March 2023 - cypherpunks - lists.cpunks.org

First Republic: Meet the Bank at the Center of the Michael Cohen Scandal
by Gunnar Larson 22 Mar '23

22 Mar '23

https://wallstreetonparade.com/2018/05/first-republic-meet-the-bank-at-the-… It’s about a six-minute drive from Donald Trump’s luxurious Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida to the palm-lined street where First Republic Bank has a branch to service the super wealthy. It is not known if Donald Trump has an account at this branch, but according to Trump’s Federal financial disclosure report, he maintains a checking account at First Republic Bank. Unfortunately for Trump, Michael Cohen, his personal attorney, also maintains an account with First Republic Bank. Cohen had his home, office, hotel room and safety deposit box raided by the FBI on April 9 and has been the subject of titillating news reporting every evening since over his wire of $130,000 as hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels, who alleges an affair with Trump. The wire was sent from Cohen’s Essential Consultants LLC account at First Republic Bank. It would not be surprising this morning if everyone from the CEO on down at First Republic Bank wanted to erase the names Cohen and Trump from their memory banks. The stock of First Republic Bank is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange. The bank caters, almost exclusively, to the super wealthy. The Wall Street Journal reported in 2016 that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, worth $72.5 billion today according to Forbes, is a client at First Republic Bank. The bank’s business model of opening branches in tony towns on the East and West Coasts has proven a winning strategy. According to company reports, its deposits have grown from $18 billion in mid 2010 to $68.9 billion as of December 31, 2017. The FDIC reports that 100 percent of its deposits are domestic – meaning it has no foreign money. That is now being called into question as a result of the nightly media appearances by Stormy Daniels’ attorney, Michael Avenatti. According to Avenatti, $500,000 that came into Cohen’s First Republic Bank account is tied to the Russian oligarch, Viktor Vekselberg, now on a U.S. sanctions list and closely tied to Russian president Vladimir Putin. The $500,000 came from a U.S.-based company, Columbus Nova, which has denied any corporate ties to Vekselberg. However, those clever folks at Think Progress, used the Wayback machine to access the Columbus Nova website as of January of 2017 where Columbus Nova is listed as a subsidiary of Renova Group, Vekselberg’s Russian company. The people and businesses who have direct or indirect connections to Cohen’s account at First Republic are starting to mount up. They include AT&T, which has confirmed paying Cohen $600,000 for advice, and the giant Swiss pharmaceutical company, Novartis, which has admitted to transmitting $1.2 million to the Cohen account in order to seek “insights” on Trump. Both AT&T and Novartis confirmed to the New York Times that they had been contacted last November “by investigators for the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III….” According to a report by CNN yesterday, also questioned by Mueller’s team was Vekselberg – the Russian oligarch tied to the $500,000 that found itself in Michael Cohen’s Essential Consultants LLC account at First Republic Bank. Another connecting dot is Trump’s longtime personal friend, Tom Barrack, who served as Chair of Trump’s Inaugural Committee. According to the Associated Press, Barrack has also been interviewed by Mueller’s investigators. Barrack is the Founder of Colony Capital, LLC, now known as ColonyNorthstar, where he continues to serve as Executive Chairman. Barrack served on the Board of Directors of First Republic Bank from 2001 through 2007 and from 2010 to the present. The bank was previously owned by Merrill Lynch, which was absorbed into Bank of America during the financial crash in 2008. In 2010, Barrack’s Colony Capital was part of a buyout team that included General Atlantic LLC which put up “$1.86 billion in new equity capital” to purchase the bank according to a press release issued by First Republic Bank. On November 29, 2010, the bank sold shares to the public in an Initial Public Offering. According to First Republic Bank’s 2018 annual proxy statement, Barrack owns 12,335 shares in the company. At this morning’s opening price of $97.06, that’s about $1.2 million – not a particularly large amount of money for a man that Forbes estimated to be worth $1 billion in 2013. According to the Washington Post, “It was Barrack who persuaded Trump to hire political operative Paul Manafort — whom Barrack first met in Beirut 40 years ago — for the presidential campaign.” Manafort has been indicted by a grand jury convened in the Mueller probe. Yesterday, it was widely reported that the U.S. Treasury’s Inspector General has opened an investigation into the leak of financial documents from First Republic Bank. Stormy Daniels’ attorney, Avenatti, has released information that would seem to have only come from Customer Account Cards inside the bank or documents seized in the raid on Cohen by the FBI in the Southern District of New York or from the Mueller investigation. In a document released by Avenatti on his Twitter page, precise details from the Customer Account Card for Essential Consultants LLC at First Republic Bank appears to have been provided to him. Avenatti writes: “In connection with the establishment of that account, Mr. Cohen was required to make certain representations to First Republic regarding Essential’s business as part of First Republic’s Know Your Customer (‘KYC’) anti-money laundering protocol. “In order to establish the account, Mr. Cohen subsequently submitted information claiming, among other things, the following: (a) Essential is a real estate consulting company that collects fees for investment consulting work; (b) The company’s typical clients are U.S.-based high net worth individuals; (c) The company’s primary source of funds will be derived from within the U.S. or a U.S.-based company; (d) The company expected one (1) to twenty (20) incoming domestic only wires totaling $1,000 to $10,000 each month for consulting fees, and one (1) to twenty (20) ACH credits and electronic transfers totaling $1,000 to $10,000 each month; (e) No outgoing wire transfers and debits related to ACH or electronic transfers were expected; and (f) Receipts of the business would be internally transferred to Mr. Cohen’s personal account at First Republic Bank. According to the Wall Street Journal, First Republic Bank filed a Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) with the U.S. Treasury’s FinCen unit on the Cohen account. Avenatti has said at least three SARs have been filed with FinCen related to this matter. In early April, Avenatti wrote to U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin requesting that the SARs information be released to the public, citing numerous legal case precedents for doing so. Thus far, Mnuchin has not supplied the information.

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At Year End, JPMorgan Chase Held Over $1 Trillion in Uninsured Deposits Versus $119 Billion at First Republic
by Gunnar Larson 22 Mar '23

22 Mar '23

https://wallstreetonparade.com/2023/03/at-year-end-jpmorgan-chase-held-over… Jamie Dimon is the Chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase, the largest bank in the U.S., which is also ranked the riskiest global bank by its regulators. But instead of getting his own house in order in the midst of a banking crisis, Dimon has been peculiarly focused elsewhere. Over the past five days, Jamie Dimon’s legions of publicists have been burning up the phone lines with reporters, pushing the narrative that Jamie Dimon is some kind of financial wizard who needs to have a seat at the table to save the regional bank, First Republic Bank. (Scroll down here to see the exhaustive public relations effort that has gone into this narrative.) Last Thursday, news hit the wire services that Dimon had lined up 11 banks willing to place $30 billion in uninsured deposits into First Republic Bank. JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup and Wells Fargo each ponied up $5 billion – or two-thirds of the $30 billion. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) caps federal deposit insurance at $250,000 per depositor, per bank. Taking $5 billion of your bank’s shareholders’ money and throwing it at a regional bank whose stock price is collapsing, was not viewed as the brightest of ideas by the stock market. Last Friday, the day after the deal was announced, shares of First Republic Bank dropped 32 percent. Yesterday, First Republic’s share price collapsed by another 47 percent. Over the weekend, S&P Global downgraded First Republic’s credit rating for a second time in a week to deeper junk status. Year-to-date, First Republic Bank has lost 90 percent of its market value. What exactly is there left to save? We should also note that First Republic Bank’s Palm Beach, Florida branch is where Donald Trump’s hush money was wired to porn star Stormy Daniels by his attorney, Michael Cohen. (See our reporting here and the Wall Street Journal’s here.) Today, a headline appears at Bloomberg News that provides a big clue as to what Jamie Dimon’s frantic obsession with First Republic Bank is really about, that is, use a collapsing regional bank to get Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on board to push for a government guarantee on all deposits, insured and uninsured, at all FDIC banks. By framing this as coming to the rescue of regional banks, rather than another crony bailout of the unaccountable mega banks on Wall Street, Jamie Dimon doesn’t have to explain to his compromised Board of Directors why 69 percent of the bank’s deposits were uninsured at year end. (See: If You’re Baffled as to Why JPMorgan Chase’s Board Hasn’t Sacked Jamie Dimon as the Bank Racked Up 5 Felony Counts – Here’s Your Answer.) Our scenario is supported by the following hard facts: First Republic Bank’s regulatory filing for December 31, 2022 shows that it held $176.25 billion in deposits, of which $119.47 billion were uninsured, or 68 percent of all deposits. JPMorgan Chase’s same regulatory filing (FFIEC Call Report) for December 31, 2022 shows that at year-end it held $1.527 trillion in deposits of which an estimated $1.058 trillion were uninsured – or 69 percent. JPMorgan Chase's Uninsured Deposits Yellen’s upcoming actions on this matter would have a lot more credibility had she not decided to line her pockets with millions of dollars in speaking fees from the mega banks on Wall Street after being replaced as Chair of the Fed in 2018. (See Janet Yellen’s Cash Haul of $7 Million Is Just the Tip of the Iceberg; She Failed to Report Her Wall Street Speaking Fees from JPMorgan and Others in 2018.)

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Unclear crypto policy is bad policy
by professor rat 21 Mar '23

21 Mar '23

>> glennbeck . @VivekGRamaswamy challenges EVERY Republican presidential candidate to "make a simple commitment that they will stand opposed to the adoption of CBDCs in the United States." << Central Bank part of CBDC's ( Digital Currencies ) means one per country. As this statement stands it means sanctions of every CBDC - like China's and India's reported pilot-programs already circulating in global markets. But if it was meant in the singular why the opposition? Nearly every form of electronic money exchange furthers cryptoanarchy. And the adoption of yet another govt program need not be a liability either is there is an offset somewhere. Such as winding down the war on drugs by an amount double the cost of any US CBDC. BTW a US state DC is less likely than a city one at the moment - Miami's city coin for example. Could be wrong - but then neither of these would be a CBDC either way. Just another crypto. Yes?

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[ot][spam][crazy]
by Undescribed Horrific Abuse, One Victim & Survivor of Many 21 Mar '23

21 Mar '23

the request was to restore what i see as legitimate cypherpunk content to the list. this likely means acknowledging things like massive system compromise, corruption, history alteration, etc from powerful entities, without regard to political slant, motivation, funding, etc, other than to hunt the corruption down in a forthright way the list is missing use of its topic: cryptography. it is obvious this does not mean currency. it means more mathematic provability of received and sent information. “punk” is a grassroots term. i understand that means it leans to the left. i haven’t learned much about the world myself, but you seem a little connected.

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Any C-punk who betrays the plebs will be dealt with immediately
by professor rat 21 Mar '23

21 Mar '23

https://twitter.com/emptywheel/status/1638145891713310720/photo/1 Reposts not circle of eunuch weeping for long-lost nationalist glories

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[ot][spam][crazy]
by Undescribed Horrific Abuse, One Victim & Survivor of Many 21 Mar '23

21 Mar '23

test message to see if can get messages into my outbox, 4th attempt

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[ot][spam][crazy]
by Undescribed Horrific Abuse, One Victim & Survivor of Many 21 Mar '23

21 Mar '23

test message to see if can get a message into my outbox, third attempt

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Story of the Gay Fascists
by professor rat 21 Mar '23

21 Mar '23

This is an old compilation and screams out for an update - I've also been begging on my knees for someone to do one of these exposes on the Gay Fascists of the Left. Do I have to do EVERYTHING myself! Sheesh! https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-strange-strange-story_b_136697 Reposts not Kochsucker conservatives like Grarpamps the MAGAT

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Call to ambush and kill minority &/or female cops
by professor rat 21 Mar '23

21 Mar '23

ALI Arsehole raises the question of how anarchists deal with minority and female cops in fascist Amerikkka? My suggestion is we informally and tactically enlist on a random ’ walk-in’ stochastic basis all ’ leaderless resistance’ types ready willing and able to ambush any type of cop. No strategic alliance with the lunar-right implied or existing. Full plausible deniability for us no matter what they say. Boogaloo suspects are alleged to have already killed a minority cop in Cali - faster please! " When cypherpunks are called terrorists we will be doing our job " - old proverb

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Crypto-fascist running for POTUS
by professor rat 21 Mar '23

21 Mar '23

Vivek Ramaswamy is the co-founder and executive chairman of Strive Asset Management, an Ohio-based asset management firm backed financially by Peter Thiel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vivek_Ramaswamy Reposts not shithole country that bought you Vietnam , Iran-Contra and Iraq

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