The most crime-infested neighborhood on earth is Wall Street.
Though crime is pervasive throughout its citizenship, there is one block in particular that stands out as a cesspool of corruption so foul, that its continued existence can only be viewed as a kind of living icon of evil.
At this block resides the world headquarters of Citigroup. This wrecker of retirements, this destroyer of dreams, this wealth-wasting cancer has a rap sheet so vile, that it begs for a partial review before we ask the question of why it is allowed to survive. I think you will see that it is clearly beyond redemption.
Citi Fined $250,000 by NASD Over Bogus Hedge Fund Marketing
Citigroup Fined $100 Million for ARS; ABCP Fiasco
Citigroup Fined $25 Million for European Trading Practices
Citi Fined $6.25 Million For Bogus Mutual Fund Trades
Citi Global Markets fined $300,000
Citigroup fined $70 million for loan violations
Citigroup will pay $2.65 billion to settle WorldCom suit
Citigroup fined £721,000 for Insurance Fraud
Citi Fined $500,000 for supervisory failures on its precious metals trading desk
Citigroup fined $350,000 by NYSE over inaccurate e-mail
Citi Fined $120 Million Over Enron Books
Citigroup Global Markets to Pay Over $15 Million to Settle Charges
Citi Fined $16.29 Million for Indian Stock Market Scandal
Citigroup Unit Fined $26 million for Mutual Fund Fraud
Citigroup Fined $350,000 Over Research Disclosure
Citigroup Inc.’s Smith Barney unit was fined $1 million by the New York Stock Exchange for failing to supervise brokers
Citigroup Fined $16,250 for Violating Cuban Blockade
Citi Fined $50 Million over Market Timing Violations
Citi Fined £52,500 over Insider Trading
Citigroup Fined $2.25 over Documents Violations
Citi Fined $5 Million over Misleading Reports
Citigroup Division Fined $275,000 Over Investor Advice
Citi Fined $400 Million over Fraudulent Research
OK. The above list was from typing "Citi Fined" into Google, and filtering duplicate reports. I got to hits 101 to 110 out of 111,000. 0.1% is not bad.
The above list is just fines assessed. Not all actions result in fines. For instance, this article talks about Japan shutting down Citi offices because of money laundering.
In fact, type "Citi money laundering" into Google and see what comes up. They even led an effort to gut the money laundering laws.
How about this: In December of 1996, John Deutch quits as head of the CIA and is then found to have taken home quite a stash of classified documents. He immediately joins the Board of Citigroup. CIA executive director Nora Slatkin drags her feet on investigating Deutch, and then suddenly decides to quit the CIA to become... drumroll... a member of Citi's Board. Tenet renews Deutch's security clearance without any investigation.
Who knows what it means, but I know it doesn't happen at my company.
Not content with its criminal operations in the stock market and money laundering operations for drug dealers and dictators, Citi goes after the poor with a savage vengeance. Google "Citi predatory lending" for a mere 46,000 hits.
I would love to see a graph of house prices around Citi operations. My guess is if they opened so much as an ATM near where I lived, my property value would go down drastically because I would then live in a high-crime area.
I am beyond words to explain my feelings about a Citi rescue. Why not put Micheal Milken in charge of the SEC while we are at it?