by ilene - February 23rd, 2011 2:34 am
Courtesy of The Daily Bail
Source – Bloomberg
Citigroup ignored warning signs of Bernard L. Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, and a bank executive knew the con man’s stated trading strategy couldn’t generate the reported returns, the trustee liquidating Madoff’s firm said in a lawsuit.
The unidentified Citibank executive, who was responsible for making recommendations to clients on derivatives, “concluded” by June 2007 that returns reported by a Madoff feeder fund, Fairfield Sentry Ltd., couldn’t have come from the strategy, trustee Irving Picard said in a complaint unsealed yesterday. The executive reached his conclusion after meeting with analyst Harry Markopolos, a whistleblower who also alerted U.S. regulators to the fraud, Picard said.
The Citibank official later communicated with Markopolos orally and in writing, specifically discussing the fraud before the Ponzi scheme was exposed in December 2008, Picard alleged.
“Citi knew, and was on notice of, irregularities and problems concerning the trades reported by BLMIS, and strategically chose to ignore these concerns in order to continue to enrich themselves,” Picard said in the complaint, referring to Madoff’s firm, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC.
Picard laid out in the complaint details of a lawsuit he filed under seal in December against New York-based Citigroup and other banks. He is demanding $425 million from Citigroup – money it received “in connection with” a loan to a Madoff feeder fund and a swap transaction with a Swiss hedge fund linked to a second feeder fund, Picard said.
Continue reading at Bloomberg…
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We first got an inkling of Picard’s filing from this Bloomberg story in December.
Citigroup, Bank of America Sued by Madoff Trustee
Citigroup Inc.’s Citibank, Bank of America Corp.’s Merrill Lynch unit and five other banks were sued by the trustee liquidating Bernard Madoff’s firm to recover more than $1 billion for the con man’s defrauded customers.
The banks, which include Natixis SA, Fortis Prime Fund Solutions Bank (Ireland) Ltd., ABN Amro Bank NV, Nomura Bank International Plc. and Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA, received money through Madoff feeder funds when they knew, or should have known, that Madoff’s investments were a fraud, the trustee, Irving Picard, said yesterday in a statement.
Picard, who faces a two-year legal deadline that runs out Dec. 11, has filed hundreds of suits in the past month, seeking more than $34 billion from banks, feeder funds, investors and others alleged to have profited from Madoff’s decades-long Ponzi scheme, the biggest in…
Tags: Bernie Madoff, citibank, Citigroup, con man, Fraud, Harry Markopolos, Irving Picard, Ponzi scheme, white collar crime
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by ilene - June 19th, 2010 11:25 am
Courtesy of Ryan Grim and Shahien Nasiripour at The Huffington Post
The proposed financial reforms pending before Congress could cost Goldman Sachs nearly a quarter of its annual profits, Citigroup analysts estimate in a new report.
Goldman, the most profitable securities firm on Wall Street, could lose up to $5.06 in earnings on a per-share basis if Congress passes a bill that forbids banks from trading for their own profit, owning or sponsoring hedge funds and private equity funds, and compelling them to move most of their derivatives dealing into regulated markets, according to the research note.
Combined with a potential fee to recoup taxpayer losses on TARP and higher deposit insurance assessments on its bank, Goldman could lose up to 23 percent of its profits, giving it the distinction of being the firm most impacted by the financial reform legislation.
Morgan Stanley is a close second as the team of Citi analysts, led by Keith Horowitz, estimate that it could lose up to 20 percent of its profits. Up to 18 percent of JPMorgan Chase’s profits are at risk, while Bank of America, the nation’s largest bank by assets, could see up to 16 percent of its profits evaporate.
The so-called "Volcker Rules," which would ban banks from putting their own capital at risk in hedge funds, private equity firms and through proprietary trades, and limit the growth of the largest ones, could shave four percent off the banks’ bottom lines, the Citi analysts estimate. Tighter restrictions on prop trading, which come in the form of a provision pushed by Democratic Senators Carl Levin of Michigan and Jeff Merkley of Oregon, could cost the big banks five percent of their profits.
Combined with the various other aspects of the pending legislation — like compelling banks to hold better-quality capital, making the biggest ones pay more for deposit insurance and robust regulation of heretofore unregulated derivatives — and the nation’s biggest banks could collectively lose up to 11 percent of their annual profits, the Citi analysts estimate in their Wednesday report. Goldman, Morgan, JPMorgan and Bank of America would be the most impacted.
"[O]ne of the biggest areas of risk for the group is tougher trading rules via [a] narrow definition of what constitutes banned proprietary activity," the authors noted. They were also careful to note that while their estimates required…
Tags: citibank, derivatives, Financial Crisis, financial reform, Financial Regulation, financial regulatory reform, Goldman Sachs, Megabanks, The Financial Fix, Wall Street Reform
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by ilene - November 25th, 2009 6:24 pm
Courtesy of The Shocked Investor
Newspaper O Estado de Sao Paulo reports that the Brazilian Minister of Mines and Energy, Edison Lobao, revealed today in New York that at the height of the crisis Brazil almost bought Citibank:
"We could have bought and could have had great profit, in addition to prestige," he said. The minister said the decision not to acquire the bank was made by the government as a whole.
Mr. Lobao said that before the U.S. government had bought a third of Citi, the institution sought the Brazilian authorities. He said he did not know the "fair price" which was discussed with Brazil, but, considering the size of the country’sreserves, the country could have purchased a share of the institution.
In late July, Citigroup completed the exchange of securities of $60B that made the U.S an owner of a third of the bank. All the $ 20.3B in preferred stock and hybrid securities and equity securities issued publicly by Citi were exchanged in the offer for common shares, while the federal government shifted about $39.5B of preferred stock for new bonds.
Tags: brazil, citibank, Federal government, preferred stock
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by ilene - October 27th, 2009 10:13 pm
Courtesy of Karl Denninger at The Market Ticker
Gee, this is a green shoot….
NEW YORK, Oct. 27 /PRNewswire/ — The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index®, which had declined in September, deteriorated further in October. The Index now stands at 47.7 (1985=100), down from 53.4 in September. The Present Situation Index decreased to 20.7 from 23.0 last month. The Expectations Index declined to 65.7 from 73.7 in September.
The kicker….
In fact, the Present Situation Index is now at its lowest reading in 26 years (Index 17.5, Feb. 1983). The short-term outlook has also grown more negative, as a greater proportion of consumers anticipate business and labor market conditions will worsen in the months ahead. Consumers also remain quite pessimistic about their future earnings, a sentiment that will likely constrain spending during the holidays."
Let me guess – Citibank’s decision to jack rates to 29.9% didn’t have anything to do with that?
Neither does the gross and outrageous under-reporting of jobless rates by the government?
Neither does the incessant attempts to jack up taxes by state and local governments (instead of cutting spending back to, for example, year 2000 levels)?
Neither does the fact that the very banks who managed to play the "end of the world" card just one year ago, effectively stealing government guarantees and handouts worth some twelve trillion dollars, are now paying record-level bonuses?
Neither does the fact that Bwarney Frank and Chris Dodder are "furious" about the credit card companies rate-jacking people, but they in fact wrote the bill to allow it to happen?
Neither does the Federal Government’s outrageous and insane refusal to acknowledge that we have too much debt, including at the federal level, and you can’t fix a drunk’s problem by giving him a bottle of whiskey?
Many people consider The American People to be "sheep."
It appears that The Sheep have watched a cadre of a dozen foxes (the billions of "campaign contributions") and five sheep holding a vote on what’s for dinner, and realized that in such a rigged game the best choice is not to play, kneecapping the foxes’ ability to feast.
Beware if your thesis of "economic recovery" requires consumers…
Tags: citibank, Consumer Confidence, Interest Rates
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Philip R. Davis is a founder Phil's Stock World, a stock and options trading site that teaches the art of options trading to newcomers and devises advanced strategies for expert traders...
Ilene is editor and affiliate program
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