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Fwd: Former Syrian Prison Official Charged with Torture
by Gunnar Larson 18 Dec '24

18 Dec '24

---------- Forwarded message --------- From: FBI <fbi(a)subscriptions.fbi.gov> Date: Tue, Dec 17, 2024, 4:13 PM Subject: Former Syrian Prison Official Charged with Torture To: <g(a)xny.io> * National Press Releases * Former Syrian Prison Official Charged with Torture As the head of Damascus Central Prison from approximately 2005 through 2008, Samir Ousman Alsheikh, 72, of Lexington, South Carolina, allegedly ordered subordinates to inflict and was sometimes personally involved in inflicting severe physical and mental pain and suffering on political and other prisoners. Dec. 12, 2024 Full Press Release <https://www.fbi.gov/news/press-releases/former-syrian-prison-official-charg…> ------------------------------ <https://www.facebook.com/FBI> <https://twitter.com/FBI> <https://www.youtube.com/user/FBI> <https://www.fbi.gov/e-mail-updates?utm_campaign=email-Immediate&utm_medium=…> * You have received this message because you are subscribed to one or more of the following categories: National Press Releases * Manage Subscription <https://delivery.fbi.gov/account-reminder> | Unsubscribe <https://delivery.fbi.gov/subscriber/c57956fe9830b3f02d21fe7a2581942df706f0b…> If you have questions about this service, email us at delivery(a)subscriptions.fbi.gov. Help <https://www.fbi.gov/e-mail-updates?utm_campaign=email-Immediate&utm_medium=…> | Privacy Policy <http://www.fbi.gov/privacy_policy?utm_campaign=email-Immediate&utm_medium=e…> | Visit FBI.gov <https://www.fbi.gov/?utm_campaign=email-Immediate&utm_medium=email&utm_sour…>

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Fwd: Arizona Man Associated with Online Terror Network Arrested for Production of Child Sex Abuse Material and Cyberstalking
by Gunnar Larson 18 Dec '24

18 Dec '24

---------- Forwarded message --------- From: FBI <fbi(a)subscriptions.fbi.gov> Date: Tue, Dec 17, 2024, 4:04 PM Subject: Arizona Man Associated with Online Terror Network Arrested for Production of Child Sex Abuse Material and Cyberstalking To: <g(a)xny.io> * National Press Releases * Arizona Man Associated with Online Terror Network Arrested for Production of Child Sex Abuse Material and Cyberstalking Baron Martin, 20, of Tucson, Arizona, was arrested on Dec. 11 for producing child sexual abuse material and cyberstalking offenses carried out as part of his participation in online violent terror networks known as 764 and CVLT. Dec. 13, 2024 Full Press Release <https://www.fbi.gov/news/press-releases/arizona-man-associated-with-online-…> ------------------------------ <https://www.facebook.com/FBI> <https://twitter.com/FBI> <https://www.youtube.com/user/FBI> <https://www.fbi.gov/e-mail-updates?utm_campaign=email-Immediate&utm_medium=…> * You have received this message because you are subscribed to one or more of the following categories: National Press Releases * Manage Subscription <https://delivery.fbi.gov/account-reminder> | Unsubscribe <https://delivery.fbi.gov/subscriber/c57956fe9830b3f02d21fe7a2581942df706f0b…> If you have questions about this service, email us at delivery(a)subscriptions.fbi.gov. Help <https://www.fbi.gov/e-mail-updates?utm_campaign=email-Immediate&utm_medium=…> | Privacy Policy <http://www.fbi.gov/privacy_policy?utm_campaign=email-Immediate&utm_medium=e…> | Visit FBI.gov <https://www.fbi.gov/?utm_campaign=email-Immediate&utm_medium=email&utm_sour…>

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Fwd: Moynihan Train Hall at Penn Station Logo Artwork Records
by Gunnar Larson 17 Dec '24

17 Dec '24

December 17, 2024 via email: G(a)xny.io Gunnar D. Larson xNY.io - Bank.org 406 West 25th Street, 1RE New York, NY 10001 Dear Mr. Larson: The Division is in receipt of your Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request, received by the Division on October 28, 2024, in which you requested a copy of the following: Today xNY.io - Bank.org seeks access to records and information related to logo and artwork for Moynihan Train Hall at Penn Station The Division has no records responsive to your request. Any person denied access to a requested record may, within thirty (30) days of the denial, appeal the denial in writing by mail or fax to Erin Sobkowski, Acting Deputy General Counsel. Please direct your mail or fax to the care of Edith Allen, N.Y.S. Division of Human Rights, One Fordham Plaza, 4th Floor, Bronx, New York 10458. Very truly yours, Siaka Paasewe FOIL Officer ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Pruitt, Kimberly (DHR) <Kimberly.Pruitt2(a)dhr.ny.gov> Date: Tue, Dec 17, 2024, 2:09 PM Subject: RE: Moynihan Train Hall at Penn Station Logo Artwork Records To: Gunnar Larson <g(a)xny.io> Cc: cypherpunks <cypherpunks(a)lists.cpunks.org>, dhr.dl.foil <foil(a)dhr.ny.gov > Dear Mr. Larson: Pursuant to your request, please see the attachment. *KIMBERLY PRUITT* (She/Her/Mrs. *(What is this? <https://pronouns.org/she-her>)* Office Assistant 1 *New York State Division of Human Rights * One Fordham Plaza, Fourth Floor, Bronx, NY 10458 w: (718) 741-8423 | *Kimberly.Pruitt2(a)dhr.ny.gov <Kimberly.Pruitt2(a)dhr.ny.gov>* *dhr.ny.gov <http://dhr.ny.gov>* Facebook <https://www.facebook.com/NYSHumanRights> | Instagram <https://www.instagram.com/nyshumanrights/> | LinkedIn <https://www.linkedin.com/company/nyshumanrights/> *From:* Gunnar Larson <g(a)xny.io> *Sent:* Monday, October 28, 2024 2:42 PM *To:* Records_Access <Records.Access(a)exec.ny.gov>; dhr.dl.foil < foil(a)dhr.ny.gov> *Cc:* cypherpunks <cypherpunks(a)lists.cpunks.org> *Subject:* Moynihan Train Hall at Penn Station Logo Artwork Records Some people who received this message don't often get email from g(a)xny.io. Learn why this is important <https://aka.ms/LearnAboutSenderIdentification> *ATTENTION: This email came from an external source. Do not open attachments or click on links from unknown senders or unexpected emails.* Dear Executive Chamber Records Access: Dear Department of Human Rights Records Access: Today xNY.io - Bank.org seeks access to records and information related to logo and artwork for Moynihan Train Hall at Penn Station: https://m.facebook.com/MoynihanTrainHall/. Season's greetings, Gunnar ✌️ -- Gunnar Larson xNY.io - Bank.org 917-580-8053

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Did the Clinton Foundation Have a Storefront Accountant Like Madoff?
by Gunnar Larson 17 Dec '24

17 Dec '24

https://wallstreetonparade.com/2016/05/did-the-clinton-foundation-have-a-st… By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: May 24, 2016 Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton A growing number of red flags are cropping up around the charity operation known as the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation. The title tells you right off the bat that there is no anti-nepotism policy in place. Bernie Madoff didn’t believe in an anti-nepotism policy either: his brother, wife, two sons and niece worked for him. That didn’t work out so well for any of them. What is thus far beyond dispute regarding the Clinton Foundation’s finances is that Hillary Clinton’s political operatives have been on its payroll and that it failed to report tens of millions of dollars in foreign government donations on its 990 tax return to the IRS. As Reuters reported last year: “For three years in a row beginning in 2010, the Clinton Foundation reported to the IRS that it received zero in funds from foreign and U.S. governments, a dramatic fall-off from the tens of millions of dollars in foreign government contributions reported in preceding years. “Those entries were errors, according to the foundation: several foreign governments continued to give tens of millions of dollars toward the foundation’s work on climate change and economic development through this three-year period.” Reuters also reported last November that it had found that a major program of the Clinton Foundation, the Clinton Health Access Initiative, “had misreported funding sources by millions of dollars.” The Foundation said in response that it would refile its 2012 and 2013 tax returns known as 990s with the IRS. This sounds like a lot of sloppy accounting. We decided to see if there was a storefront accountant involved. The storefront image came to mind because Madoff’s accountant, David Friehling, operated out of a storefront and was a sole proprietor. According to the U.S. Justice Department, this storefront operation failed to conduct any of the following regarding the Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities (BLMIS): “(a) conduct independent verification of BLMIS assets; (b) review material sources of BLMIS revenue, including commissions; (c) examine a bank account through which billions of dollars of BLMIS client funds flowed; (d) verify liabilities related to BLMIS client accounts; or (e) verify the purchase and custody of securities by BLMIS. Friehling also failed to test internal controls as required under GAAP and GAAS standards. For example, Friehling did not take any steps to test internal controls over areas such as BLMIS’ redemption of client funds, the payment of invoices for corporate expenses, or the purchase of securities by BLMIS on behalf of its clients.” But the Clinton Foundation is no Bernie Madoff accounting operation. According to 13 years of Federal tax returns available for public inspection at the public interest web site for ProPublica, from 2001 through 2012 the Clinton Foundation’s tax returns were prepared by BKD LLP, a national accounting firm that boasts of approximately 2400 employees in 50 U.S. states. That’s a long time not to have an auditor rotation. It also covers the years of 2010, 2011 and 2012 when Reuters reports, and the Foundation has acknowledged, that it failed to report tens of millions of dollars in donations from foreign governments on its Federal tax returns. The Clinton Foundation’s 2013 Federal 990 tax return, the latest one we could locate, shows that BKD LLP has been replaced with an even bigger accounting firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers or PwC, which has operations worldwide. Would a big name like PwC automatically ensure trustworthy financial reporting? You could get the definitive word on that question by calling Dennis Kozlowski, the former CEO of Tyco who looted over $100 million from the company, including $6,000 for a shower curtain for his corporate residence on Fifth Avenue. Kozlowski has completed his 6 and a half year prison term so he might just pick up the phone. The looting of Tyco went down on the watch of PwC. In 2003, the Securities and Exchange Commission brought an action against the PwC accountant, Richard Scalzo, barring him from signing the audits of publicly traded companies that are filed with the SEC. The SEC noted in its complaint: “The Commission’s Order finds that multiple and repeated facts provided notice to Scalzo regarding the integrity of Tyco’s senior management and that Scalzo was reckless in not taking appropriate audit steps in the face of this information. By the end of the Tyco annual audit for its fiscal year ended Sept. 30, 1998, if not before, those facts were sufficient to obligate Scalzo, pursuant to generally accepted auditing standards (GAAS), to reevaluate the risk assessment of the Tyco audits and to perform additional audit procedures, including further audit testing of certain items (most notably, certain executive benefits, executive compensation, and related party transactions). Scalzo did not take sufficient steps in these regards. Accordingly, Scalzo recklessly failed to conduct the audits in accordance with GAAS. The Order, therefore, finds that Scalzo engaged in improper professional conduct. The Commission denies him the privilege of practicing before the Commission as an accountant.” According to the Los Angeles Times, a lot of money was sloshing between Tyco and PwC. In a 2002 article, the newspaper reported: “During Kozlowski’s tenure, Tyco became a lucrative client for PricewaterhouseCoopers, which collected $50.1 million in fees from the conglomerate in 2001. Before his indictment, Kozlowski also served as chairman of the audit committee at defense contractor Raytheon Co., which paid PricewaterhouseCoopers $84 million in fees in 2001, out of which only $4 million was for audit services.” (PwC also does various forms of consulting for its audit clients.) What was the inside General Counsel at Tyco doing while all of this was going on at the company? We reported on that back in 2008, writing as follows: “Back in 2002, Mark Belnick, who had previously been one of the legal go-to guys for Wall Street as a rising star at corporate law firm Paul,Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, found himself transplanted as General Counsel at fraud-infested Tyco International. Mr. Belnick inked a retention agreement for himself and it was duly filed without fanfare at the top corporate cop’s web site, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The agreement guaranteed Mr. Belnick a payment of at least $10.6 million should he commit a felony and be fired before October 2003. “Very prescient fellow, Mr. Belnick was indeed charged with a few felonies like grand larceny and securities fraud by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office. Mr. Belnick was acquitted of those charges and the SEC let him off the hook for aiding and abetting federal violations of securities laws with a $100,000 penalty payment and a prohibition against serving as an officer or director of a public company for five years. Mr. Belnick agreed to the SEC settlement without admitting or denying the charges. Mr. Belnick did not lose his law license… “While Mr. Belnick was drafting his ‘felony bonus’ agreement with Tyco, he was also teaching a law course at Cornell on ethics.” Will we ever get to the bottom of what the real truth is on the money spigot known as the Clinton Foundation? One man, Charles Ortel, armed with a Harvard MBA and a long history in finance, has publicly vowed to get to the bottom of what he is calling the “largest unprosecuted charity fraud ever attempted.” If Ortel is right and his findings preempt Hillary Clinton’s bid for the Oval Office, he will have the undying thanks of a grateful nation for sparing us a rerun of the Hill and Bill Show in the White House, a confidence-draining possibility that a nation struggling under $19 trillion in debt and a subpar growth rate of two percent or less since the 2008 crash can ill afford. FacebookTwitterWhatsAppLinkedInEmail

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On the Eve of Netanyahu’s Address to Congress, Senator Bernie Sanders Delivers a Breathtaking Assessment of His War Crimes
by Gunnar Larson 17 Dec '24

17 Dec '24

https://wallstreetonparade.com/2024/07/on-the-eve-of-netanyahus-address-to-… By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: July 25, 2024 ~ Senator Bernie Sanders Excoriating Netanyahu as a War Criminal from the Senate Floor, July 23, 2024 Senator Bernie Sanders Excoriating Netanyahu as a War Criminal from the Senate Floor, July 23, 2024 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to pull off a public relations coup to build support for his war in Gaza has backfired badly. On the evening before Netanyahu was set to address a joint session of Congress yesterday afternoon, one of the most respected members of the U.S. Senate, independent Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, took to the Senate floor to deliver a scathing breakdown of Netanyahu’s war crimes against the people of Gaza. Senator Sanders is Jewish, making his assessment of Netanyahu’s atrocities all the more poignant. A transcript, verified by us, of Senator Sanders’ full remarks is provided below as well as a video of his full remarks. Sanders also broke some major news in his remarks on Tuesday, stating this: “Just today, Madam President, I’m happy to say that seven major trade unions here in the United States, including the Association of Flight Attendants, the American Postal Workers Union, the International Union of Painters, the National Education Association, the Service Employees International Union, United Auto Workers and the United Electrical Workers, some of the largest unions in America representing some 6 million workers, sent a letter to President Biden calling on him to immediately halt all military aid to Israel.” Sanders started his campaign against Netanyahu being allowed to speak to Congress more than a month ago in appearances on various news programs. On June 4, Sanders stated the following on MSNBC’s “All In with Chris Hayes”: “I think I speak not just for myself but for a number of other Senators who think that that decision is a very, very bad one. You do not honor a foreign leader by addressing a joint session of Congress who is currently engaged in creating the worst humanitarian disaster in the modern history of this country. Obviously, as we all know, Israel has a right to defend itself against Hamas terrorism in the terrible attack of October 7, but what it is doing now is going to war against the entire Palestinian people, and what we are seeing now is starvation and famine impacting thousands and thousands of children. The architect of that policy is not somebody you honor by bringing to the United States Congress, in my view.” Protesters Outside of the Capitol Prior to Netanyahu’s Arrival to Speak As a sea of thousands of protesters outside the Capitol held signs calling Netanyahu a war criminal and burning effigies of him, Republicans in the joint session of Congress repeatedly delivered thunderous applause and standing ovations to Netanyahu. At times, it felt like scenes from a sick sci-fi movie – with the people of conscience and courage in the streets being pepper-sprayed and arrested while those protected by police inside the Capitol, elected to represent the values of Americans, insanely cheering a documented war criminal. Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib Holds Up War Criminal Sign As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Delivers a Speech to Congress, July 24, 2024 Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib Holds Up War Criminal Sign As Netanyahu Delivers a Speech to Congress, July 24, 2024 There was one more courageous member of Congress yesterday. Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, a progressive Democrat from Michigan, broke ranks with fellow progressives who boycotted Netanyahu’s speech. Tlaib attended the joint session of Congress, but only to suggest that the real “useful idiots” were her colleagues that were giving standing ovations to Netanyahu as he spoke lie after lie from the podium. (Netanyahu attempted to denigrate the protesters outside by calling them “Iran’s useful idiots.”) Tlaib had a round sign on a wood stick which she repeatedly displayed from her seat in the chamber as Netanyahu spoke. One side of the sign said “War Criminal,” the other side read: “Guilty of Genocide.” ~~~ Below are Senator Bernie Sanders remarks on the Senate floor on Tuesday, July 23, 2024: Madam President, tomorrow, Wednesday will be a unique moment in Congressional history. Throughout the many years of our country, leaders from dozens of countries with all kinds of political backgrounds and persuasions have been invited to address a joint session of Congress. To the best of my knowledge, however, tomorrow will be unique: in bringing Prime Minister Netanyahu to address a joint meeting of Congress, it will be the first time in American history that a war criminal has been given that honor. Frankly, this invitation to Netanyahu is a disgrace and something that we will look back on with regret. With this invitation, it will be impossible, with a straight face, for the United States to lecture any country on earth about human rights and human dignity. Madam President, as you well know, along with Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and several others, Prime Minister Netanyahu has been credibly accused of war crimes by the International Criminal Court, the ICC. That court may soon issue arrest warrants for Sinwar and Netanyahu. The case against Sinwar and his Hamas accomplices are clear. They were the organizers of the horrific October 7th terrorist attack on Israel that began this war and involved the mass murder of 1,200 innocent men, women, and children, the taking of hostages, and sexual violence. These war crimes are well-documented, and very few people would dispute the merits of these charges. The ICC prosecutor’s charges against Netanyahu are also well-founded. The charges focus on the starvation of civilians as a method of war, as well as intentional attacks against the civilian population. Specifically, the prosecutor says that Netanyahu is responsible for ‘depriving [civilians] of objects indispensable to their survival, including willfully impeding relief supplies as provided for under the Geneva Conventions.’ A separate UN independent commission of inquiry likewise found that both Hamas and the Israeli military have committed war crimes since October 7th, leading to widespread civilian deaths. The commission said the Israeli military’s ‘intentional use of heavy weapons with large destructive capacity in densely populated areas constitutes an intentional and direct attack on the civilian population, particularly affecting women and children.’ Madam President, I think we all agree that Israel had the right to defend itself against the horrific Hamas attack on October 7th. But Netanyahu’s extreme right-wing government has, since that attack, waged what amounts to a total war, a total war against the entire Palestinian people, making life unlivable in Gaza and killing tens of thousands. These actions have trampled on international law, on American law, and on basic human values. Madam President, I understand that the mass media and many of us in Congress have been preoccupied in recent weeks with the awful assassination attempt against former President Trump and the changes at the top of the Democratic presidential ticket. But while all that is going on, it is absolutely irresponsible for us to turn our backs on one of the worst humanitarian disasters in modern history, especially when that disaster has been aided and abetted by U.S. taxpayer dollars and weapons. In other words, it’s not just the Israeli government. It is us and our money and our weaponry as well. Madam President, let us be clear – let us be very clear – as to what is going on in Gaza. Since this war began, among a population of 2.2 million people, at least 39,000 Palestinians have been killed and 89,000 injured – sixty percent of whom are women, children, or elderly people. Most observers believe that the death toll is much higher, because thousands of people remain buried under the mountains of rubble. Their bodies have not yet been recovered. Madam President, some 1.9 million people – out of a population of 2.2 million – have been driven from their homes, 90% of the population. Take a deep breath, 90% of the population driven from their homes. The vast majority of these desperate and poor people have now been displaced not once, not twice – but in some cases four or five times – herded around like cattle. Just yesterday, Israel announced another evacuation order for Khan Younis, and 150,000 people were forced to flee on a moment’s notice. Just yesterday. Madam President, when we talk about housing in Gaza, it’s not just that people have been displaced time and time again. More than 60 percent of Gaza’s housing has been damaged or destroyed – including 221,000 housing units that have been completely destroyed. Where are these people going to go to, if and when this war ever ends? And with that housing destruction, more than one million people have been made permanently homeless. Entire neighborhoods have been wiped out. Today, more than a million Palestinians, almost half of the population of Gaza, are living in tents, trying to find shelter, trying to find protection from the intense summer heat in that area. Madam President, it is not just the housing that has been destroyed. Gaza’s civilian infrastructure has also been devastated. Water and sewage systems have been made inoperable. And the result: raw sewage is running through the streets of Gaza, spreading disease, and there is very little clean water. Many roads are impassable, and there is virtually no electricity now in Gaza. But it’s not just the housing that’s been destroyed; not just the infrastructure that has been destroyed. Madam President, Gaza had twelve universities, schools of higher learning. Every single one of those universities has been bombed, and 88 percent of all school buildings have been damaged. In other words, under Mr. Netanyahu’s leadership, the entire educational system in Gaza has been annihilated. In fact, 540 people have been killed while sheltering, sheltering, in UN schools. But Madam President it’s not just the housing that’s been destroyed. Not just the infrastructure of Gaza that has been destroyed. Not just the educational system which has been destroyed. At a time when almost 90,000 people are dealing with war-related injuries in Gaza – including many, many children who’ve lost their arms and their legs, who are suffering all kinds of diseases – the healthcare system in Gaza has been systematically obliterated. Twenty-one of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are completely out of service, and the remainder can only partially function. The World Health Organization has recorded more than 1,000 attacks on healthcare facilities since October 7th. As a result, disease is spreading due to shortages of clean water, sanitation, and hygiene. Cases of hepatitis, dysentery, and other infections are on the rise. And cases of polio have now been detected. Malnourished women struggle to breastfeed their newborns, formula is inaccessible, and even when available cannot be used without reliable sources of clean water. So, the tiniest children and their mothers suffer as well as a result. But, Madam President, it is not just the displacement of 1.9 million people, it’s not just the mass destruction of housing, it’s not just the obliteration of the infrastructure, it is not just the destruction of the educational system, it’s not just the annihilation of the healthcare system in Gaza that we are seeing. It is even worse than that. And I hope that my colleagues who attend Mr. Netanyahu’s remarks on Wednesday remember this as they rise, time and time again, to give him a standing ovation. As a result of Israeli restrictions on humanitarian aid, people in Gaza are now starving to death. So, remember when people stand up and applaud: children, women, innocent people in Gaza are now starving to death. According to the best available research, drawing on leading experts from the UN and other aid organizations around the world, some 495,000 Palestinians face starvation. These groups estimate that more than 50,000 children require treatment for acute malnutrition and are at risk of starving to death. At least 30 children – documented cases, and I suspect it’s a lot higher than that – have already starved to death. So, as you stand up and applaud that guy, remember the starving children that he has created. But even those who get the lifesaving care they need – children – will carry the scars of this disaster for the rest of their lives. Every psychologist will tell you, a child’s brain develops fastest in the first two years of life, and childhood malnutrition does lifelong cognitive and physical damage. That is what Netanyahu is doing to the children of Gaza. And I would ask my colleagues to stop for a moment and think about the psychological damage this war has done to the children there. Imagine being a child living with the constant buzzing of drones above your head, wondering whether those drones are going to rain fire and bullets onto your home. Wondering if they might strike you at any moment. Imagine being a little 5-year-old witnessing your relatives killed, your neighborhood destroyed. Think about being a 10-year-old going hungry night after night, searching around for water and for food to survive. Think about being pushed from one place to another, not knowing where you’ll be tomorrow, carrying your few belongings through the streets running with sewage and amid piles of rubble and trash. That is what Mr. Netanyahu – the man Congress is honoring tomorrow – has done to the children of Gaza. According to the UN and virtually every humanitarian organization functioning in Gaza, Israel has intentionally blocked humanitarian aid – including food, water, and medical supplies – from reaching the desperate people in Gaza. And let us be clear: there is NO excuse for this. Blocking humanitarian aid, killing aid workers, and creating the conditions for starvation – these are not only acts of extreme cruelty, but they are clear violations of both U.S. and international law. They are war crimes. They are war crimes. And Netanyahu heads the government that has enacted these policies. So tomorrow, Madam President, when Netanyahu comes before Congress, I hope that for one second that members who attend, will focus just for a second, on the starving children in Gaza. I hope while they applaud, they will think about the hundreds of aid workers killed, the dozens of hospitals bombed, the housing destroyed, and the universities obliterated. Madam President, when Mr. Netanyahu rises to speak tomorrow, I also hope that my colleagues remember that all this death and destruction is not just the unfortunate byproduct of a brutal war. Revenge and destruction are the explicit policy of Netanyahu’s extremist right-wing government. Two days into the war, two days after October 7, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said, ‘I have ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip. There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed. We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly.’ That is exactly how they have pursued this war. They define the Palestinian people as ‘human animals’ – and, tragically, they have acted consistent with that view. Madam President, let us remember and understand that the Israel of today is not the Israel of the past. It is now run by a right-wing, extremist government. National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, the man who oversees the police, has long advocated for the forcible expulsion of Palestinians from the region. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, the man responsible for the occupied West Bank, is also an extreme racist and has called for the expulsion of Palestinians from the land. He has called for segregated hospital wards for Jews and Arabs because, ‘Arabs are my enemies.’ And that is the man who is in charge of the occupied West Bank. And that is the current Israeli Finance Minister as well. Madam President, it should come as no surprise that this extremist government, in addition to destroying Gaza, has overseen record Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank, in violation of international law and commitments to the United States. Israeli forces and vigilante settlers have killed more than 500 Palestinians in the West Bank since October 7th, including 131 children. Just last week, the International Court of Justice issued a ruling on the Israeli occupation of the West Bank. A panel of 15 accomplished judges from around the world confirmed what most of the world has long known: that occupation is illegal and must end. I know that there are some here in Congress, not many, but some, who have condemned Netanyahu and his extremist government. But condemning Netanyahu is not enough. We cannot condemn a Prime Minister, who the ICC considers to be a war criminal, while at the same time continuing to provide his government with tens of billions of dollars in military aid. That is hypocrisy at its worst. Just today, Madam President, I’m happy to say that seven major trade unions here in the United States, including the Association of Flight Attendants, the American Postal Workers Union, the International Union of Painters, the National Education Association, the Service Employees International Union, United Auto Workers and the United Electrical Workers, some of the largest unions in America representing some 6 million workers, sent a letter to President Biden calling on him to immediately halt all military aid to Israel. And they are absolutely right. Netanyahu is a right-wing extremist and a war criminal who has devoted his career to killing the prospects of a two-state solution and lasting peace in the region. He should not be welcome to the United States Congress. On the contrary, his policies in Gaza and the West Bank should be roundly condemned, and his right-wing extremist government should not receive another nickel from U.S. taxpayers. Thank you Madam President and I yield the floor. FacebookTwitterWhatsAppLinkedInEmail Bookmark the permalink.

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Citibank's Student Loan Debt Slaves (Part II)
by Gunnar Larson 17 Dec '24

17 Dec '24

https://wallstreetonparade.com/2013/09/citibanks-student-loan-debt-slaves-p… By Pam Martens: September 11, 2013 Elizabeth Warren Helped Lead the Fight to Create the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau In February of this year, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the new Federal agency that Senator Elizabeth Warren fought so hard to create against a tsunami of backlash from Wall Street and Republican ranks, asked the public to comment on making college more affordable and to describe their student loan experiences with private lenders. There was a tidal wave of nearly 30,000 responses. Public interest groups, nonprofit community programs, and thousands of college graduates responded. The most tragic stories came from students who augmented their Federal student loans with loans from the big Wall Street banks like Citibank, a unit of the bailed out poster child for bad behavior, Citigroup. Citibank borrowers tell horror stories of living without heat, living on food donations from friends, and watching their monthly student loan payment skyrocket without warning from $374 to $1025.53. The levels of stress and despair that ring out from these letters should raise a cautionary red flag to every American with a conscience. These young people are America’s future. Two prominent themes emerge from this underreported but, nonetheless, epic human suffering. First, students who took large private student loans from Citibank frequently took the option of deferring the interest until after graduation since they had no means of paying it before getting a full time job. The students failed to understand the dramatic future impact of that decision. On Federal Stafford loans, the Federal government pays the interest while the student is in school. On private student loans, that interest is added to the original principal (capitalized), creating a future time bomb in terms of how much interest will eventually be due. As James C. wrote to the CFPB: “The primary driver of private student loan distress is the overall amount of loans that I have, and the amount of interest that accrues on a daily basis. I have only had student loans for roughly ten years, I began paying back roughly three years ago. I have had 60k in capitalized interest added to my $150k student loan debt. I feel that there should be a cap in private student loan interest rates, and a cap to the amount of money that can be capitalized.” Linda F. reported that she had “paid approximately 50% of the original balance and still owe more than I borrowed due to high interest rates and the times I had to put loans in deferment or forbearance. Also, these loans accumulated a significant amount of interest while I was in school…I take responsibility for the debt I took on, but it was not my fault that my industry (architecture and building) was taken down by the very banks that I owe. I will be paying on these loans for most of my life…” Linda F. references the second theme that is spread throughout the complaints of the graduates. The Wall Street banks crushed the economy with their implosion in 2008, leaving a scarcity of jobs for graduates. Many graduates are now unemployed, underemployed, or working in low wage jobs. Amanda B. reported that she “graduated with over 100,000 in student loan dept [sic] from citibank that has recently been sold to discover. I have been laid off twice since graduation, entering the job market in 2008 when things started going downhill, economy wise. I currently make 400 a week after taxes, and my student loan payment is 922 a month. That is over half of my monthly income. I have luckily been able to pay it up until my recent lay off, I have started a new job and will begin payments again in April. I cant even think about the amount of debt that I have without feeling sick to my stomach. And Ive told my parents not to expect grandkids until these are paid off. I have a dream of starting a business and I cant take that kind of risk with that debt. I went to college to follow my dreams and college debt seems to be keeping me from my furture. It saddens me to think I would have been better off without my education.” Audrey C., who graduated in June 2009 with a 3.8 grade point average, told the CFPB the following: “In September 2009, I was laid off from my full time job. I couldn’t afford health insurance, and so when I broke my ankle in December of 2009, requiring surgery and five months of physical therapy, I considered bankruptcy for the first time — but couldn’t afford to file. My unemployment checks barely covered the basics, and luckily some friends owned a bakery or else I wouldn’t have eaten during that period. After I healed, I struggled but made sure I always had work. While applying for hundreds of jobs in my chosen field without calls back, I’ve worked one low-wage job after another. While I’ve been promoted into management at most of these jobs, I only recently took yet another low wage job that actually provides health benefits — the first health care I’ve had since 2008. I’m still only making $15 an hour. At 22, I made the most money I have ever made, before or since. I declared Chapter 7 bankruptcy this year after being sued for $12k by Citibank — (which is $3k more than I made in all of 2011)…” At both online forums and in reports to the CFPB, graduates talk of being hounded early in the morning, at night, and on the job by collection agencies to whom Citibank has referred the job of collecting payments. Graduates also express the sentiment that there is no regulatory body attempting to rein in the abuses. Aimee M. told the CFPB: “The private student loan industry is getting away with torturing young adult’s lives. There is no supervision of the corporations who provide private student loans. There is no supervision on the application process, the credit check verification, the approval amount, loan disbursement, or repayment…In my personal experience, Citibank Private Student Loans has violated my rights as loan borrower…” One aspect that has remained under the radar in terms of general public awareness is that in a replay of the mortgage mess that took down the housing market, Citibank could make irresponsible loans to students and then hand them over to the U.S. government for payment. U.S. guaranteed loans are called Federal Family Education Loans (FFEL). If a student defaults, the federal government pays the bank and takes over the loan. The federal government pays approximately 97% of the principal balance to the lender. The federal government then owns the loan and the right to collect payments on the loan. On September 17, 2010, Citigroup announced that its Student Loan Corporation (SLC) was going to “sell” $4.7 billion of these loans to the Department of Education. (We’ve asked the Department of Education to clarify what transpired in this transaction and will report on it when they do.) A number of students told the CFPB that they felt Citibank engaged in irresponsible lending, effectively throwing large sums of money at students. Allison L. reported: “By the end of my schooling, only $80,000 was actually for classes and books and school related fees, and $80,000 was extra money. Citibank should not have lent the additional money to me, as I documented that ‘I lived at home/with parents,’ and my tuition, books and fees clearly did not cost as much as the amount that was dispensed.” Brooke Densing of the Hope Center in Buffalo, New York, a program to help with financial literacy and provide a legal clinic for borrowers, addressed the impact on the college graduates’ health, writing: “…the stress and social/psychological disconnect that happens once someone is in severe debt has intense consequences on their health, quality of life, and their economic well- being. Often, causing depression, anxiety, stress related illnesses, etc…We used to be able to tell clients that going to college breaks generational poverty; and 90% of people in generational poverty will NEVER return to poverty in their lifetime if they graduate from college. We can no longer guarantee economic success for students in America.” In Part III tomorrow, we will look at the overall economic implications to the country of having what should be the most energetic, creative and ambitious members of our society feeling the hopelessness and desperation of being a debt slave for decades of their working life.

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New York Fed Will Not Confirm or Deny that 5-Count Felon JPMorgan Chase Is Custodian of $2.4 Trillion of Its Securities
by Gunnar Larson 17 Dec '24

17 Dec '24

https://wallstreetonparade.com/2024/04/new-york-fed-will-not-confirm-or-den… By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: April 10, 2024 ~ John Williams, President of the New York Fed John Williams, President of the New York Fed As the financial crisis of 2008 was ravaging century-old financial institutions on Wall Street and collapsing the U.S. economy, the central bank of the United States, the Federal Reserve, launched an effort to restore market liquidity by becoming the buyer of the toxic sludge flooding Wall Street in the form of Mortgage-Backed Securities (MBS). On November 25, 2008, in delicately-parsed language, the Fed announced it planned to buy $500 billion of MBS that was backed by government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and Ginnie Mae. That was the first of what would become Quantitative Easing (QE) to infinity at the Fed. The Fed’s MBS holdings have grown from the planned $500 billion to $2.4 trillion as of last Wednesday. Just as it did with the bulk of its $29 trillion bailout programs to Wall Street during and after the 2008 financial crisis, the Fed farmed out its MBS buying program to the New York Fed, which, in turn, farmed out one critical leg of the program to the very Wall Street mega bank that had corrupted a significant part of the MBS market: JPMorgan Chase. A little more than a month after the Fed’s MBS announcement, on December 31, 2008, the New York Fed signed a contract with JPMorgan Chase to be the sole custodian of the securities it bought under the MBS program. That contract with JPMorgan Chase was amended on April 1, 2010; April 26, 2011; April 17, 2014 and again on January 30, 2017. (As of this morning, the original contract and its amendments are available at the New York Fed’s website. Should those documents disappear, we have archived the same documents on our website here.) Wall Street On Parade wrote about JPMorgan Chase being the sole custodian of the Fed’s MBS program in 2014 and again in 2020. In both years, the New York Fed confirmed that JPMorgan Chase remained the sole custodian of its MBS securities. But something strange happened this week when we sought our routine confirmation from the New York Fed. On Monday, we emailed the communications department at the New York Fed and asked if JPMorgan Chase was still holding the MBS portfolio for the New York Fed. The New York Fed has a vendor department, which, ostensibly, vets its vendors and keeps track of its vendor contracts. It should have taken less than five minutes to phone that department and verify if the MBS custodian contract with JPMorgan Chase was still in effect. Instead, we received an email on Monday saying a response to our question would be forthcoming on Tuesday. When 5:00 p.m. Tuesday rolled around with no response, we emailed the New York Fed again for an answer, asking the following: “Per below, can you confirm that JPMorgan Chase remains the sole custodian of the Agency Mortgage-Backed Securities held by the Fed? “The FRBNY still has the Vendor Agreement indicated as current on its website so this shouldn’t be a problem to confirm. I’m just checking with you folks out of an abundance of caution to verify my facts.” This time, the response from the New York Fed was Kafkaesque. We were told we could not put quotes around the information from the New York Fed or name the person giving us the information. And, the information that was provided to us was off topic. We were told that beginning in 2010 the New York Fed began to use internal staff to make its own purchases of MBS. We shot back with yet another email: “I’m asking strictly about the Custodian. Does that remain JPMorgan Chase?” We were told via email that the New York Fed had nothing else to say on the matter. We then took the screenshot below at the New York Fed’s website showing expired vendor contracts versus those not marked as “expired.” It would appear from this that the contract making JPMorgan Chase the sole custodian of the Fed’s $2.4 trillion in MBS debt securities is still in effect. FRBNY Vendor Agreement Why would the New York Fed confirm the same question in 2014 and 2020 but be so bizarrely cagey about confirming this information in 2024? Could it be that the crime factory at JPMorgan Chase has simply gotten too embarrassing for the New York Fed to acknowledge its association with it? The New York Fed failed to find a new custodian for the $1.49 trillion of MBS that JPMorgan Chase was holding for the Fed on January 7, 2014 when the Justice Department charged the bank with two criminal felony counts for its role in the Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme. The bank admitted to the charges; paid $1.7 billion into a Madoff victims fund; and was given a 3-year Deferred Prosecution Agreement and put on probation for the same period. The New York Fed also failed to replace JPMorgan as custodian when it was holding $1.7 trillion of the Fed’s MBS on May 20, 2015 and was charged with its third criminal felony count in less than a year and a half. On that occasion, JPMorgan Chase admitted to one criminal count brought by the Justice Department for its role with other banks in rigging the foreign exchange market. The bank paid a fine of $550 million and was put on probation again. JPMorgan Chase admitted to its fourth and fifth felony counts on September 29, 2020 and, once again, the New York Fed saw no reason to remove its $2 trillion in mortgage securities out of the reach of the criminally-inclined bank. The 2020 felony counts, once again brought by the Justice Department, involved “tens of thousands of episodes of unlawful trading in the markets for precious metals futures contracts” and “thousands of episodes of unlawful trading in the markets for U.S. Treasury futures contracts and in the secondary (cash) market for U.S. Treasury notes and bonds,” according to the Justice Department. The bank agreed to pay $920 million in fines and restitution to various regulators. It was given another Deferred Prosecution Agreement and put on probation for the third time. Apparently, rigging the sovereign debt market of the United States is not a disqualifying event to serve as a vendor at the New York Fed – raising the question as to what on earth would be a disqualifier. Not only did the Federal Reserve and the New York Fed look the other way at five criminal felony counts in deciding to retain JPMorgan Chase as a custodian of its securities, but it looked the other way as JPMorgan Chase was repeatedly charged with fraud involving the very same securities it was holding for the Fed. On November 15, 2013, JPMorgan Chase announced that it had agreed to pay $4.5 billion to settle claims by private investors that it had defrauded them in mortgage-backed securities. On November 19, 2013, JPMorgan agreed to pay $13 billion to settle claims by the Department of Justice, the FDIC, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, and various State Attorneys General over its fraudulent practices involving mortgage-backed securities. Associate Attorney General Tony West said this at the time: “Through this $13 billion resolution, we are demanding accountability and requiring remediation from those who helped create a financial storm that devastated millions of Americans. The conduct JPMorgan has acknowledged — packaging risky home loans into securities, then selling them without disclosing their low quality to investors — contributed to the wreckage of the financial crisis. By requiring JPMorgan both to pay the largest FIRREA penalty in history and provide needed consumer relief to areas hardest hit by the financial crisis, we rectify some of that harm today.” Then, on February 4, 2014, JPMorgan admitted to a civil fraud action brought by the U.S. government for “submitting false certifications” to various government agencies to get its toxic mortgages insured by those agencies and “failing to self-report to HUD-FHA hundreds of loans that it had identified as fraudulent or otherwise deficient, and to submitting loan data to HUD-FHA that lacked integrity.” The bank was fined another $614 million in that matter. To summarize: JPMorgan Chase played an integral role in bringing on the financial crisis of 2008 which forced the Fed to launch a bond-buying program to resuscitate the U.S. economy. JPMorgan Chase then benefitted by getting paid fees in the tens of millions of dollars to hold those bonds for the Fed. The bank then continued to engage in serial criminal activity; being put on probation; getting off probation and engaging in more criminal activity: All while the New York Fed entrusted it with trillions of dollars of Fed securities sitting inside its house of crime. Making this situation even more absurd (if that’s possible), the 2017 amendment that the New York Fed signed with JPMorgan Chase effectively gutted crucial conflicts of interest protections. One section reads as follows: “Bank [JPMorgan Chase] or any of its divisions, branches or Affiliates may be in possession of information tending to show that the Instructions received may not be in the best interest of Customer [Federal Reserve Bank of New York]. Bank [JPMorgan Chase] is under no duty to disclose any such information.” In the fourth quarter of 2019, when JPMorgan Chase was custodian of $1.4 trillion of MBS for the Fed, it was also getting a massive bailout from the New York Fed via repo loans. As the chart below shows, JPMorgan Chase was the second largest recipient of these repo loans, receiving $2.59 trillion on a cumulative, term-adjusted basis, for a financial crisis that has yet to be credibly explained. Fed's Repo Loans to Largest Borrowers, Q4 2019, Adjusted for Term of Loan Congress has threatened in the past to investigate the cozy ties between Wall Street and the New York Fed. The American people must demand that this happens sooner rather than later. 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After Being Criminally Charged for Rigging Precious Metals, JPMorgan Chase Controls 53 Percent of All Precious Metals Contracts Held by Banks
by Gunnar Larson 17 Dec '24

17 Dec '24

https://wallstreetonparade.com/2023/04/after-being-criminally-charged-for-r… By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: April 3, 2023 ~ Jamie Dimon Sits in Front of Trading Monitor in his Office (Source -- 60 Minutes Interview, November 10, 2019) Jamie Dimon Sits in Front of Trading Monitor in his Office (Source: 60 Minutes Interview, November 10, 2019) According to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), there were 4,706 federally-insured banks and savings associations in the U.S. as of December 31, 2022. Of those, according to the quarterly report released last Friday from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), a little less than one-quarter found a reason to engage in derivative trading activities. As of December 31, 2022, just 1,139 FDIC-insured commercial banks and savings associations reported trading of derivatives in the fourth quarter of 2022, according to the OCC. Ostensibly, instead of running a derivatives casino, the other three-quarters of taxpayer-subsidized banks were doing what taxpayers want federally-insured banks to do: make business loans; provide affordable mortgage loans to homebuyers; provide checking accounts devoid of hacking, identity theft and predatory overdraft fees; and not blow up the bank by getting in bed with derivatives, crypto or dodgy Wall Street IPOs. As it does each quarter, the OCC report rang this alarm bell: “A small group of large financial institutions continues to dominate trading and derivatives activity in the U.S. commercial banking system. During the fourth quarter of 2022, four large commercial banks represented 88.2 percent of the total banking industry notional amounts [of derivatives] and 62.5 percent of industry net current credit exposure (NCCE).” Those four banks are Goldman Sachs Bank USA with $52.6 trillion in notional (face amount) derivatives exposure; JPMorgan Chase Bank N.A. with $49.5 trillion in notional derivatives exposure; Citigroup’s Citibank with $47 trillion in notional derivatives exposure; and Bank of America with $19.4 trillion in notional derivatives exposure. One area that particularly stands out in the current OCC report is data showing JPMorgan Chase Bank N.A. held $200.12 billion in precious metals derivative contracts at its federally-insured bank as of December 31, 2022, versus a total of $378.12 billion for all banks in the U.S. holding derivatives. That’s one bank holding 53 percent of all precious metals contracts in the U.S. banking system. (See Table 21 on page 26 of the OCC report.) And there’s no guarantee that the OCC report captures the full picture of this highly concentrated derivatives market. (See our report: Wall Street Banks Are Dangerously Evading U.S. Derivatives Rules by Making Trades at Foreign Subsidiaries.) It is hard to understate the regulatory failure of allowing JPMorgan Chase to continue to have this outsized presence in the precious metals derivatives market. On September 29, 2020, the U.S. Department of Justice charged JPMorgan Chase with rigging the precious metals market and hit it with a criminal felony count for its conduct, to which it admitted. According to the Justice Department, the rigging occurred for more than eight years, from March of 2008 to August of 2016, and involved “tens of thousands” of incidents. The Justice Department wrote that traders at JPMorgan Chase: “…knowingly and intentionally placed orders to buy and sell precious metals futures contracts with the intent to cancel those orders before execution (‘Deceptive PM [Precious Metals] Orders’), including in an attempt to profit by deceiving other market participants through false and fraudulent pretenses and representations concerning the existence of genuine supply and demand for precious metals futures contracts. By placing Deceptive PM Orders, the Subject PM Traders intended to inject false and misleading information about the genuine supply and demand for precious metals futures contracts into the markets, and to deceive other participants in those markets into believing something untrue, namely that the visible order book accurately reflected market-based forces of supply and demand. This false and misleading information was intended to, and at times did, trick other market participants, including competitor financial institutions and proprietary traders, into reacting to the apparent change and imbalance in supply and demand by buying and selling precious metals futures contracts at quantities, prices, and times that they otherwise likely would not have traded.” The trading conduct in precious metals was so bad at JPMorgan Chase that the Justice Department took the unprecedented step of charging some of the precious metals traders involved under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), a statute typically reserved for organized crime figures. Last week, the Senate Banking Committee and the House Financial Services Committee held separate hearings on the bank runs and abrupt collapses of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank in March, the second and third largest bank failures in U.S. history. (The largest bank failure was Washington Mutual in 2008.) Those banks, respectively, held $175 billion and $88.6 billion in deposits as of December 31, 2022. As of the same date, JPMorgan Chase Bank N.A. held $2.015 trillion in deposits in domestic offices, of which $1.058 trillion were uninsured. Uninsured deposits are at risk of flight if customers lose confidence in the management of a bank. The fastest way for depositors to lose confidence in a bank is a steady stream of scandals and criminal conduct while the Board of Directors of the bank fails to replace the Chairman and CEO who was at the helm of the bank throughout the endless series of scandals and criminal conduct. The Board of Directors of JPMorgan Chase Bank have allowed Jamie Dimon to remain as Chairman and CEO despite five felony counts (to which the bank admitted) and a rap sheet that is unprecedented in the annals of banking in the U.S. The Board kept Dimon in place when the bank was charged by the Justice Department with two criminal felony counts for its role in aiding and abetting the largest Ponzi scheme in history – Bernie Madoff’s looting of customer accounts. The Board kept Dimon at the helm when the U.S. Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations issued a 300-page report on the bank’s “London Whale” derivative trades, using bank depositors’ money to engage in reckless gambling and losing at least $6.2 billion. The bank received another felony count for its role in rigging the foreign exchange market and one felony count each for rigging the precious metals market and U.S. Treasury market. Now, a Federal Court has ruled that Dimon must sit for a deposition in a federal lawsuit brought by the U.S. Virgin Islands, charging JPMorgan Chase with, effectively, being the cash conduit for Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking ring that victimized underage girls. (See our March 6 report here.) It’s long past the time for federal regulators to do their job and replace management and the Board at JPMorgan Chase and break up this dangerous trading behemoth that is masquerading as a federally-insured bank. Related Articles: JPMorgan’s Board Made Jamie Dimon a Billionaire as the Bank Rigged Markets, Laundered Money, and Admitted to Five Felony Counts 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 JPMorgan’s High Risk Footprint; Bloomberg News as PR Agent for Jamie Dimon; and the Untold Story of the Failed “Rescue” of First Republic by the Mega Banks JPMorgan Chase Quietly Settles Whistleblower Case Involving Charges of Keeping Two Sets of Books and Improper Payments to Tony Blair FacebookTwitterWhatsAppLinkedInEmail

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The New York Fed Has Contracted Out Key Functions to JPMorgan Chase; We Filed a FOIA and Got These Strange Invoices
by Gunnar Larson 17 Dec '24

17 Dec '24

https://wallstreetonparade.com/2024/07/the-new-york-fed-has-contracted-out-… By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: July 29, 2024 ~ The New York Fed, which has bank examiners engaged in supervising JPMorgan Chase, has also repeatedly provided bailout funds to JPMorgan Chase; was supervising JPMorgan Chase when it lost $6.2 billion of deposits from its federally-insured bank by gambling in derivatives on its London trading desk; allowed JPMorgan Chase’s Chairman and CEO, Jamie Dimon, to previously sit on the New York Fed’s Board of Directors, even as he faced the $6.2 billion derivatives trading scandal; and the New York Fed has exclusively used JPMorgan Chase to hold, as custodian, more than $2.3 trillion of the Federal Reserve’s Mortgage-Backed Securities (MBS) for the past 15-1/2 years – despite JPMorgan Chase admitting to five felony counts brought by the criminal division of the U.S. Department of Justice during that time. If there was an admitted felon in your neighborhood, would that be your first choice for a house sitter? During the financial crisis of 2008, in an effort to restore liquidity to seized up markets, the Fed announced it planned to buy $500 billion of MBS that was backed by government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and Ginnie Mae. That was the first of what would become Quantitative Easing (QE) to infinity at the Fed. The Fed’s MBS holdings have grown from the planned $500 billion to $2.3 trillion as of last Wednesday. In a typical move, the Federal Reserve outsourced its MBS buying program to the New York Fed, which, in turn, farmed out one critical leg of the program (custodianship of the MBS) to the very Wall Street megabank that had corrupted a significant part of the MBS market: JPMorgan Chase. A little more than a month after the Fed’s 2008 MBS announcement, on December 31, 2008, the New York Fed signed a contract with JPMorgan Chase to be the sole custodian of the securities it bought under the MBS program. That contract with JPMorgan Chase was amended on April 1, 2010; April 26, 2011; April 17, 2014 and again on January 30, 2017. (As of today, the original contract and its amendments are available at the New York Fed’s website. Should those documents vanish, we have archived the same documents on our website here.) This spring, Wall Street On Parade became curious as to just how much JPMorgan Chase was reaping in revenues from serving as a vendor to the New York Fed. On April 18, via email, we filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the New York Fed, asking for the following: “Please provide copies of invoices that the New York Fed received from JPMorgan Chase (or any of its subsidiaries such as Chase Bank or JPMorgan Securities) during the 2023 calendar year. “We are particularly interested in invoices for custodial and cash management services related to MBS securities held in custody by JPMorgan Chase for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.” While the Federal Reserve Board of Governors is a federal agency and subject to FOIA, the 12 regional Fed banks are considered private corporations, not legally subject to FOIA. The New York Fed, however, regularly states that it “complies with the spirit of the Freedom of Information Act” in providing documents to the public. Under FOIA, Wall Street On Parade was entitled to a response in 20 business days. Since these invoices should have been easily obtainable in the Accounts Payable department of the New York Fed, and we were asking only for those from last year, 20 business days seemed to us like an adequate response time. Instead, on May 16 we received an email from the New York Fed telling us they needed more time and were planning to provide us the documents on July 1. When July 1 came around, the New York Fed told us the new projected date was July 12. When July 12 arrived, we were told to expect the invoices on or before July 26. On that date, we received a cover letter and 158 documents – with the amounts that JPMorgan Chase had billed to the New York Fed redacted behind blocks of black ink. Stalling on FOIA requests and providing journalists with useless information has become a favorite sport at both the Federal Reserve and the New York Fed. (See also: Reporters Who Ask Tough Questions at Fed Press Conferences Have a Habit of Being Disappeared from the Room.) Despite blacking out the very information we had requested – how much JPMorgan Chase had billed to the New York Fed in one year – after making us wait almost three months, we were able, nonetheless, to make some interesting findings from the sanitized documents. Per the invoice graphic above from the documents, covering the billing period of January 1, 2023 through January 31, 2023, JPMorgan Chase appears to be billing for a lot more than just providing custodianship of the MBS assets. There are menu tabs for the following services billed: “Custody Fee,” “Transaction Fee,” “Cash Management Fee,” “Security Lending Fees,” “Benefit Payment Fees,” “Other Fees,” and “Other Expenses.” Equally of note, there does not appear to be any significant documentation provided to the New York Fed to support how these fees were calculated. Another curiosity is that the New York Fed allows invoices from JPMorgan Chase to go unpaid for more than two months in multiple cases. (See the invoice below as one sample.) JPMorgan Chase Overdue Invoice to Fed And raising our eyebrows were invoices that we did not know existed. These are the invoices toward the end of the document that are marked as “Tri-Party Collateral Management Fees.” We’ll be reporting on that aspect of these invoices later this week. We will also be filing a formal complaint with the Federal Reserve Inspector General over how this FOIA request was handled, involving the largest federally-insured bank in the United States and its perpetually blind-folded supervisor, the New York Fed. Related Articles: The New York Fed Has Quietly Staffed Up a Second Trading Floor Near the S&P 500 Futures Market in Chicago These Are the Banks that Own the New York Fed and Its Money Button Is the New York Fed Too Deeply Conflicted to Regulate Wall Street? Former New York Fed Pres Bill Dudley Calls This the First Banking Crisis Since 2008; Charts Show It’s the Third New York Fed Stuns with New Report: At Year End Its Trading Desk Owned 38 Percent of All 10-30 Year U.S. Treasuries

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Crypto Victims’ Cries for Help Are Piling Up at a Federal Complaint Center
by Gunnar Larson 17 Dec '24

17 Dec '24

https://wallstreetonparade.com/2022/06/crypto-victims-cries-for-help-are-pi… By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: June 22, 2022 ~ The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is the federal agency that was created under the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010 in response to Wall Street’s harrowing abuses to average Americans in the leadup to the financial crash of 2008. One of its key benefits is that it has a complaint database where consumers can post their complaints to the agency, and the general public and reporters can read those complaints on a public website. The general public benefits by seeing what types of complaints are being made against a financial institution they might be considering doing business with and reporters can look for dangerous patterns that are emerging. We delved into a specific area of complaints at the CFPB yesterday. We put the word “Bitcoin” into the search box and pulled up 1,031 matches. Next we searched under the word “crypto” and pulled up 885 matches. Considering that perhaps (generously) one in 1,000 people in America have heard about this complaint center and perhaps one in 2,000 would take the time to file a complaint, that’s an enormous number of complaints. It didn’t take us long to zero in on the company that was getting the bulk of the complaints. It was the cryptocurrency exchange, Coinbase, that became publicly traded on Nasdaq to much fanfare on April 14 of last year. So we entered the word “Coinbase” into the search box and got an astounding 3,732 matches. To wrap your head around just how astounding that number of complaints is for such a young company, we put the words “Goldman Sachs” into the search box and pulled up only 1,193 matches – and that’s over the span of more than a decade that the CFPB complaint center has been alive and the “great vampire squid” has been “wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money,” to quote Matt Taibbi’s take on Goldman Sachs. Coinbase’s website carries the slogan “The future of money is here.” Based on the gut-wrenching details in the complaints filed with the CFPB – if this is the future of money in America, the country is doomed and every citizen will soon be stuffing their cash under the mattress or burying it in the backyard. The complaints paint the narrative of a company that is not ready for prime time – or even the B roll that lands on the cutting room floor. Not to mention the fact that the business of Coinbase is trading and storing crypto – a product which has been called a Ponzi scheme by economist Nouriel Roubini and former Labor Secretary Robert Reich; “rat-poison squared” by legendary investor Warren Buffet; and a sham by a growing number of scientists and software engineers. Before we get to the text of the complaints and the horror stories of getting fleeced, consider who did get rich on this not-ready-for-prime-time company. On its first day of trading as a direct listing on April 14, 2021, the stock closed at a share price of $328.28 (after spiking to more than $400 during the day), giving it a market capitalization of $85.8 billion. In a traditional IPO, early investors and company executives are not allowed to sell their shares for several months under a lockup period. There’s no such restriction in a direct listing. According to an SEC filing, Coinbase’s Chairman and CEO, Brian Armstrong, sold 750,000 shares on April 14, 2021 at an average share price of $389.10, raising approximately $291.8 million for himself. Since then, Coinbase has been on a steady descent, closing yesterday at $57.49, a decline of 82 percent from its first trading day’s closing price. On May 27 of this year, Wall Street Journal reporters Corrie Driebusch and Tom McGinty revealed that Coinbase “Co-founders Brian Armstrong and Fred Ehrsam, as well as President and Chief Operating Officer Emilie Choi and Chief Product Officer Surojit Chatterjee, together netted about $1.2 billion in proceeds from stock sales starting the day the San Francisco-based company started trading through February of this year, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of regulatory filings.” Let that sink in for a moment. Shareholders in Coinbase have lost their shirts. Millions of crypto investors have lost much or all of their life savings as crypto prices have crashed or evaporated entirely. On June 14, Coinbase employees learned that 18 percent of their ranks were going to be sacked. And, as you will read in a moment, Coinbase customers have been put through insidious pain and suffering — repeatedly hacked, locked out of their accounts, and dealing with inept and/or suspect customer service reps, according to the reports at the CFPB. But the brainiacs who brought this not-ready-for-prime-time crypto company public have secured for themselves $1.2 billion in real U.S. dollars. Consider this tiny sampling of complaints against Coinbase in the CFPB database from residents of seven separate states: (Redacted data was done by the CFPB. We have not edited the text so typos and grammatical errors remain.) Complaint No. 5119798 Date Received by CFPB: January 18, 2022 Complainant’s State: California On XX/XX/XXXX I deposited {$50000.00}, XX/XX/XXXX I transferred {$50000.00} to coinbase pro to purchase bitcoin. I purchased XXXX bitcoin for {$50000.00} and then on XX/XX/XXXX deposited {$25000.00} and bought XXXX Ethereum, and XXXX cosmo coins for {$1500.00}. In total I sent {$75000.00} to coinbase to purchase crypto currency. Immediately after the {$25000.00} purchase they froze my account and wouldn’t let me buy or sell or withdraw my crypto currency. I attempted to sell multiple times while the market appreciated by 20 % only to receive a message that says “ sells disabled ”. The message on the coinbase app says ” unable to buy and sell, contact customer service ”. I’ve contacted customer service several times through email and phone calls and when they do respond, which is rare, they tell me my ” account is under review ”. I submitted a formal complaint and received a message 10 days later that said they need an additional 20 days to review my complaint. Meanwhile the market has decreased significantly and I’ve missed out on {$15000.00} of gains and my value is worth {$62000.00} so I’ve lost {$13000.00} already in one month all because they prevented me from selling or withdrawing my money. On XX/XX/XXXX i deposited {$10.00} to see if they would let me buy crypto still, they let me buy so their own messaging on the app is contradicting. They will take my money but won’t let me take it back. How can my account really be frozen if that is the case? This is theft and fraud and I demand financial compensation for my damages and lost opportunity. Complaint No. 5454783 Date Received by CFPB: April 16, 2022 Complainant’s State: Georgia For well over a month, I have been trying to get a resolution with funds accessibility issues relating to Coinbase and my account. Their app is unusable due to errors on their side with their system. This is causing great stress as I can not access my money or transfer funds to my bank from their exchange. XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX & XXXX are ticket numbers I have created with their support center. I have also signed up for their paid service to get support to no avail. They sell support services for their platform that results in no assistance. This in and of itself is stealing just as much as them not allowing me to access my funds. I have been a customer since XXXX with them, This is the first time I have seen their services in this kind of condition. I am in the payments industry as a profession and can not believe they can operate a service and withhold people ‘s funds due to refusing to fix their system issues. The nature of their bugs makes the website inoperable and their mobile app is also not functional. This is gone on for far too long and it is causing personal stress because of not being able to access a significant amount of funds that is mine, not theirs. I can log in to the site, I can not see my balance it reports as $ XXXX. I can not see my transactions or portfolio activity as the graphs will not load. I can not send money to my bank, It says ” You do not have any funds available to cash out right now. ” < — This is incorrect. I do, their system is broken and I can not access MY MONEY. It also represents my balance as $ XXXX and does not show a numeric value. The mobile app continually says … ” XXXX XXXX ” despite logging in to it and working on XXXX out of XXXX pages in their app ( meaning I am logged in so there is no ” XXXX XXXX ” really. It’s related to the same $ XXXX dollar amounts that the website is showing, This is really getting serious as I need access to my funds. I work very hard to be able to invest and they are making this very stressful as I need access to my money now… & can’t wait months for them to finally respond. Their ticketing system automatically closes tickets ( despite them not being really resolved ). This is very concerning and an intervention is needed with them to help me resolve this. The balance being held back ( my money ) is significant enough value to take legal action to get a resolution. They need to be responsive. CFPB please help, I know I am not the only person reporting such issues. It’s a big issue and they are not addressing it. They have a very poor track record of taking care of customers. This is a bad sign for a Publically Traded company … when many thousands of dollars are impacted on many users because of this complaint. Complaint No. 5196503 Date Received by CFPB: February 7, 2022 Complainant’s State: New York I purchased and stored cryptocurrency using Coinbase in XXXX. On XX/XX/XXXX I sold my cryptocurrency holdings ( Cardano, Bitcoin, and Ethereum ) on Coinbase for {$5100.00} USD. When I attempted to withdraw the USD to my XXXX XXXX account which is linked to my account on the site, I received an error message stating ” An error occurred. Your account has been locked, please visit coinbase.com to resolve ”. I had already gone through the account identity verification process, and had enabled the secure 2XXXXstep verification to access to my account on the site, so I was confused as to why my account would be locked. On XX/XX/XXXX I submitted a support claim on the Coinbase Support site detailing this issue. Shortly after submitting it, I received confirmation that my support claim had been received by Coinbase. On XX/XX/XXXX, at XXXX EST, I received an email from Coinbase Support asking for a screenshot of the error message I saw when attempting to withdraw USD to my bank account. At XXXX EST that day, I replied to the email providing the requested screenshot. After this correspondence, I received no further guidance or messages from Coinbase in any form. I followed up via email on XX/XX/XXXX, still to no response. I called their Support Hotline numerous times, but was never able to connect with a live service agent, only an automated system that provided no meaningful interactions and only repeated information that is readily available on the Coinbase Support site. Today, XX/XX/XXXX, after waiting XXXX business days since submitting my support claim, I issued a formal complaint via the Coinbase Complaint system. However, given my abysmal customer experience with Coinbase thus far, I am concerned that the issue will not be resolved. Additionally, I am prevented from accessing my account at the moment, as Coinbase renewed their user agreement to include limitations on the litigious actions and legal rights of its users who have complaints. Given my current situation, I feel it would not be prudent for me to agree to these terms prior to having this issue fully resolved. This issue has been incredibly disheartening. Had I known how little customer service support Coinbase had, I would have never decided to invest in crypto using their platform. I can not believe the number of hoops I have had to jump through just to reagin access to my assets. Complaint No. 5317727 Date Received by CFPB: March 11, 2022 Complainant’s State: Pennsylvania XX/XX/XXXX at XXXX am I had regular day to get ready for work. When I wake up I see my phone to check the weather but that day it was very shocking I saw a message telling me my Coinbase account has been breached. After that I tried to login Coinbase I couldnt login then I tried to change password I couldnt. Then I saw almost 200 emails which is telling me I transferred this amount of Bitcoins at this wallet address like this Congratulations! You have successfully sent XXXX XXXX to XXXX. You can view transaction details in your Coinbase XXXX account. To facilitate this transaction, you paid XXXX XXXX in network fees. After that I find out my XXXX phone is out of service. So I had to change my sim call XXXX and they help me to restore my line. I complained to my local police and they give me a case number then I also reported to the fbi. Now I have headache mourn for my money my wife is crying day and night. Our hardworking money go all on a second. Now Coinbase they cant help me to restore my Coinbase account I called them 10/15 times. They just send me an its my responsibility to protect my password. But police want to what IP address the guy login and all the transactions in my account but Coinbase cant help me. Complaint No. 5086437 Date Received by CFPB: January 8, 2022 Complainant’s State: Florida Utilizing Coinbase as an exchange for cryptocurrency, I was hacked out of more than {$40000.00} USD on two separate occasions and was hacked without losing any cryptocurrencies once prior. In all three incidents, there was an automatic/unauthorized sending of all crypto currencies in my account immediately upon logging in. During the first hacking incident there were crypto conversions that were made without me making them. Further details and timelines are as follows : The following transactions occurred on XX/XX/XXXX without my consent : [ e-mail at XXXX ] You have successfully sent XXXX XXXX to XXXX. You can view transaction details in your Coinbase account. To facilitate this transaction, you paid XXXX XXXX ( {$0.00} USD ) in network fees. [ e-mail at XXXX ] You have successfully sent XXXX ETH to XXXX. You can view transaction details in your Coinbase account. To facilitate this transaction, you paid XXXX XXXX ( {$14.00} USD ) in network fees. Unauthorized Bitcoin address on XXXX XX/XX/XXXX for XXXX XXXX : XXXX The only way to receive any kind of help is through Coinbase E-mail system. There were many times that I replied to their e-mail only to get a ” Non-Deliverable ” notification back. It took several other tickets for them to combine ticket numbers before I was successful in replying to their e-mail support. Needless to say, their support is almost non-existent. Their response to these malicious hacking attacks are that I’m responsible for my own security of my account, and that there is no breach, fault, or obligation on their part to safeguard customers ” accounts. I have done everything they suggested, including reaching out to my phone carrier for any security breaches to my phone ( no breaches have been made in that area ). I have not been the only that has experienced the litany of frustration dealing with Coinbase, yet they continue to operate as a business rendering no restitution to many of their customers. The last bit of salt in the wound is that there is approximately {$130.00} left in my account in a cryptocurrency that I can’t recover because the amount is too small to transfer. I would have to add more money to my account, and then transfer all of it out at the larger acceptable amount. There is an obvious problem with this because the funds would most certainly be hacked and stolen. Complaint No. 5252132 Date Received by CFPB: February 23, 2022 Complainant’s State: Tennessee On XX/XX/XXXX While I was preparing my taxes on XXXX XXXX, they needed to know how much my capitol gains from trading crypto currency were for XXXX. The website gave instructions on how to let them have the report from Coinbase Pro, however they were difficult to follow. I also had Coinbase Pro website on my laptop and was trying to figure out how to do it. On the computer there was a phone number to call to get help. When I called the number the man said he worked for Coinbase Pro and would help me figure it out. He asked me to let him on my computer and said he would take care of it for me. He was doing all sorts of things and he assured me that it was all part of the process. After a short while he suddenly hung up and I never heard from him again. When I tried to call him back at the same number, a recording said it was no longer in service. I didn’t want to panic so I waited for him to call me back which never happened. When I logged back on Coinbase Pro my remaining balance was only XXXX cents … .down from aprox {$5600.00} which was made up of about XXXX in cash and XXXX of XXXX and XXXX XXXX XXXX. Later I found out that he also transferred XXXX out of my checking account. XXXX on my debit card and XXXX from my checking account. I contacted Coinbase Pro immediately and they said they would begin an investigation into it. I Contacted my bank to stop any transactions I could to Coinbase Pro. When I called back to Coinbase Pro a few days later, I found out there was absolutely no investigation done at all. Complaint No. 5456264 Date Received by CFPB: April 16, 2022 Complainant’s State: Massachusetts On XX/XX/2022, I made a bitcoin ( of XXXX unit ) purchase on Coinbase XXXX using the majority of my cash balance of {$20000.00} at noon. However, the transaction didn’t seem to go through as the purchase wasn’t shown in the portfolio balance but the cash balance dropped by the amount purchased. So I reached out to Coinbase and asked for a resolution. The technician didn’t know the issue and planned to seek his colleague for help. Around XXXX I got a call from XXXX XXXX who claimed to work for Coinbase to help me with my issue. He said the transaction didn’t go through due to the need for my ID verification. He then sent me an email asking for my driver ‘s license and then sent all my bitcoin balance of ( {$48000.00} for XXXX units of Bitcoin + XXXX cash balance ) at Coinbase XXXX to an unknown blockchain address. He then hung up the phone. I contacted Coinbase customer service and they said they can not revert the transaction and they don’t have a strict regulation on bitcoin transfers to any external address. Also, they don’t provide FDIC insurance of any amount either. I would like for CFPB to contact Coinbase to investigate the poor customer service they had in terms of providing security and protection to its customers. We have provided this article this morning to the Senate Banking Committee, the House Financial Services Committee, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the state securities regulators in each of the seven states where complainants reside. FacebookTwitterWhatsAppLinkedInEmail

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