Ethics of Penn Square Bank and the Dow Corning Bankruptcy Penn Square Bank: What were the ethical pressures on the firm concerning documentation, credit extension, and revenue recognition that lead to the final collapse? What should have been done to reduce or offset these pressures?…
The article reported how representatives at Wells Fargo received false strategies to accomplish the sky-scratching deals targets, including the opening of unapproved and…
Indeed, the PBS documentary titled, “The Untouchables” clearly validated the fact that the criminal justice system stance against large corporations seemed too lenient despite the reckless activities these institutions pioneered to destabilize the global economy. Furthermore, Lanny Breuer, the Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, during his interview with the PBS Frontline producer, remained all the time defensive even when presented with the facts implicating the powerful American banks about promoting wrongdoings. Paradoxically, Breuer in his defense kept arguing that his investigation could not find sufficient evidence to indict the financial institutions.…
The entire purpose of this documentary The Untouchables was to seek an answer to an abbreviated question: why has no Wall Street executive been criminally prosecuted for fraud tied to the sale of mortgages. But the unabbreviated question and the one that infuriates us as Americans is: why has no executive of a major Wall Street firm been criminally prosecuted for anything. Containing interviews with top prosecutors of the DOJ, government officials and industry whistleblowers, Frontline reports allegations that Wall Street bankers ignored pervasive fraud when buying pools of mortgage loans. Tom Leonard, a supervisor who examined the quality of loans for major investment banks like Bear Stearns, said bankers instructed him to disregard clear evidence of fraud. “Fraud was the F-word, or the F-bomb. You didn’t use that word,” says Leonard. “By your terms and my terms, yes, it was fraud. By the industry's terms, it was something else.” Hearing these statements infuriated me more for Leonard was trying to even inform his supervisors of what was going on what some points but they continued to ignore this as well. All the bankers were interested in was profit and money; this is a clear enough view for criminal intent, which the DOJ had been having trouble proving this without a reasonable doubt. If the U.S. Justice Department was serious about doing its job, it has a cornucopia of crimes to pick from: Wall Street CEOs and CFOs attesting to fraudulent financial filings with the SEC, money laundering, lying in prospectuses, illegal foreclosures, rigging the Libor interest rate benchmark and then selling interest rate swaps based on a rigged index to school districts, cities and counties across America, manipulating the futures market with a rigged Libor interest rate, and so forth. From this documentary alone it strikes me as odd that not a single Wall Street CEO or CFO is sitting behind bars serving time for any of these crimes that are so blatantly obvious. The closes…
In 2010 President Obama passed a consumer protection act formally titled the “Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.” This act was passed after the 2008 financial crisis to try to “promote the financial stability of the United States by improving accountability and transparency in the financial system,” and to put an end to ‘‘too big to fail’’ banks. Although the act was built on good intentions, Dodd-Frank has accomplished little of its intended purposes, and has only followed through in ways damaging to consumers.…
In the recordings a Goldman Sachs employee states “Once clients were wealthy enough, certain consumer laws didn’t apply to them” Once you have obtained enough wealth you can pull the strings to favor yourself more. These recordings were provided by the ex-federal bank examiner Carmen Segarra. I believe the recordings of the conversations are legal to a certain extent. If there is malice involved, then the recordings are illegal, but in theory Segarra did not have a malicious intention. These recordings were necessary for Segarra to obtain evidence against the Federal Reserve, since they are a closed institution. Unfortunately, since she is a licensed…
members including Bank of America, Apple, Citi Group and Microsoft to name a few contrary to…
The Federal Reserve overlook thousands of bank holding companies, hundreds of state bank members of the Federal Reserve Banking System, and any foreign banks operating in the US. The Federal Reserve Banking System is…
A muckraker is known to be an individual who “searches pit and publicly exposes real or apparent misconduct of a prominent individual or business.” The issue on whether a muckraker goes too far in their trivial pursuits or if they expose a just amount of lies can be debated. Muckrakers are responsible for many moments in history, in which government and/or businesses have been taken accountable for corruption in the United States. These brave journalists are one of the only people left that can police powerful industry leaders and even the government itself. In almost every case, journalists who expose such misconduct do not go too far. Their actions bring down corrupt politicians, criminal business leaders, and cheating athletes.…
WHISTLE-BLOWERS have been big news lately — from Chelsea Manning, formerly known as Pfc. Bradley Manning, to Edward J. Snowden. Yet, for most people, the question of whether to expose unethical or illegal activities at work doesn’t make headlines or involve state secrets.…
The federal agency analyzes the contents and the context of articles which offend the defenders of the free speech, and the respect of privacy and of which applies to libraries, bookstores, and other and other public places. How is this going to effect the citizens of the United States if we have to start worrying about the Federal Bureau of Investigation watching what we read, or dictates what they consider not under the social norms which they determine what constitute as terroristic reading. What happen if we are interested in a radical form of religion, but is not any treat of terrorism in their teachings? Our own constitution hints, at times blood may have to be spilled to keep our United States Government in check with our constitutional rights (Jefferson). What is to say the citizens of our country may develop a sense of our own self-censorship through our government dictating what constitute as terrorist reading? Is there a chance we could fall into this mindset because we may be concerned what our government may think what we read, listen too, or may be considered wrong for us to study? Terri Maggi, A librarian of the University of Vermont became concerned about the section of 215 on the of the United States Patriot Act, so she petitioned her congressman, Bernie Sanders, of Vermont and explained to him the dangers of unrestricted governmental intrusion on readers privacy. Sanders then introduced legislature to protect records of bookstores and library patrons. The House and Senate voted into law, legislature to protect American citizen’s rights being violated from The Patriot Act. When asked If Magi considers herself an activist she replied “No” I just felt there was a need to challenge The Patriot Act. Magi also said “We need to have a debate that The Patriot Act has led to violation to civil…
Edward Snowden, commonly known as the whistle-blower is the most discussed topic in the country from last month. According to the Merriam’s online dictionary, whistle-blower, (n.d.) means, “one who reveals something covert or who informs against another.”(m-w.com, n.d.).…
There are a number of threats that come into play where a bank is concerned. The first and probably the most common is robbery. Bank robberies take place all the time all over the country. Lately almost every time I tune into the local news there has been a bank robbery somewhere and the police are always looking for the suspect. I guess the economy is the reason why people are robbing banks so much. Another…
Whistleblowers have made headlines in media for much of modern American history. The viewpoints regarding whistleblowers are conflicted: some view them as heroes who rightfully expose government truths while others see them as criminals that should be punished with the fullest extend of the law. In fact, according to the “Whistleblowers” article in the Opposing Viewpoints Online Collection, “many whistleblowers are considered renegades or even traitors, and they may suffer both legally and in terms of their reputations.” In reality, however, whistleblowing informs the public that not everything is how it seems and calls for recognition of these problems. Despite many negative criticism toward these whistleblowers, in the course of history, they…
The leaked details included customer names, home phone numbers, addresses and email IDs, but did…