First it was JPM and Bank of America, now it is Citigroup's turn to confirm that in the New Normal, and especially with no volume to speak of, banks are nothing but piggybank utilities for the government to extract cash from whenever it so desires. From Bloomberg:
- U.S. SAID TO SEEK MORE THAN $10 BLN IN CITIGROUP MORTGAGE PROBE
- U.S. PROBE RELATES TO CITIGROUP'S MORTGAGE-BOND SALES
However, Citi appears less than excited at the prospect of paying $10 billion to buy itself out of trouble. In fact, as the price of justice is being negotiated, Citi has offered only 40 cents on the dollar to tip the scales of what is right and wrong under the Eric Holder regime. Sadly for it, the government wants more:
- CITIGROUP SAID TO HAVE OFFERED LESS THAN $4 BILLION TO SETTLE
- U.S. SAID TO BE PREPARING LAWSUIT AGAINST CITIGROUP
- U.S. SAID TO HAVE BROKEN OFF TALKS WITH CITIGROUP
Which means:
- U.S. SAID TO CONSIDER FILING CITI LAWSUIT AS SOON AS NEXT WEEK
Remember that joke we made about recurring "non-recurring", legal charges and non one-time "one-time" legal fees? Yeah, so do we.