From 2010 through 2014, the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations Focused on Crime on Wall Street; Since Then – Head in the Sand

[Gunnar Larson]

https://wallstreetonparade.com/2023/12/from-2010-through-2014-the-senates-permanent-subcommittee-on-investigations-focused-on-crime-on-wall-street-since-then-head-in-the-sand/


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>From 2010 through 2014, the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on
Investigations Focused on Crime on Wall Street; Since Then – Head in the
Sand

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: December 19, 2023 ~


Senator Richard Blumenthal, Chair of the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on
Investigations

>From 2010 through 2014, the most intractably corrupt industry in America –
Wall Street – was the perpetual focus of the Senate Permanent Subcomittee
on Investigations. The late Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) Chaired that
Subcommittee throughout that span of time. Then Levin retired from the
Senate in January 2015 and Wall Street’s name disappeared from hearings of
that critical Subcommittee from 2015 through 2023 – a span of nine years.

Wall Street did not become less corrupt from 2015 through 2023 to warrant
it falling off the hearing schedule of the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee
on Investigations. In fact, Wall Street became more corrupt. Financial
watchdog, Better Markets, wrote the following in its detailed report in
October on Wall Street mega banks’ unending crime spree:

“For years, Better Markets has been tracking the enforcement actions
against the nation’s six largest banks (the ‘Six Megabanks’) [JPMorgan
Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup/Citibank, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs and
Morgan Stanley], along with some of the most prominent civil cases. The
number of actions and the dollar amounts of penalties and damages imposed
on the banks have grown with each passing report. And the violations and
fines keep piling up, apparently having no impact on the lawbreaking habits
at these banks.

“Over the past 15 months, since the most recent report in May 2022, the
pattern of illegal conduct by the Six Megabanks has continued. Their RAP
Sheets now include 60 more new cases, which have resulted in over $9
billion in additional fines arising from the banks’ ripping off,
discriminating against, or financially endangering their customers. That
means the totals from last year’s RAP Sheet report have risen from 430 to
490 actions and more than $198.5 billion in monetary sanctions to $207.7
billion in monetary sanctions….”

How is it possible that the United States Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee
on Investigations cannot see that the criminal activities of Wall Street’s
mega banks threaten the national security of the United States? That
reality certainly didn’t get past Senator Carl Levin after these same banks
blew up the U.S. financial system in 2008 and unleashed the worst economic
downturn since the Great Depression. More than 10 million Americans fell
into poverty and more than 6 million families lost their homes to
foreclosure as a result of Wall Street’s crime spree.

The leader of the crime pack is the largest federally-insured bank in the
United States – JPMorgan Chase – whose co-opted Board of Directors has
allowed the same Chairman and CEO, Jamie Dimon, to remain at the helm
despite the bank admitting to five criminal felony counts since 2014 and
racking up a rap sheet that is unprecedented in U.S. banking history.

According to the official website of the Permanent Subcommittee on
Investigations, its mandate includes “investigating all aspects of crime
and lawlessness within the United States which have an impact upon or
affect the national health, welfare and safety, including syndicated crime,
investment fraud schemes, commodity and security fraud, computer fraud, and
the use of offshore banking and corporate facilities to carry out criminal
objectives.”

Let that last phrase linger in your mind for a moment: “the use of offshore
banking and corporate facilities to carry out criminal objectives.”

This year four separate parties filed federal lawsuits against JPMorgan
Chase for its active involvement in facilitating the sex trafficking of
minors by Jeffrey Epstein. In addition to his own sexual assaults of these
underage girls, Epstein pimped them out to his wealthy pals in what appears
to have been a honey trap to gain valuable information, including,
potentially, espionage information. (Epstein was closely aligned with a
number of key political figures in Israel. Epstein’s largest financial
backer was Leslie Wexner, former Chairman and CEO of the retailing
conglomerate, L Brands, and a major supporter of Israel. Wexner’s mansion
in Manhattan and one of his corporate jets ended up being owned by Epstein.
Even more bizarre, Wexner gave Epstein a full power-of-attorney over his
financial affairs.)

As a result of the lawsuits, internal emails from executives and staff of
JPMorgan Chase were released, showing how the bank pampered this sexual
predator in exchange for referrals of wealthy clients. It also appears that
the bank was laundering money for Epstein by not filing the legally
required Suspicious Activity Reports for more than a decade.

A former FBI agent, Shaun O’Neill, was prepared to testify at trial as an
expert witness that JPMorgan Chase had “impeded” the investigation of
Epstein and provided the following vast sums of hard cash to him:

“Epstein was able to withdraw large amounts of cash from his JPMC accounts
for years [Redacted]. In the year 2003, Epstein was able to withdraw highly
suspicious amounts of cash totaling $175,311. In 2004, he withdrew
$840,000. In 2005, he withdrew $904,337. In 2006, he withdrew $938,625. In
2007, he withdrew $526,000. In 2008, he withdrew $469,000. In 2009, he
withdrew $165,011. In 2010, he withdrew $253,397. In 2011, he withdrew
$260,000. In 2012, he withdrew $290,000. In 2013, he withdrew $197,152.”

Despite JPMorgan Chase being charged in 2014 by the U.S. Department of
Justice, and admitting to, two felony counts for decades of laundering
money for Ponzi kingpin Bernie Madoff, and also ignoring its legal
requirement to file Suspicious Activity Reports, there has been no criminal
case brought against JPMorgan Chase in this matter by the U.S. Department
of Justice, nor has the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations
held a hearing on the matter. (See our report: New Court Documents Suggest
the Justice Department Under Four Presidents Covered Up Jeffrey Epstein’s
Money Laundering at JPMorgan Chase.)

All of which leads us to the Chairman of the Permanent Subcommittee on
Investigations, Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), a former federal
prosecutor himself and Connecticut’s Attorney General for five terms, from
1991 to 2011.

Why has a man so imminently qualified to root out crime failed to hold one
single hearing dealing with crime on Wall Street? Naturally, that question
took us straight to Blumenthal’s largest campaign donors. It’s not a pretty
picture.

The campaign money watchdog, OpenSecrets.org, shows that lobbyists for
Israel and law firms representing Wall Street mega banks were the largest
donors to Blumenthal for election cycles 2019 through 2024.

AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) is Blumenthal’s number one
donor, giving $140,113 in that time span. Paul Weiss, the Big Law firm that
gets Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase out of criminal charges, is Blumenthal’s
second largest donor, giving $83,625 in that time span.

Blumenthal’s third largest donor is Apollo Global Management, a private
equity firm whose former Chairman and CEO, Leon Black, has been sued by a
woman who charged that he raped her in Epstein’s mansion in Manhattan.
Black is under investigation for his ties to Epstein by the Senate Finance
Committee, which wants to know why Black paid Epstein $158 million.

Blumenthal’s fourth largest donor is Pro-Israel America Political Action
Committee (PAC), which provided $51,600 to his campaign from 2019 through
2023.

In the case of corporate donors, the money comes from employees or their
spouses, not the corporation itself.

Below are the hearings involving Wall Street that were convened by the
Senate’s Permanent Subcomittee on Investigations while Senator Carl Levin
was Chair. Since then — zero.
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