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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsSuspicious Deaths Of Bankers Are Now Classified As "Trade Secrets" By Federal Regulator
Submitted by Pam Martens and Russ Martens of Wall Street On Parade,
It doesnt get any more Orwellian than this: Wall Street mega banks crash the U.S. financial system in 2008. Hundreds of thousands of financial industry workers lose their jobs. Then, beginning late last year, a rash of suspicious deaths start to occur among current and former bank employees. Next we learn that four of the Wall Street mega banks likely hold over $680 billion face amount of life insurance on their workers, payable to the banks, not the families. We ask their Federal regulator for the details of this life insurance under a Freedom of Information Act request and were told the information constitutes trade secrets.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the life expectancy of a 25 year old male with a Bachelors degree or higher as of 2006 was 81 years of age. But in the past five months, five highly educated JPMorgan male employees in their 30s and one former employee aged 28, have died under suspicious circumstances, including three of whom allegedly leaped off buildings a statistical rarity even during the height of the financial crisis in 2008.
There is one other major obstacle to brushing away these deaths as random occurrences they are not happening at JPMorgans closest peer bank Citigroup. Both JPMorgan and Citigroup are global financial institutions with both commercial banking and investment banking operations. Their employee counts are similar 260,000 employees for JPMorgan versus 251,000 for Citigroup.
Both JPMorgan and Citigroup also own massive amounts of bank-owned life insurance (BOLI), a controversial practice that pays the corporation when a current or former employee dies. (In the case of former employees, the banks conduct regular death sweeps of public records using former employees Social Security numbers to learn if a former employee has died and then submits a request for payment of the death benefit to the insurance company.)
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-04-28/guest-post-suspicious-deaths-bankers-are-now-classified-trade-secrets-federal-regula
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)They can't sell crappy mortgage backed securities anymore, so if they wrap these life insurance policies into an investment vehicle it sounds like a winner to me!
Where can I get me some of that action?
Rod Beauvex
(564 posts)It should not be legal to take an insurance policy out of someone without their explicit, signed-with-lawyer-present consent.
Matariki
(18,775 posts)which is sort of ironic in this case. or something.
mrdmk
(2,943 posts)Also, another saying is, 'dead men do not talk!'
Lodestar
(2,388 posts)Kablooie
(18,634 posts)If a company drove me to do that I'd want to destroy them as well as myself.
diane in sf
(3,914 posts)gratuitous
(82,849 posts)It seems these insurance policies can be taken out without the insured's knowledge.
Reminds me of that scene in "Head Office" where newby Judge Reinhold is at lunch with a couple of the big boys, who are discussing the imminent demise of one of their co-workers. The guy's working too hard, under a lot of stress at home, just a matter of time before the fatal heart attack. Reinhold can't believe what he's hearing, the cynical attitude toward this guy's death, and finally blurts out, "Why don't you just kill the guy?"
The other two stop their conversation, and the camera switches between their thoughtful faces. Reinhold, at first incredulous, begins looking apprehensive, which slides into horror as he realizes they're seriously considering killing the guy. After a very uncomfortable silence, they both say "Naaaaahh," and resume eating.
seamonkey58
(19 posts)This was around 2004 in San Francisco. Many coworkers were grumbling about it then, too. It's really very cynical but unfortunately is widespread in the industry.
Brigid
(17,621 posts)As in otherwise you'd lose your job?
jwirr
(39,215 posts)mob used to insure people and then off them. Full circle.
diane in sf
(3,914 posts)Brigid
(17,621 posts)Does a company have an insurable interest in someone who doesn't even work there anymore? How can this be legal?
blkmusclmachine
(16,149 posts)Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)Right is right and wrong is wrong.
I guess people that run these higher financial institutions have not a single shred of honesty or integrity.
reformist2
(9,841 posts)With profit-driven, amoral (immoral?) capitalism, anything is possible, no?
raouldukelives
(5,178 posts)One of those is the pain of becoming a commodity. One is worth to them only what one can get from them. As a helpful tool, as an investor or in prison. If one doesn't fit one of those molds, they'd just prefer you die. And they will and they are.
For one to be culpable, to be trusted, one must take a payoff. Just like a dirty cop drama, if you don't share in the wealth, something is going to go wrong for you.
Children now are being born into our rapidly evolving creation. Or that is, the creation of Wall St investors. They have paid for it and we must all learn to live in it. It is what they wish for us. As a life spent and a legacy, they wish it for us all.