street almost since the beginning. As OWS members maintain that the movement itself is a radical reshaping of society, people like Taibbi can provide whatever rationale they wish without much fear of contradiction.
Taibbi's comments, as we have covered previously, amount to suggesting that OWS is a movement calling for higher taxes and more government regulation. In the recent past we have covered announcements by various OWS-affiliated groups and leaders that OWS should seek a global transaction tax (UN-style, perhaps) and a US constitutional convention to de-personalize corporations. OWS leaders like David DeGraw are also spearheading efforts to prosecute Wall Street "banksters" using the FBI and the US justice system.
As Taibbi has now come out and stated, OWS is not really a radical movement at all from his perspective. It is surely not a libertarian one, or even anti-war. It simply wants to use the awesome, vicious and congenitally corrupt power of the US Leviathan to punish rich Wall Street types for taking advantage of a system that has essentially been set up for them over the past century. The public's perspective of OWS seems to be a good deal more radical than the reality.
Why is this important? Because people in the US and throughout the West are increasingly fed up with the economic and sociopolitical system as it is and are searching for answers. OWS seems to provide them with these answers. But what OWS actually provides, according to Taibbi himself, is populism and more populism. Here's the conclusion to his article:
We have a massive police force in America that outside of lower Manhattan prosecutes crime and imprisons citizens with record-setting, factory level efficiency, eclipsing the incarceration rates of most of history's more notorious police states and communist countries. But the bankers on Wall Street don't live in that heavily-policed country.
There are maybe 1000 SEC agents policing that sector of the economy, plus a handful of FBI agents. There are nearly that many police officers stationed around the polite crowd at Zucotti park. These inequities are what drive the OWS protests.
People don't want handouts. It's not a class uprising and they don't want civil war – they want just the opposite. They want everyone to live in the same country, and live by the same rules. It's amazing that some people think that that's asking a lot.
We can see from Matt Taibbi's statements that central banking, the corrupt US judicial system and many other facets of Leviathan including the political system itself are not the priority of OWS from his point of view. Only flagellating the banksters. As brilliant and sincere as Taibbi may be, such a narrow focus would seem to provide us with evidence that this is a manipulated "populist" movement not a genuine groundswell of indignation at the way the world currently works. In fact, it may have started that way, but it is not now.
Conclusion: Libertarians might consider leaving OWS, as we have mentioned before, to try to push for real reforms of the system in another way using another platform. There will be, eventually, significant unrest in the US, as elsewhere in the world. But if we are correct in our analysis, much of this unrest may escape the control of the elites evidently and obviously behind OWS. This is their attempt at creating controlled social upheaval. The real thing may be yet to come.
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Post by alrich on Oct 26, 2011 14:52:28 GMT -5
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT DISTRICT OF NEVADA SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION, )) Plaintiff, ) Case No. 2:09-cv-00104-LDG-GWF ) vs. ) ORDER ) MARCO GLISSON, )) Defendant. ) __________________________________________) The Court conducted a settlement conference in the above case on October 25, 2011. No settlement was reached, and therefore the case will continue on the normal litigation track. The case was set for trial on November 14, 2011; however, that trial date will be continued until a date in early 2012. In anticipation of trial, both Plaintiff and Defendant filed several motions. On October 12, 2011, Defendants filed a Motion to Bifurcate (#76), a Motion to Stay (#77), and a Motion to Preclude Introduction of All Evidence Pertaining to Glisson’s Post 2007 Activities (#78). On October 14, 2011, Plaintiff filed a Motion in Limine to Exclude at Trial Testimony of Certain Witnesses that Were not Disclosed During Discovery (#79) and a Motion in Limine to Admit Bank Records into Evidence (#80). Currently, Plaintiff’s responses are due on October 29, 2011, and Defendant’s responses are due on October 31, 2011. For the ease of all parties involved, the Court will grant both Defendant and Plaintiff an additional thirty (30) days from October 31, 2011 to respond to the above referenced motions. Therefore, any responses will be due no later than November 30, 2011, and replies will be due no later than December 12, 2011. Accordingly, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the time for response to Defendant’s Motion to Bifurcate(#76), Motion to Stay (#77), and Motion to Preclude Introduction of All Evidence Pertaining to Glisson’s Post 2007 Activities (#78), and Plaintiff’s Motion in Limine to Exclude at Trial Testimony of Certain Witnesses that Were not Disclosed During Discovery (#79) and Motion in Limine to Admit Bank Records into Evidence (#80) shall be extended thirty (30) days from October 31, 2011. Responses will therefore be due no later than November 30, 2011, and replies will be due no later than December 12, 2011. DATED this 25th day of October, 2011. GEORGE FOLEY, JR. 28United States Magistrate Judge Read more: qbidtalk.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=8540#ixzz1bv3qiCX1
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Post by siriusnews on Oct 26, 2011 23:27:11 GMT -5
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Post by alrich on Oct 27, 2011 14:23:53 GMT -5
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Before the SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 Release No. 65643 / October 27, 2011 ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEEDING File No. 3-14605 In the Matter of FINANCIAL INDUSTRY REGULATORY AUTHORITY, INC., Respondent. ORDER INSTITUTING CEASE-AND-DESIST PROCEEDINGS PURSUANT TO SECTION 21C OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934, MAKING FINDINGS, AND IMPOSING A CEASE-AND-DESIST ORDER I. The Securities and Exchange Commission (“Commission”) deems it appropriate that cease-and-desist proceedings be, and hereby are, instituted pursuant to Section 21C of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (“Exchange Act”) against the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc. (“FINRA” or “Respondent”). II. In anticipation of the institution of these proceedings, Respondent has submitted an Offer of Settlement (the “Offer”) which the Commission has determined to accept. Solely for the purpose of these proceedings and any other proceedings brought by or on behalf of the Commission, or to which the Commission is a party, and without admitting or denying the findings herein, except as to the Commission’s jurisdiction over FINRA and the subject matter of these proceedings, which are admitted, Respondent consents to the entry of this Order Instituting Cease-and-Desist Proceedings Pursuant to Section 21C of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, Making Findings, and Imposing a Cease-and-Desist Order (“Order”), as set forth below. 2 III. On the basis of this Order and Respondent’s Offer, the Commission finds1 that: Summary These proceedings arise out of FINRA’s production of altered documents in response to a document request made by the Commission’s Chicago Regional Office inspection staff (“the Commission inspection staff”). Specifically, on August 7, 2008, the Director of FINRA’s Kansas City District Office (“the Director”) caused the alteration of three records of staff meeting minutes just hours before producing them to the Commission inspection staff, making them inaccurate and incomplete. The Director’s misconduct is the third instance during an eight year period in which a FINRA employee, or an employee of its predecessor, the National Association of Securities Dealers, Inc. (“NASD”), provided altered or misleading documents to the Commission. Although FINRA has endeavored to improve its procedures and training since document integrity issues came to light in May 2006 and December 2007, those efforts were not effective in preventing the Director’s misconduct. Respondent FINRA, located in Washington, DC, is a national securities association registered with the Commission pursuant to Section 15A of the Exchange Act. It was created on July 30, 2007 through the consolidation of NASD and the member regulation, enforcement and arbitration functions of the New York Stock Exchange (“NYSE”). As a registered association, FINRA has the statutory obligation to comply with the Exchange Act and to enforce compliance by its members with the Exchange Act and its own rules. It is the largest independent regulator of securities firms doing business with the public in the United States. As of December 31, 2010, FINRA oversaw nearly 4,600 brokerage firms, approximately 163,000 branch offices and almost 631,000 registered securities representatives. Other Relevant Entities NASD, formerly located in Washington, DC, was a national securities association registered with the Commission pursuant to Section 15A of the Exchange Act until it was consolidated with the member regulation, enforcement and arbitration operations of the NYSE to form FINRA in July 2007. 1 The findings herein are made pursuant to Respondent's Offer of Settlement and are not binding on any other person or entity in this or any other proceeding. 3 Facts FINRA Fails to Furnish Complete and Accurate Records On July 28, 2008, FINRA’s Kansas City District Office received a document request from the Commission inspection staff. The request related to a previously announced inspection of FINRA’s Kansas City District Office, which is responsible for conducting FINRA’s regulatory programs in seven states. Item 36 of the document request letter asked for “Minutes of District staff meetings conducted between November 1, 2005 and the present.” On August 7, 2008—hours before furnishing the Commission inspection staff with FINRA’s response to Item 36—the Director caused the minutes for meetings that took place on August 28, 2006, September 22, 2006 and January 31, 2007 to be altered. Specifically, certain information was deleted or edited, while in other instances, entire passages were removed or changed. With respect to all three altered documents, the original author’s signature was changed to the Director’s. FINRA Alerts the Commission Staff To Document Integrity Issues in Kansas City Inspection FINRA learned of the Kansas City District’s document integrity issues through a whistleblower complaint submitted on June 11, 2010. Using FINRA’s EthicsPoint System, an anonymous individual alleged that the Director instructed another FINRA employee to alter Staff Meeting Minutes before they were burned to a CD and provided to the Commission in connection with an oversight inspection of the District Office. Within days of receiving the complaint, FINRA initiated an internal investigation led by its Internal Audit staff. Also, FINRA’s Internal Audit staff verbally communicated the whistleblower allegations to FINRA’s Audit Committee on July 13, 2010. Based on Internal Audit’s findings, the Director tendered his resignation from FINRA on September 20, 2010. That same day, FINRA sent a letter notifying staff from the Commission’s Chicago Regional Office and its Division of Enforcement about the Director’s conduct. Internal Audit reported the results of its investigation to FINRA’s Audit Committee on September 21, 2010. FINRA’s Internal Guidance on Document Integrity FINRA employees have produced altered or misleading documents to Commission inspection staff on three separate occasions over the past eight years. In one instance during 2004, an NASD director misled Commission examiners by providing misdated or otherwise altered documents. In a separate, unrelated instance in 2005, misleading documents, purportedly intended for internal-use only, were produced to a Commission inspection team. NASD took corrective actions to address these specific failures prior to NASD’s consolidation with certain regulatory functions of the NYSE to form FINRA in July 2007. In 4 addition, FINRA cooperated with the Commission staff investigating FINRA’s document integrity problems and implemented improved procedures and training related to document integrity. Notwithstanding these improvements, the Commission finds that FINRA has not ensured the integrity of documents provided to the Commission, as demonstrated by the Kansas City Director causing the alteration of three records just hours before FINRA produced them to Commission inspection staff, rendering them inaccurate and incomplete. Violation of Section 17(a)(1) of the Exchange Act and Exchange Act Rule 17a-1 As a result of the conduct described above, FINRA violated Section 17(a)(1) of the Exchange Act and Exchange Act Rule 17a-1. Section 17(a)(1) of the Exchange Act requires a national securities association such as FINRA to make and keep for prescribed periods such records, and to furnish such copies thereof, as the Commission by rule prescribes as necessary or appropriate in the public interest, for the protection of investors, or for other purposes set forth in the Exchange Act. Exchange Act Rule 17a-1(a) requires a national securities association to keep and preserve at least one copy of all correspondence, records, and other documents made or received by it in the course of its business as such and in the conduct of its self-regulatory activity. Rule 17a-1(c) requires a national securities association promptly to furnish the Commission with a copy of any such document that the Commission requests. The requirement that a national securities association keep and furnish records to the Commission includes the requirement that those records be complete and accurate. The preparation, maintenance and furnishing of complete and accurate records are essential to the proper functioning of a national securities association as a self-regulatory organization. As described above, FINRA failed to keep and furnish complete and accurate records made or received by it in the course of its business as such and in the conduct of its self-regulatory activity. FINRA’s Remedial Efforts In determining to accept the Offer, the Commission considered remedial acts promptly undertaken by Respondent and cooperation afforded the Commission staff. Undertakings Respondent FINRA has undertaken to: A. Provide training to all of its employees outlining past document integrity issues, which will incorporate a fact scenario based upon the Kansas City conduct, and emphasize FINRA’s zero-tolerance policy regarding the alteration of documents. B. Develop a podcast on document integrity to be shown to all current staff and to all new employees upon hiring. 5 C. Address directly the importance of document integrity at a company-wide town hall meeting, annual regulatory meetings, and during Senior Management onsite visits to all district offices. D. Require senior members of its Office of Liaison and Counsel to meet in-person or remotely with every business unit scheduled for an on-site exam prior to the production of documents to the Commission to emphasize the importance of document integrity. E. Engage an Independent Consultant (the “Consultant”), not unacceptable to the Commission, within thirty (30) days of the issuance of this Order. i. FINRA will require the Consultant to: (1) conduct a one-time comprehensive review of FINRA’s policies and procedures and training relating to document integrity; (2) assess whether the policies and procedures and training are reasonably designed and implemented to ensure the integrity of documents provided to the Commission; and (3) make recommendations for the enhancement of FINRA’s policies and procedures and training as may be necessary in light of the Consultant’s review and assessment. ii. FINRA will require the Consultant to submit a report of his/her findings and recommendations (the “Report”) to the FINRA Board within three (3) months of the Consultant’s engagement. Within thirty (30) days of receiving the Report, the FINRA Board will adopt all recommendations made by the Consultant, subject to Section E.iii below, and take steps necessary to commence implementation of all such recommendations. FINRA will direct the Consultant to provide promptly copies of the Report to the Commission’s Deputy Director of Enforcement. iii. Within thirty (30) days of receiving the Report, the FINRA Board may notify the Consultant, in writing, of any recommendation(s) that it considers to be unduly burdensome or impractical with an explanation of why the recommendation is unduly burdensome or impractical. The FINRA Board and the Consultant shall attempt in good faith to reach an agreement on an alternative recommendation that is reasonably designed to accomplish the same objectives as the recommendation in question. If an agreement is reached, FINRA will direct the Consultant to amend his/her recommendation(s), reissue the Report within fifteen (15) days of reaching an agreement, and the FINRA Board shall adopt the Consultant’s recommendation(s) within thirty (30) days of receiving the amended Report. In the event that the FINRA Board and the Consultant are unable to agree on an alternative recommendation within forty five (45) days of the FINRA Board’s written notification, the Consultant’s recommendation shall be binding and the FINRA Board shall adopt the Consultant’s original recommendation(s) within thirty (30) days. 6 iv. Within nine (9) months of the FINRA Board’s receipt of the Consultant’s Report, or receipt of the Consultant’s amended Report if applicable under Section E.iii above, FINRA will certify in writing to the Commission’s Deputy Director of Enforcement that all of the Consultant’s recommendations adopted by the FINRA Board have been implemented or, if the Consultant determines that any recommendation cannot be implemented within nine (9) months, will be implemented within the period specified by the Consultant. v. FINRA shall require the Consultant to enter into an agreement that provides that for the period of engagement and for a period of two years from completion of the engagement, the Consultant shall not enter into any employment, consultant, attorney-client, auditing or other professional relationship with FINRA, or any of its present or former affiliates, directors, officers, employees, or agents acting in their capacity. The agreement will also provide that the Consultant will require that any firm with which he/she is affiliated or of which he/she is a member, and any person engaged to assist the Consultant in performance of his/her duties under this Order shall not, without prior written consent of the Commission’s Deputy Director of Enforcement, enter into any employment, consultant, attorney-client, auditing or other professional relationship with FINRA, or any of its present or former affiliates, directors, officers, employees, or agents acting in their capacity as such for the period of the engagement and for a period of two years after the engagement. vi. FINRA shall expend sufficient funds to permit the Consultant to discharge all of their duties, including, but not limited to, providing adequate funds for the retention of outside counsel and/or professionals. F. Certify, in writing, compliance with the undertaking(s) set forth above. The certification shall identify the undertaking(s), provide written evidence of compliance in the form of a narrative, and be supported by exhibits sufficient to demonstrate compliance. The Commission staff may make reasonable requests for further evidence of compliance, and Respondent agrees to provide such evidence. The certification and supporting material shall be submitted to the Commission’s Deputy Director of Enforcement, with a copy to the Office of Chief Counsel of the Commission’s Enforcement Division, no later than sixty (60) days from the date of the completion of the undertakings. 7 IV. In view of the foregoing, the Commission deems it appropriate to impose the sanctions agreed to in Respondent FINRA’s Offer. Accordingly, pursuant to Section 21C of the Exchange Act, it is hereby ORDERED that: A. Respondent FINRA shall cease and desist from committing or causing any violations and any future violations of Section 17(a) of the Exchange Act and Rule 17a-1 thereunder; and B. Respondent FINRA shall comply with its undertakings as enumerated in Section III above. By the Commission. Elizabeth M. Murphy Secretary www.sec.gov/litigation/admin/2011/34-65643.pdf
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