“State and federal officials said on Monday that Goldman Sachs would pay $5.1 billion to settle accusations of wrongdoing before the financial crisis.” “But that is just on paper. Buried in the fine print are provisions that allow Goldman to pay hundreds of millions of dollars less — perhaps as much as $1 billion less […]
“Lot of react to the nameless banker who ripped Treasury for its reaction to the judge’s ruling tossing out the Met Life SIFI designation. Per a former agency official: “FSOC spent over a year deliberating over MetLife, reviewed tens of thousands of pages, and held a hearing with MetLife before final designation. So it is […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Monday, April 11, 2016 Contact: Shanessa Bryant, 202-618-6433 or [email protected] Washington, D.C. – Dennis Kelleher, President and CEO of Better Markets, issued this statement on the announcement of the U.S. Department of Justice’s recent $5 billion settlement with Goldman Sachs over its deceptive sale of toxic mortgage-backed securities: “The Department of Justice’s […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 7, 2016 Contact: Shanessa Bryant, 202-618-6433 or [email protected] Washington, DC — Dennis Kelleher, President and CEO of Better Markets, released the following statement regarding today’s court decision overruling FSOC’s designation of MetLife: “The Federal District Court decision in MetLife’s lawsuit against FSOC is doubly dangerous and incorporates onerous new burdens on […]
“The federal court decision last week to remove the “too big to fail” label from MetLife, the insurance giant, may or may not turn out to be a factor in a future financial crisis. But it is a setback to regulation intended to protect the economy from the inherent risks of an undersupervised financial system.” […]
“U.S. finance chiefs often grumble about the tough rules imposed by the Dodd-Frank reforms that followed the 2008 crisis. But most went along with the various strictures, wary of fuelling another bout of anti-Wall Street hostility.” “Not Steven Kandarian, chief executive of the insurer MetLife. He argued that the Obama administration had gone too far when […]
“The public advocacy group Better Markets is calling on a federal court to explain why it has decided to seal an opinion, delivered Wednesday, that struck down MetLife’s designation as a systemically risky nonbank. “The motion, which updates a similar motion asking parties in the suit to demonstrate the reasoning behind the court’s decision to […]
“Better Markets filed in court an updated version of its still-pending request for transparency in MetLife v. Financial Stability Oversight Council. On March 30, 2016, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia announced that it had filed an opinion under seal, explaining its basis for granting partial summary judgment to MetLife and rescinding […]
“Opponents of the Dodd-Frank financial overhaul won an important battle on Wednesday as a federal judge here stripped the “too big to fail” label from the insurance company MetLife. “With memories still fresh on how the American International Group’s 2008 near-collapse rattled the global financial system, the Dodd-Frank Act empowered regulators to classify certain large […]
“Insurer MetLife Inc won a major regulatory and legal battle on Wednesday when a federal judge struck down the U.S. government’s determination that it is “too big to fail.” “MetLife had argued in court that the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC), made up of the heads of the country’s financial regulatory agencies, used a secretive […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Thursday, March 31, 2016 Contact: Shanessa Bryant, 202-618-6433 or [email protected] **Click here to view the updated fact sheet** **Click here to view the amended contingent application for an order to show cause** **Click here to view the amended proposed order to show cause** Washington, DC — Better Markets filed in court today an […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Wednesday, March 30, 2016 Contact: Shanessa Bryant, 202-618-6433 or [email protected] Washington, DC — Dennis Kelleher, President and CEO of Better Markets, released the following statement regarding today’s announcement by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia that the designation of MetLife as a systemically important financial institution is being rescinded: […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Tuesday, March 8, 2016 Contact: Shanessa Bryant, 202-618-6433 or [email protected] **Download Proposed Questions for Lynch** Washington, DC — The testimony of Attorney General Loretta Lynch tomorrow before the Senate Judiciary Committee will occur just one day after the ninth anniversary of infamous subprime lender New Century Financial Corporation’s announcement that it would stop […]
Better Markets wins motion in Federal Circuit, bringing pro-reform perspective to appeal of AIG bailout: Last year, Better Markets filed a motion, in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, seeking leave to submit an amicus brief in support of the government’s position in Starr International Co. v. United States. Hank Greenberg, the […]
“An investigation into allegations that U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in-house judges are prodded to favor the agency in enforcement cases did not uncover evidence to support those claims, the agency’s watchdog said in a report.” “The investigation by the SEC’s Office of Inspector General followed a May 6, 2015 story in the Wall Street […]
“(Reuters) – Late Wednesday, Delaware U.S. Attorney Charles Oberly announced the indictment of Wilmington Trust, which is accused of hiding failed loans in its commercial real estate portfolio in 2009 and 2010. The bank’s supposed deception of regulators and investors propped up the bank’s shaky financials as it undertook a $274 million stock offering in […]
“Former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder was widely criticized in 2013 for suggesting that the nation’s largest banks are too big to jail. “In Delaware, the addition this week of Wilmington Trust as a defendant to the criminal indictment already pending against four top-tier bank executives stands in contrast to that. *** “I applaud [the […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Monday, December 28, 2015 Contact: Jeff Gohringer, 202-618-6430 or [email protected] Better Markets Goes to Court to Prevent Attempts by Certain Shareholders of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to Put Taxpayers on the Hook for their Losses **Click here to view the motion and brief** Washington, DC — Better Markets announced today that […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Thursday, December 17, 2015 Contact: Jeff Gohringer, 202-618-6430 or [email protected] Better Markets Goes to Court to Make Clear that AIG’s Former Executives and Shareholders Don’t Deserve Another Nickel from Taxpayers **View the fact sheet, motion, and brief** Washington, DC — Better Markets announced today that it has filed a motion in the […]
“A nonprofit consumer advocate on Thursday challenged extensive redactions and sealed filings in MetLife Inc.’s lawsuit in Washington federal court over the company’s designation by financial regulators as “too big to fail.” “The nonpartisan Better Markets Inc., an advocate for transparency in the financial industry, filed court papers seeking to intervene in MetLife’s suit in […]
“The insurance conglomerate MetLife doesn’t agree on much with the Financial Stability Oversight Council. The FSOC, in MetLife’s view, made a grievous mistake when it dubbed the company (in the infelicitous lingo of financial reform) a “nonbank systemically important financial institution” that needs extra oversight from the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors, lest its financial […]
Better Markets has filed a motion to give the public the transparency it deserves in MetLife vs. FSOC, MetLife’s lawsuit challenging the Financial Stability Oversight Council’s (FSOC) designation of the global insurance company as a possible systemic risk. The FSOC is the only entity responsible for identifying and reducing the threat to financial stability from non-banks […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Thursday, November 19, 2015 Contact: Jeff Gohringer, 202-618-6430 or [email protected] Better Markets Goes to Court to Lift the Veil of Secrecy from MetLife’s Attack on FSOC **Click here to view the fact sheet, memo, and motion** Washington, DC — Better Markets announced today that it has filed a motion to give the public the transparency […]
“Last month, U.S. Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates announced that the Department of Justice will be going hard after corporate crime, white-collar criminals and Wall Street fraud. *** “Our financial system, even absent straight-up crime, is a wonderfully efficient system for upwardly redistributing money into the portfolios of the 1 percent. The focus on prosecutions […]
“The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is moving toward new rules giving borrowers more rights to sue banks and credit-card companies, the agency’s latest attempt to shift the balance of power to consumers from financial institutions. “The CFPB is set Wednesday to propose rules that curb mandatory arbitration. The plan throws the new federal agency into […]
“A powerful Democratic senator has launched an inquiry into bank misconduct, asking top financial institutions to turn over information about the settlements they have entered into with federal agencies over the past decade. “Sherrod Brown of Ohio, the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, asked banks in a letter dated Sept. 30 to provide […]
“NEW YORK — JPMorgan Chase & Co shareholders on Tuesday won court permission to pursue their securities fraud lawsuit against the bank over the “London Whale” trading scandal, which caused a $6.2 billion loss, as a class action. “U.S. District Judge George Daniels in Manhattan rejected the largest U.S. bank’s arguments against class action certification, […]
“It took only 16 years, but the Justice Department’s horribly misguided “Holder Doctrine” has finally been relegated to the dustbin of history where it belongs. “The Holder Doctrine was the name given to a June 1999 memorandum written by Eric H. Holder Jr., then the deputy attorney general of the United States, whom President Obama […]
“The Justice Department is placing more emphasis on seeking out and punishing individuals when institutions go bad, responding to years of gripes that the government has taken a soft approach toward bad actors and elsewhere in the business world.The department sent out a memo outlining the new policies, which, according to The New York Times, […]
“The Justice Department’s announcement that it would target individual executives at banks and other companies that are being investigated for wrongdoing has sparked a debate about whether the move is truly substantive or instead just designed to boost the agency’s public image. “Critics said the policy, detailed in a memo and speech by a top […]
“WASHINGTON — The Department of Justice is finally drawing the curtain on what may be its defining project of the Obama era: the refusal to prosecute Wall Street crime. “Only one investment banker has been jailed over securities infractions tied to the financial crisis. Zero Wall Street executives were put behind bars. More than 1,000 […]
Washington, DC — Better Markets President and CEO Dennis Kelleher released the following statement in response to the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) issuing new policy guidelines that claim to prioritize the prosecution of individuals: “DOJ’s statements today that it is going to prosecute criminals on Wall Street is good news and long overdue, but it […]
“A district court judge in the US has thrown out investor lawsuits against Barclays and a host of exchanges, dismissing claims that the bank rigged its “dark pool” trading venue in of high-frequency traders. “The multi-district litigation was part of a litany of claims set off by Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt, Michael Lewis’s […]
“A federal appeals court asked for the Delaware Supreme Court’s advice in a $6.25 billion suit against JPMorgan’s Chase & Co.’s board of directors that could reshape how boards respond to allegations of wrongdoing (Espinoza v. Dimon, 2d Cir., No. 14-cv-01754, question certified, 8/12/15).” Download the story, which includes comments from Better Markets President and CEO Dennis Kelleher, below. Reproduced with […]
Washington, D.C. – Dennis Kelleher, President and CEO of Better Markets, issued this statement following former AIG CEO Hank Greenberg’s decision to appeal the outcome of Starr International Co. v. U.S.: “Former AIG CEO Hank Greenberg’s appeal statement explicitly admits he is going after ‘billions of dollars’ more of U.S. ‘citizens’ money.’ He states he is appealing so […]
Washington, D.C. – Dennis Kelleher, President and CEO of Better Markets, issued this statement following the outcome of Starr International Co. v. U.S.: “The lawsuit by AIG shareholders seeking $40 billion more from U.S. taxpayers shows once again that Wall Street greed knows no limits. In resoundingly rejecting that claim for damages, the court correctly found that AIG stockholders […]
The Department of Justice’s favorable treatment of Wall Street’s biggest banks was so bad that Better Markets sued DOJ last year over its sweetheart settlement with JP Morgan Chase: for $13 billion, JP Morgan got complete civil immunity for its illegal conduct in connection with fraudulently inflating the subprime bubble that caused the financial crash in 2008. […]
As of this week, Citicorp, JPMorgan Chase, Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland are felons, having pleaded guilty on Wednesday to criminal charges of conspiring to rig the value of the world’s currencies. According to the Justice Department, the lengthy and lucrative conspiracy enabled the banks to pad their profits without regard to fairness, the […]
The government won a big victory this week in a case against two banks that were found to have systematically deceived investors about shoddy mortgage securities they peddled during the housing bubble. “The magnitude of falsity, conservatively measured, is enormous,” wrote Judge Denise Cote of Federal District Court in Manhattan in a strongly worded 361-page […]
“Many on Wall Street have long argued that the banks did not generally break the law when they packaged shoddy mortgages and sold them to investors in the lead-up to the financial crisis of 2008. “But on Monday, in the starkest of terms, a federal judge dealt a strong blow to that version of history. […]
“As Preet Bharara approaches his sixth anniversary as the powerful United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, with a track record of successful, attention-grabbing prosecutions that have made him the envy of his peers, it’s hard not to think that he is looking and sounding more and more like a candidate for […]
Regulators and law enforcement extracted a hefty fine for fraud at one of America’s most respected financial institutions. Have sovereign wealth funds learned their lesson? *** Others take the position that a lack of regulatory aggressiveness renders such suits useless. “The travesty of these seemingly large settlements is that they do nothing to deter the […]
WASHINGTON — The unusual trial of Maurice R. Greenberg’s $40 billion lawsuit against the government ended on Wednesday in much the same way it started, with both sides presenting starkly different narratives about the 2008 taxpayer bailout of the American International Group. *** “Greenberg got lucky with a judge who decided he wanted to listen […]
NEW YORK (Reuters) – In 2007, a Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc employee emailed his boss with his view of a sample of mortgages underlying a bond that the bank was underwriting: “This one is crap.” *** Read the full Reuters story by Nate Raymond here.
(Bloomberg) — U.S. prosecutors investigating currency manipulation are considering revoking years-old settlements and prosecuting banks for rigging interest rates, according to people familiar with the matter. *** Read the full Bloomberg story by David McLaughlin and Tom Schoenberg here.
A lawsuit filed against a settlement between JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM – Analyst Report) and the U.S Department of Justice (DOJ) was recently dismissed by U.S Federal Judge Beryl A. Howell. The lawsuit, filed by non-profit group Better Markets, was turned down by Howell due to lack of substantial evidence of any harm caused. *** […]
A U.S. federal judge tossed out a lawsuit brought by non-profit group Better Markets that sought to block a $13 billion settlement JPMorgan Chase & Co reached with the U.S. Justice Department over shoddy mortgage loans sold to investors before the financial crisis. *** Better Markets sued the Justice Department last February, contending that the […]
JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s $13 billion fraud settlement with the U.S. can’t be blocked by a watchdog group because it couldn’t prove it was harmed by the deal. Better Markets Inc.’s lawsuit challenging the U.S Justice Department’s agreement with the bank was dismissed by a federal judge. The group, founded by a hedge fund manager, […]
Washington, D.C. – Dennis Kelleher, President and CEO of Better Markets, issued this statement following the decision of the U.S. District Court to dismiss on procedural grounds Better Markets’ lawsuit challenging the $13 billion settlement between the Department of Justice (DOJ) and JP Morgan Chase: “The court never considered or ruled on the merits of […]
It’s a question often asked but never answered: Who’s to blame for the subprime mortgage crisis? The American public will get a rare window into what went wrong when government-sponsored home loan giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac square off with Japanese bank Nomura in a first-of-its-kind trial over the sale of soured mortgage-backed securities. […]
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