(By Sri Ramamoorti) On February 13, 2015, Joe Koletar posted an entry that mentions, “…the fines (relatively insignificant in amount to the offenders), often go unpaid!” The fines levied on the big banks following the Wall Street financial crisis exceed $100 billion, and even for the big banks, these are are significant and […]
(By Joe Koletar) The February 11, 2015 Wall Street Journal reports what increasingly seems to be old news: “U.S. Seeks Guilty Pleas from 4 Banks in Probe (page C-3).” The targets this time are Barclays PLC, Citigroup, Inc., J.P.MorganChase, and Royal Bank of Scotland. The article tells us the Justice Department (DOJ) plans to charge […]
(By Vic Hartman) The Department of Justice announced February 3, 2015, a $1.375 billion settlement from the long-standing and venerable ratings agency, Standard & Poor’s Financial Services LLC (S&P). DOJ had charged S&P with civil charges based on laws enacted after the Savings and Loan crisis here in the United States in the late 1980s. […]
The January 29, 1915 Wall Street Journal describes (p. B1) technology “…That Unmasks Your Hidden Emotions.” The article, by Elizabeth Dwoskin and Evelyn Rusli, introduces software based on the work of Paul Ekman, now 80 years old, who catalogued more than 5,000 facial muscle movements that he believes clue us in about the emotions behind […]
Joe Koletar notes an article (The Economist, November 22, 2014, page 68), “Lying, Cheating Bankers.” He writes, “Researchers split a group of 128 bankers with an average of twelve years’ banking experience into two groups. The control group was asked a series of harmless questions about how much they watched television and similar questions. The […]
(A Roundup of Quotable Notes from our Bloggers) Notice how thin the line is getting between propriety and unethical/illegal behavior in today’s business miasma? The shameless chase for personal wealth takes on many dimensions. Our blogger contributors—highly alert for signals of such compromising behaviors—have been chatting among themselves. Joe Koletar: “The December 10 issue of […]
See previous posts (See “Does a Leopard Change Its Spots: New Case Reprise, Nov 1; “Where’s the Personal Accountability, Nov 2, and “The Whole Thing is Largely a Joke, Nov 3). Our blogging team has moved into a new, but related, quadrant of thought about bank recidivism in returning to illegal behaviors, ushered in by […]
Daven Morrison, MD, is scheduled for a live interview on the online radio program, “FraudTalk.” Timing of the interview: Monday, December 15, 9:00 am CST, 7:00 am Pacific Time, hosted by Chris Marquet. FraudTalk is an informative weekly program covering recent fraud cases, trends, characteristics and preventive strategies—an ideal venue for one of our authors […]
(By Joe Koletar) An important, and often over-looked, element in cases like the one discussed in the previous two posts is the personality of the US Attorney (the lead prosecutor.) Many have political ambitions down the road (e.g. Rudy Guiliani in NYC.) Judges also play a role, in two ways. Some just want to be […]
(By Dr. Sri Ramamoorti) I was particularly struck by the following comments in that article (see previous post), which are uncannily reminiscent of the comments I made during the Q&A period at an FBI panel session that Vic [Hartman] moderated in Indianapolis in late August this year. “Even now that prosecutors are examining repeat offenses […]