An Example Of What Should Lead To Handcuffs
The Market Ticker ® - Commentary on The Capital Markets
Posted 2011-10-23 12:41
by Karl Denninger
in Corruption
Ignore this thread
An Example Of What Should Lead To Handcuffs
 

And here we have Prime #1 example (well, ok, maybe not "Prime #1", but certainly A Prime example)

The SEC alleges that Citigroup Global Markets structured and marketed a CDO called Class V Funding III and exercised significant influence over the selection of $500 million of the assets included in the CDO portfolio. Citigroup then took a proprietary short position against those mortgage-related assets from which it would profit if the assets declined in value. Citigroup did not disclose to investors its role in the asset selection process or that it took a short position against the assets it helped select.

Citigroup has agreed to settle the SEC’s charges by paying a total of $285 million, which will be returned to investors.

To recap, this is what happened:

  • Citigroup put together a CDO (a debt obligation) in which it selected "assets" to put into the transaction specifically for their crappiness.  That is, they chose assets that they expected would decline in value.

  • The company then shorted the instrument it created, a position that would lose money if the CDO performed as expected and marketed to investors.  They could only make money if the investor lost their shirt.

  • They did not disclose either their selection of the assets in the CDO or that they took the short to the people who were buying it!

As expected and designed the CDO blew up.  The "investors" took a 100% loss; what they bought was valueless as it was a levered instrument and the valuation loss of the underlying assets was sufficient to wipe out their investment.  Citigroup made a lot of money.  The instrument performed exactly as Citigroup intended but they did not tell the people who were buying this thing that they expected they would lose every penny they put in up front.  In fact they intentionally concealed their role in selecting the assets and that they had taken a short position against them!

Now the SEC steps in and they agree to "settle" this case with what amounts to a fine.

In fact the SEC press release claims that Citigroup knew damn well what they were "selling" was fraudulently misrepresented to the customers:

According to the SEC’s complaints, the Class V III transaction closed on Feb. 28, 2007. One experienced CDO trader characterized the Class V III portfolio in an e-mail as “dogsh!t” and “possibly the best short EVER!” An experienced collateral manager commented that “the portfolio is horrible.” On Nov. 7, 2007, a credit rating agency downgraded every tranche of Class V III, and on Nov. 19, 2007, Class V III was declared to be in an Event of Default. The approximately 15 investors in the Class V III transaction lost virtually their entire investments while Citigroup received fees of approximately $34 million for structuring and marketing the transaction and additionally realized net profits of at least $126 million from its short position.

Where are the handcuffs for the obvious false statements?  This "transaction" was a clear (and successful) attempt to simply rob people.

If you or I do something like this through some fraudulent edifice we go to prison.  But when a big national bank does it, we simply order them to a pay a fine when they get caught.

This makes stealing a simple business proposition: Since you will not get caught all of the time, there is no reason not to steal.  Any time you do not get caught you get to keep all the loot.  When you get caught you negotiate to return some of the loot.

AND WE WONDER WHY INSTITUTION ENGAGE IN THIS SORT OF BLATANT RIPOFF?

Ps: Oh yeah, there's this pesky statute of limitations problem too.  Anyone note the dates?  Just draw it out until you can't prosecute - on purpose.  This is nothing more or less than an organized looting operation with the full participation of the government in stealing from the victims.

Discussion below (registration required to post)
 

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Icanhasbailout
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Harrisonact
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canada
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I thought if fraud underpinned the deal there was no SOL.

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bilge
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Dashingdwl
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Barring fraud, how many years is the statute of limitations?

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Genesis
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For securities fraud, typically five years.

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I don't care if it makes sense -- only if it makes money. -- Me
Bank (n): See scam, fraud and theft. Eat a bankster -- they're low-carb.
What part of "shall not be infringed" was unclear?
Mortgageguymn
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No sense implementing regulations if they're going to just be ignored. Even regulations that contain an "or else" can be ignored. Regulations that are mere illusions - like Dodd-Frank are worse than nothing. Claiming to eliminate & foreswear bank bailouts while simultaneously creating a bailout insurance fund gives the lie to any pretense of a willingness to take prompt corrective action.
Bertdilbert
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It has always amazed me how we can have a war on drugs and long prison sentences for what amounts to petty crimes and then you can rip off millions and break people and get off with a slap on the wrist. All considered, we should probably have a war on wall street.

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War on Wall Street? How about a war on Oligarchy? Failure to prosecute the participants in the plethora of financial frauds IS proof that Amerika is no longer a Republic.
Irritatedcitizen
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I wish Stewart (or Ratigan?) would pick this up and run with it. It needs very broad dissemination.

Also, Imustbenutz, would you mind if I used a slightly tweaked version of that last sentence in my sig? As follows:

"Failure to prosecute the participants in the plethora of financial frauds is PROOF that America is no longer a Republic."
Leicestersq
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Does the statute of limitations only apply to criminal matters?

Is there a case for removing this limitation in light of the fact that evidence often only becomes available years after the event.

What about those who lost money, are they going to sue Citigroup for the lost money, plus damages? Should be an easy enough case to win.
Starvingartist
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Can Citi be sued for something the SEC has already settled?

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Blurtman
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This is simply boiler room fraud, plain and simple. Consider that we have had a recent Treasury Secretary who profited from this very type of crude fraud, Hank Paulson. Create toxic securities, bribe willing rating agencies to give them the triple A, profit by selling this crap to dupes, and magnify your profits by shorting the crap out of it, or taking out multiple CDS on the garbage. And when your poisoned bookie AIG cannot pay, your former criminal CEO, now US Treasury Secretary, ensures that your bookie makes good on your bets with tax payer dollars.

This is not a very sophisticated crime. It is quite amazing for its brazen obviousness, however.

It is the very anatomy of an illegal wealth transfer. This is exactly how it is done.
Inline

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Buddy
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No statute of limitations on pulling your money out of Citigroup and it's
subsidiaries, into a non-TBTF
Buddy
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I wonder what the statute of limitations are for what Bill Black has in
mind?
Vitaeus
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At least they settled for more than the fees and profits. Most of the rest of the examples from the last few years, they still made a profit on the one's they got caught doing. Progress of a sort <sarcasm /off>
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The description of this theft says nothing about who we selling/originated the crap that was selected for the CDO.

I would bet that either Citigroup owned a lot of the crap and wanted to unload it OR, they got a fee or some kickback from whoever owned it to help them get rid of it. RICO anyone?

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S&P 500 at 320, DOW at 2200, Gold $300/oz, and Corn $2/bu.
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if it's dirty rotten immoral that's one thing. If it's b/w letter of the law then what about a citizens arrest?
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inline

Enemies of the state.

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Mac
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I'd like to see the sons of bitches who originated this thing, along with the bastards who allowed it, given a show trial where they explained everything that happened. Then they should have to explain IN DETAIL why they thought doing this was permissible. After that, the senior management of Citigroup should have to explain why they, personally, should not be liable for RICO penalties. All should be videotaped and run on national television on primetime.
Then, the sons of bitches, the bastards, and the senior management should be fined for every dime they have and every asset they own. Following that, they and their immediate families should have their citizenship revoked and be immediately deported to Liberia.

That's actually being kind. They deserve to be shot out of hand.
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Mad Max is the answer!

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Lugnut
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"Where are the handcuffs for the obvious false statements? This "transaction" was a clear (and successful) attempt to simply rob people."

Theres a simple fact at play here. The SEC can only enforce it's own rules, and is limited by what it can do to companies, it has no criminal prosecution authority. Plus, 9 digit fines have a nice way of rouding out annual budgets. The SEC and the State AGs have to either investgate and prosecute these cases independently or jointly. I imagine a joint investigation between these two regulatory behemoths would be like watching 2 700 pound people trying to make love. Sharing of information and responsibilities probably isnt their strong suit. The real problem here isnt the SEC its the Attorney Generals who make the settlements instead of prosecuting.

Citi has a precedent to know that it can settle with AGs and eat the fines as a cost of doing business.

http://www.advisorone.com/2008/08/07/cit....

Bigbluffer
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To answer a couple of questions:
For securities fraud: There is two years after the discovery of the fraud to file suit, with a five absolute statute of limitations.

Mac,
There are individual charges pending against one individual from Citi, the one who put the CDO together, selected the assets, and wrote the non-disclosing disclosures. However, there is email evidence that his boss knew of the deal, and obviously the proprietary trading desk at Citi knew of the bad deal because they put $500M of short bets, $490 of which was naked shorts, on the CDO. No charges against any or them.

Instead, Citi was fined and allowed to consent to the charges without admitting or denying any allegations. In other words, Citi is allowed to say "we'll pay the money to make this suit go away, but we didn't do anything wrong", as has happened in other settlement agreements.

Will we ever get an admission/verdict of guilt, much less handcuffs?
Mikek31
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The problem is that these settlements all boil down to nothing other than a "cost of doing business." In other words, they'll keep doing this because the cost is negligible. No surprise at this late stage of the game. What bugs me more now is who in their right damn mind would continue to do business with such an entity? Anybody and everybody who has dealt with Citi, Goldman, et. al. has to be seriously questioning just wtf is going on here, if not pulling funds outright. My point is, where are the (domestic) bank runs?

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Steelhead23
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Note: The profits to Citi appear to exceed the fine. That is, there were 500 million in assets assigned to the trust. For the sake of assuming the worst, let us say that all 500 million was originated by Citi or was held by Citi and they very well knew its odor. On top of the 500mm, Citi picked up $34mm in fees and $126mm from its "sure thing" shorts. Thus, for incurring prosecution risk, Citi "earned" $660 million. Then, when caught, including extremely harmful emails, they got dunned $285mm. As it turns out, the reward was over double the incurred risk. That's brilliant risk management. So, Citi's CFO would no doubt term this a brilliant play, perhaps even touting Citi's great skill in getting away with theft to potential equity investors. Citibank, we make money the old fashioned way - we steal it!

BTW - I agree that SEC is weak beyond belief, but I believe in assigning most blame to the perps - Citigroup, not SEC. I suspect SEC workers feel like they are in a war zone - with damn little political support. They likely felt that they got all they could and lacked political support to seek a fine that would exceed Citi's vig.

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Andyc
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"Consider that we have had a recent Treasury Secretary who profited from this very type of crude fraud, Hank Paulson."


Funny that the Harvard Endowment Hank was running didn't profit from these very same type of positions..Harvard lost a few billion...then again maybe someone else profited on that failure

: )
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