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I love a stink
My kind of story in the Swiss papers today. I love it when big shot central bankers get their dirty laundry made public.
Kashya, the wife of Phillip Hilldebrand (head of the Swiss National Bank) sold Swiss Francs just a few days before the Swiss National Bank initiated exchange controls and devalued the Franc. The timing of the transactions was nearly perfect. The suggestion is that “pillow talk” between husband and wife lead to the trades.
Don’t expect heads to roll over this transgression. There has been a complete review by Swiss authorities and the conclusion is that there were no insider trading violations by the wife.
That’s not to say that trades did not happen.
Apparently, Kashya Hildebrand bought ~$500,000 when she shorted the CHF. This relatively small transaction netted the Hildebrand family only ~$50,000 in less than one month. Being that the amount is so small, the conclusion is that nothing nefarious has taken place. From NZZ.
Therefore no central banker in the world would risk his job.
Really? Only $50k extra for the wife’s account? That’s not enough incentive? I guess so. Hubby earns CHF 862,000 ($950,00) at the SNB. (A sweet deal, Ben Bernanke takes in less than $200k)
What's fascinating about this story is how it came about. Who blew the whistle on wifey?The answer is that Kashya Hildebrand maintained an account with a (very) private bank called Sarasin. When she did the trades back in August someone at the bank alerted an opposition politician, Christoph Blocher. Blocher brought the evidence to the Swiss President, Micheline Calymy-Rey and insisted on an investigation.
The information was leaked by a bank employee? To a politician? Folks, this stuff is not supposed to happen in Switzerland. This is the land of banking secrecy. This leak is highly illegal. This affair proves one point. There is no secrecy left in Swiss banking (for residents and non-residents alike). Anyone who thinks there is, is just wrong.
It’s not possible to know the facts in this story. It’s been whitewashed. There are a number of possible scenarios. I wish I knew which one was right:
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-Philipp Hildebrand never told his wife about the pending exchange controls and devaluation of the CHF.
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-Kashya Hildebrand acted independently; she never informed her husband of the transactions she made with the family’s money (she also bought dollars and sold CHF for her daughter).
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-Kashya Hildebrand routinely bought and sold dollars. The timing of the transactions (August 15th) was pure coincidence.
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-No other employees of the SNB (or their family members) sold Swiss Francs in advance of the devaluation.
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-ALL OTHERS.....
.
This story stinks. It’s about political intrigue, stolen information from secret banks, leaked information from Central Banks and possible insider currency trading. A nice way to kick off the New Year!
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"Private Bank" is a meaningless term invented by marketers trying to sound Swiss and play off the anglicized term "private banker" then the odius term started being used in Switzerland itself...
The events certainly stink, but there is something strangly Swiss about the solution to the conundrum. Switzerland has stringent (and in this case- conflicting) laws both against disclosure of customer banking information, and impropriety by bankers in the course of their functions- so what is one to do when the actions of a banker's customer may indicate impropriety on the part of the nation's highest banker?
Blocher is an ideal conduit, since as one of the top rotweillers of the SVP he could be counted on not to sweep it under the carpet and is of high enough standing that the a "proper investigation" (before the obligatory sweeping under the carpet) was insured, and since he is a lawyer and used to head the Swiss federal equivilient of the Justice Depatment he would be less likely to fumble the ball and create an even bigger mess while navigating the labyrinth of laws, regulations, processes et al involved.
private banker
immaculate conception
same paradox
Actually "NO"
All the people complaining about the reckless behavior of bankers should lament the dirth of private bankers right along with the repeal of Glass Stegal and the incorporation of the investment banking partnerships.
The defining characteristic of a "Private Banker" is UNLIMITED PERSONAL LIABILITY, meaning his pay, the house and new car he bought with last year's pay, and the five years of back pay he has in other banks, even if it's in his kid's college fund, are all on the line if the bank fucks up your account. Corzine would never have pretended to be a BSD, had the entirety of his own wealth been on the line.
In this case, the "good old days" weren't so bad.
Don't tell me the Establishment has been caught yet again with it's trousers down !
Just shows who really rules the world .... women !
:-)
Mystical little Switzerland-always shrouded in secrecy-
Maybe not so much lately-
With a total GDP of less than most large western cities and 70% of the GDP is derived from banking and the Swiss banks are levered/underwater to the east block Euro nations and still they had to devalue/peg their currency-
How can that be possible?
Could it be because of the largest per capita gold reserves in the world-a market driven gold currency backing-without government decree?
http://media.economist.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/original-size/...
So will the Swiss be able to hold their peg if gold strengthens (&/ the euro weakens further)?
Man steals loaf of bread gets two years in jail.
Banker steals $50,000...
The Banker lost Trillions in deals..
The deal's netted the Bank's involved Trillions in Fee's.
The Fee's drove the deal's.. not the quality of the deal, just the Fee's were important.
Bankers are facing *** ! STIFF ! *** Civil Penalties for this Fraud that can… Not! (will… Not!) be prosecuted.
It was an honest mistake to trade paper back and forth that had NO!! Real! Value! so that the Fee Gravy Train could supply the Banks with Multiple Rivers of Revenue!
That is why this Honest Mistake is a Civil matter.
Now!
When someone Steals Bread! because they are hungry! That is of course Dangerous! Deadly Even!!
and you must as well consider that since the Privatization of Prisons! (thusly Wall Street is lobbying for *** ! STIFFER ! *** Penalties / Sentencing Guidelines) it is Important to JAIL! these Dangerous and Even Deadly Hungry People for years on end! at a cost of almost $100,000 dollars a year! to house these Dangerous and Even Deadly Bread Thieves!
I could go on.. but if you want to know why it is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! En Vogue' to not only Jail! but to as well ship to Prison for Extended Terms.. the Non-Violent Bread Thieves of the World.. you can google until you heart is content.. it is not a very well kept secret!
and besides! it tests well at the local and national level! Tough on Crime! no one is Pro-Crime! so it is an easy slam dunk for all involved! One of the Bush (President(s) families best earning companies is the Federal Prison Canteen Business.
http://blogs.reuters.com/alison-frankel/2011/11/16/national-credits-citi-deutsche-deals-are-mbs-breakthrough/
the Fee's and re-packaging of the same, rated product!
how many times could a product be re-sold?
Definition of 'Structured Repackaged Asset-Backed Trust Security - STRATS'
A derivative product similar to an exchange-traded fund (ETF) or American Depository Receipt (ADR), where the originator buys an asset, sets up a trust and then issues securities to investors. With structured repackaged asset backed trust securities the investors can benefit from the underlying asset's performance. Structured products are those that combine two or more financial instruments, including at least one derivative.
http://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/structured-repackaged-asset-backed-trust-security-strats.asp#axzz1iETEYZpY
STRAT's seems a little straight forward! (pun intended)
so.. you have vanilla.. package.. a mix of good, bad and in-between..
then.. you have that package resold to another entity.. a holding co. or trust.. so the trust is transferred to another trust.. this part may happen several times but at least once.
then.. you have a re-package of good and bad into different packages. so Good.. as one package and then Bad as another..
then.. you have a re-package of the really good.. and the a package of the really bad.. and the middle good and the middle bad.
once you hit synthetic packages... it just could go on forever.
the Fee's collected drove the market.
But understand.. the ghetto in Detroit did NOT! cause a World Wide Depression! Germany was already in a depression and coming out if it.. when this storm hit.
I dont want to get away from the point of Fee's! so! do you better understand how a (now, as of lately) $900 PLUS! Trillion Dollar Market Place filled with fraud! is simply a Civil Matter because the fraud! is not as dangerous as a Hungry man stealing a loaf of $2 Bread.. so that Wall Street can earn $90 PLUS Thousand dollars a year to house the dangerous bread thief in prison!
Think of the Bottom! Line!! MAN!!!
"The fee's drove the deal's..."
Why do you add apostrophes to everything with an 'S' on the end of it? A plural noun doesn't get an apostrophe. If it's a contraction (like it's for 'it is') then it gets an apostrophe. Otherwise it's to indicate possession. Crap, if you're in 3rd grade you probably shouldn't be posting here.
perchprism
a noun spouting anal
another red pencil guy with little to do but strut """"""""
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smRo7UFUuwM&feature=related
Uploaded by JyskeGlobal on Nov 29, 2010
Canadian Economist Jeff Rubin is known for his prescient calls in the oil markets over the past few decades. His most recent book, Why Your World is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller, explains why continuously rising oil prices will mean the end of globalization. We caught up with Rubin at the Global Wealth Management seminar in Copenhagen to talk about how rising oil prices will affect everything from home loans to the price of Salmon.
Don't! forget! all! the! exclamation! mark's! either!
Some people pierce body parts for art's sake, some folks paint with punctuation...
CONSERVATIVES CHEAT TO WIN
...50 YEARS OF PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH
GREEDY
CHEATING
PSYCHOPATHS
The Right is money crazy, the Left is power crazy. And both will do ANYTHING to win.
Thanks for that. He was stuck on that one note. He's also stuck in establishmentland, where the establishment fucks everyone, but gets their goons to blame it on the few idealists who didn't wreck everything: traditional liberals (like John Kennedy) and traditional conservatives (like Pat Buchanan & Howard Taft). Gotta go way back to find any traditionalists of any stripe who are to blame for the ongoing disasters. You'll look forever in vain before finding any constitutionalists who are to blame.
If Philipp never told his wife, and she acted independently, then she should be the one in charge of the SNB. She's a flipping genius. She can handle my Kashya any day. (Groan)
Always like the picture at the end of your articles. I guess you source them from a website specializing in grafiti, but I also have an image of a bespectacled gent loitering around inner city dumps to photograph apt and funny grafiti for our amusement.
One thing. I don't wear spectacles.....
b
I hope they prosecute the banker who blabbed; it's not such a bad law; and it is a law.
You don't think these politicos and bureaucrats work there for the salary, do you?
whatever happened to Cramers wife, the Trading Goddess? Is she Karen Finerman who does Mad Money? trade on his inside information and you'll end up divorced.
K-Fine is (and has been) married to Harvey something-or-other for quite some time. Karen (Bachfisch) Cramer is still married to Jim.
K Fine...who is super hot btw...is married I believe to the CEO of American Express...Mr. Golub. Could be wrong...doesn't get more connected if true of course. Not that I recommend lending to a media conglomerate of course. With the likes of BofA buckling under the weight insurmountable loan growth prospects and "the body guard of liars" known as the media have the very real probability of being exposed as well.
Never do business with the Sarasins?
Another scenario - wifey poking through his iPhone and found he was suggesting someone else make such a transaction.
50K is not outside the range of what has brought other people who are "above this" down. Martha Stewart went down for a trivial amount. Kentucky politicians have gone down for four figure amounts. Hillary had her $100K in cattle futures.
follow the money (or follow the stink!)
Cattlegate redux.
Never underestimate pillow talk..lmao
Was it good for you?
Oh yeeeaaaah baby, worth at least 50K!
2012 stinks already? After only 10 hours?
I'll bet the stench of rot and decay will become powerful enough to bring a strong man to his knees.
Gas masks FiSHeS
Got mine at the ready!
PS: Don't forget the extra filter cartridges. ;-)
and a central banker with a wife whose name begins with Kash...
And a President named Micheline Calumny-Rey.
Not any more - it Jan 1st, automatic New Year & new head of the Federal Council.
Ha ha ha ha ha!!!!!!!!!!
Happy New Year from all U.S. citizens incarcerted (without writ of habeas corpus) at GITMO.
Send lawyers, guns and money!
+1 for the near end of catalog (Zevon) reference.
Smell of sulphur alright. Any privacy left in the banking system anywhere is definitely gone. And the US is doing its best to lead by example. Two deposits in one week? 'Unusual' cash withdrawal? Your bank teller is busy filing those reports to big brother.
Any implied safety in the fiat monetary system, has always been an oxymoronic perception. Anywhere. It just takes a while to discover that gem of wisdom.
Happy New Year, Bruce!
Thanks for all the great stories, and tagged bridges, underpasses.
Berny only makes 200k?
Whoehahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!
No wonder that doosh fucks things up so bad!
Next time hire a professional!
plus tips.
Now thats some dry humor right there...lol.
Let's Honk again. He made 50 Millions on the doorstep .... :-P
The suggestion is that “pillow talk” between husband and wife lead to the trades.
Don’t expect heads to roll over this transgression. There has been a complete review by Swiss authorities and the conclusion is that there were no insider trading violations by the wife.
That’s not to say that trades did not happen.
Apparently, Kashya Hildebrand bought ~$500,000 when she shorted the CHF. This relatively small transaction netted the Hildebrand family only ~$50,000 in less than one month. Being that the amount is so small, the conclusion is that nothing nefarious has taken place...
Sounds like they've patterned their behavior after the US former chief executive and his wife, our current secretary of state. Right down to the paultry 50k per month being paid to his company Teneo by the bankrupt engineer of the US recovery program, the honorable governor Corzine. This transaction however caused the vaporization of ~frn 1.2B
Only 2 down arrows? Surely Teneo's got better representation on ZH than that.
People do strange things. The director of the IMF engaging in sex with a hotel maid. Locally, a very wealthy developer sent his wife to deliver a set of keys to a resident at one of his properties. Passing through the mail room the woman saw UPS had dropped off a package. She took it. Security camera filmed her filching the box and the $800 contents!
Kinda like raiding the Gibson guitar factory for violation of the Lacey Act (international law interpretation by Eric Holder...lol...huh?...Mark Rich who?) but having no problem at all handing one out to people like Sarkozy's ole lady.
Its good to be kings & queens!!!
If only "queen" rhymed with a word which was synonymous with justice ... hmmm ...
Regards,
Cooter
Where is the Limerick King when you need him? I'll give it a shot:
There once was the wife of a banker,
For money she sure had a hanker,
She listened in bed,
To her husbands loose head
But the deal let out quite a stanker.
The old days of Swiss banking, too bad they are gone ...
Some friends, a married couple, were at a Swiss bank. The banker had something to say about one of their accounts, so the banker first politely asked if one partner wanted to go to a separate room to discuss the account without the spouse.
Maybe after a lot of the money moves to Singapore, the Swiss will try to restore their old banking lustre ... but it might be too late.
Wonder what nation, by 2020, will be holding the crown of the next 'Switzerland', if any.
CONSERVATIVES CHEAT TO WIN
...50 YEARS OF PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH
GREEDY
CHEATING
PSYCHOPATHS