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Why Matt Taibbi Thinks This Woman Is JPMorgan's "Worst Nightmare"
In reality, there is nothing surprising in Matt Taibbi's latest piece since returning to Rolling Stone from the Intercept, as it tells a story everyone is by now is all too familiar with: a former bank employee (in this case Alayne Fleischmann) who was a worker in a bank's (in this case JPM) mortgage operations group, where she observed and engaged in what she describes as "massive criminal securities fraud" and who was fired after trying to bring the attention of those above her to said "criminal" activity.
The story doesn't end there, and as Carmen Segarra already showed, when she revealed that Goldman runs the NY Fed, once Alayne was let go and tried to "whistleblow" on the house of Jimon from the outside, she found the that US Department of Justice headed by Eric Holder is just as, if not more, corrupt, and in his desperate attempt to prevent discovery and bring JPM et al to justice, he would stretch the statue of limitations on frauds committed during the crisis long enough to where nobody had any legal recourse any more, up to and including the US taxpayer.
That is the 1 minute recap of yet another story in which the good guys lose, the bad guys bet everything on red, are bailed out when black hits, lie, never go to jail and instead use the same bailout funds to keep paying "settlement charges" to bribed government officials and avoid prison time. In short, the bad guys win.
And all with the help of every branch of the US government.
For those who want to read more, Taibbi's "The $9 Billion Witness: Meet JPMorgan Chase's Worst Nightmare" is a must read, even if, as noted, it says nothing that frequent Zero Hedge readers didn't already know. It does, however, have some great cartoons.
Taibbi's punchline:
... In September, at a speech at NYU, Holder defended the lack of prosecutions of top executives on the grounds that, in the corporate context, sometimes bad things just happen without actual people being responsible. "Responsibility remains so diffuse, and top executives so insulated," Holder said, "that any misconduct could again be considered more a symptom of the institution's culture than a result of the willful actions of any single individual."
In other words, people don't commit crimes, corporate culture commits crimes! It's probably fortunate that Holder is quitting before he has time to apply the same logic to Mafia or terrorism cases.
Fleischmann, for her part, had begun to find the whole situation almost funny.
"I thought, 'I swear, Eric Holder is gas-lighting me,' " she says.
Ask her where the crime was, and Fleischmann will point out exactly how her bosses at JPMorgan Chase committed criminal fraud: It's right there in the documents; just hand her a highlighter and some Post-it notes – "We lawyers love flags" – and you will not find a more enthusiastic tour guide through a gazillion-page prospectus than Alayne Fleischmann.
She believes the proof is easily there for all the elements of the crime as defined by federal law – the bank made material misrepresentations, it made material omissions, and it did so willfully and with specific intent, consciously ignoring warnings from inside the firm and out.
She'd like to see something done about it, emphasizing that there still is time. The statute of limitations for wire fraud, for instance, has not run out, and she strongly believes there's a case there, against the bank's executives. She has no financial interest in any of this, no motive other than wanting the truth out. But more than anything, she wants it to be over.
In today's America, someone like Fleischmann – an honest person caught for a little while in the wrong place at the wrong time – has to be willing to live through an epic ordeal just to get to the point of being able to open her mouth and tell a truth or two. And when she finally gets there, she still has to risk everything to take that last step. "The assumption they make is that I won't blow up my life to do it," Fleischmann says. "But they're wrong about that."
Good for her, and great for her that it's finally out. But the big-picture ending still stings. She hopes otherwise, but the likely final verdict is a Pyrrhic victory.
Because after all this activity, all these court actions, all these penalties (both real and abortive), even after a fair amount of noise in the press, the target companies remain more ascendant than ever. The people who stole all those billions are still in place. And the bank is more untouchable than ever – former Debevoise & Plimpton hotshots Mary Jo White and Andrew Ceresny, who represented Chase for some of this case, have since been named to the two top jobs at the SEC. As for the bank itself, its stock price has gone up since the settlement and flirts weekly with five-year highs. They may lose the odd battle, but the markets clearly believe the banks won the war. Truth is one thing, and if the right people fight hard enough, you might get to hear it from time to time. But justice is different, and still far enough away.
And the real punchline: nobody cares aobut justice as long as everyone is getting richer, if only on paper. It is what this nominal paper "wealth" disappears that things get scary for the Jamie Dimon's of the world, which is why the Fed will do everything to avert each and every market crash from now on until it finally loses control, because once people awake from the siren song of the printer, to realize they have nothing to show for years of labor and faith in a broken system, not to mention "Corzined" retirement funds that were invested in a Ponzi scheme, the only justice applicable, will be that of vigilantes.
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Bravo to Matt Tiabbi, but he returned to the crony-corporate rag Rolling Stone?
Well, I guess RS has to be "edgy" once in a while, but they will go the way Eric Holder (or his replacement) goes: TBTP, too big to prosecute, punish the whistle-blower instead.
Jon Corzine for President 2016. He has executive experience.
well, at least he escaped the Omidyar bubble.
unlike some other hero-ick control freaks, where "news" goes to die.
memory hole, oligarchs, heroes. *yawns*
In that excellent whistle drawing, Holder has that same 83 IQ soulless vacant stare that you see in all the mug shots.
It's no wonder Dimon has throat cancer if he's been sucking off Holder all these years.
so where is this stretchable, rubberized statue of limitations?
Looks like she is or was the justice. TBTF.
With all of the corruption at every level in this society, how long before the average prole concludes that the only way to win is to simply not play any more? Quit trying to get ahead, you won't anyways, anything you make for yourself is going to be stolen from you one way or another so why bother trying? What's the point?
Oh yeah, this is going to turn out well.
When I told him what it would take to get me back in the markets my retired NSA (former Ollie North subordinate) neighbor said, "Nobody gets charged, nobody goes to jail".
I sure want that class 'A', narcissistic asshole to be dead wrong.
Matt - You're at the top of my list for AG - Good Luck!!!!
Listen Zero's.
"sometimes bad things just happen without actual people being responsible".
Ah, nice one.
Too big to jail in Amerrika, evrybody else is domestick terrrist.
When people go on about the corruption in Ukraine or Russia, I smile inwardly as I think of the US and UK, the very capitals of the deepest corruption in the world. Only our criminals are smooth and rich and cultured - who would want to put them in prison? But smooth or not, rich or not, they are just cheap crooks in the end, and someday I truly hope that they get what is coming to them - a lynching.
SoL kinda funny? Its an ongoing crime so it does not run out any time soon. Show me one criminal activity that has stopped.
Treason has no SoL.
That said. Justice can take many forms. Dispite what you may have been told. How would you like it served? Hot or cold works for me.
Would somebody please put together a well researched and written piece on police pensions/inflation/zirp. These folks are being lied too. By people they trust blindly. A little light may be very helpfull in the long term. Keep in mind they are not as sharp as some others. Simple wordings and no jargon. The BS has been very deep for these tools.
Some of the promisses made to them are just amazing. The kind of stuff only a blind man could bite on. The ones on the job now are the ones that matter. Detroit or Camden should give plenty of proof.
It's times like this that I really hope there is a hell, so bastards like Dimon, Holder and that cunt Mary Jo can go straight there. God bless you Alayne. This totally fucked up modern world needs more people like you.
Yeah we Jimon.... and I hope you like Jimon too..... (because if you don't you might find yourself flying off of the nearest high rise).
Is it racist to bring up the nationality of most bankers?
Where do you think Chief Goebbels scumbag Eric I-love-Marc-Rich Holder is going after his stint at (non) Justice? Look for a beautiful "consulting" gig from Jamie once we get an Al Sharpton approved AG.
www.traderzoo.mobi
It's a sorry state of affairs that the only trustworthy financial journalism in the US is the Rolling Stone.
I tip my hat to the brave souls still among us.
This Country will never get well, until somebody goes to jail.
The minute somebody does, everybody on Wall Street and the Banks will run to their best behavior.
"This Country will never get well, until somebody goes to jail. The minute somebody does, everybody on Wall Street and the Banks will run to their best behavior."
True enough, but you're failing to consider one thing; the longer the crooks get to run amok, the less familiar they become with concepts like "acceptable behavior." Allow them to wallow in their crapulence long enough, and eventually they'll get to where even their best behavior will no longer be in the same time zone as behavior that's considered "socially acceptable." Sort of like trying to explain to a cannibal why people are screaming at them as they eat their dinner, and no, lifting the pinkies does NOT make eating roast babies OK.
Rolling Stone disavowed Mike Hastings death was a black ops hit.
Fuck RS.
And Fuck Matt Taibbi, who slandered 9-11 "Truthers."
Down arrow away, but I'd trust RT before I'd trust RS and that's very sad state of things in the USSA
Not me, 100% agreement. Totally compromised, both of them. Matt Taibbi is so edgy he accepts the official 9/11 story. And before anyone starts yapping about conspiracy theorist. Who really knows the real truth about 9/11 but it SURE AS FUCK did not happen the way the 9/11 commission concluded it did.
There is a chunk missing from a palm tree not the one his car hit. The one before the one his car stopped at. Looks like it was taken out with a chainsaw. Check the videos. There is no dip in the road at the corner its a smooth intersection in that direction. Yep I walked it.
Kinda sad he worked for RS too for a time.
I read this article earlier and thought It'd be a great episode on CNBC's American Greed.
What are the odds of that happening?
We still have to function in this nightmare. Were gonna seee how long the average citizen can keep his head above water.
The Bankers have won. .Gov is captured. There is no White Night. Get away from the blast.
"...the only justice applicable, will be that of vigilantes."
Just hope someones, somewhere are keeping a list of names for when justice is possible again in some form....
The fatal miscalculation of the elites is in their misunderstanding of the 'proceduralism' of officialdom.
They believe it is the final answer. And when they can buy their verdict, or otherwise deflect culpability, as far as they are concerned they are untouchable.
They are wrong because officialdom is a paper-thin veneer to direct violence that is wholly, wholly dependent on confidence in its evenhandedness. Beneath that veneer lies The TERROR. And the elites' visible unwillingness to live under the rule they would impose on others is kryptonite to confidence.
If Officialdom and Crime Inc cannot be curbed then THE TERROR is inevitable. Why would an enraged and abused public give any credence to yet another proceduralistic criminal in a robe who gives more credence to the qualifications of the messenger (member of legal cartel with ivy league education) than to the content of the message.
The lucky will be guillotined. The unlucky will learn why it is called THE TERROR.
A Very Courageous Lady
Operation Fast and Furious was flawed in concept and flawed in execution. The tactics used in this operation violate Department of Justice policy and should never have been used.
Quote from e holder
not one jailed
many died
Umm, no, Jamie Dimon's worst nightmare is a black maid that will accuse him of rape... What? Hey, it worked once, didn't it?
The London banksters have to pay to get that. Jamie gets the most enthusiastic freaky shit without paying. Clever.
Even if the new AG successfully protecuted Jamie Dimon, and setenced him to life in prison, Obama would just pardon him the day before he leaves office.
Think about the lengths she had to go through to bring this. A lawyer herself, she knew the forces that were aligned against her. Its possible that this story or one substantially similar was inevitable in the wake of the $110+B in settlements thus far. In other words she could still be shilling for Wall St and the NY Fed.
Think about the lengths she had to go through to bring this. A lawyer herself, she knew the forces that were aligned against her. Its possible that this story or one substantially similar was inevitable in the wake of the $110+B in settlements thus far. In other words she could still be shilling for Wall St and the NY Fed.