Ellen Brown---Titanic Banks Hit LIBOR Iceberg: Will Lawsuits Sink the Ship?

[eridani]

http://www.nationofchange.org/titanic-banks-hit-libor-iceberg-will-lawsuits-sink-ship-1342969906

At one time, calling the large multinational banks a “cartel” branded you as a conspiracy theorist. Today the banking giants are being called that and worse, not just in the major media but in court documents intended to prove the allegations as facts. Charges include racketeering (organized crime under the U.S. Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act or RICO), antitrust violations, wire fraud, bid-rigging, and price-fixing. Damning charges have already been proven, and major damages and penalties assessed. Conspiracy theory has become established fact.

<snip>

The blow to the banking defendants could be crippling. RICO laws, which carry treble damages, have taken down the Gambino crime family, the Genovese crime family, Hell’s Angels, and the Latin Kings.

Bank defenders say no one was hurt. Banks make their money from interest on loans, and the rigged rates were actually LOWER than the real rates, REDUCING bank profits.

That may be true for smaller local banks, which do make most of their money from local lending; but these local banks were not among the 16 mega-banks setting LIBOR rates. Only three of the rate-setting banks were U.S.banks—JPMorgan, Citibank and Bank of America—and they slashed their local lending after the 2008 crisis. In the following three years, the four largest U.S. banks—BOA, Citi, JPM and Wells Fargo—cut back on small business lending by a full 53 percent. The two largest—BOA and Citi—cut back on local lending by 94 percent and 64 percent, respectively.

Their profits now come largely from derivatives. Today, 96% of derivatives are held by just four banks—JPM, Citi, BOA and Goldman Sachs—and the LIBOR scam significantly boosted their profits on these bets. Interest-rate swaps compose fully 82 percent of the derivatives trade. The Bank for International Settlements reports a notional amount outstanding as of June 2009 of $342 trillion. JPM—the king of the derivatives game—revealed in February 2012 that it had cleared $1.4 billion in revenue trading interest-rate swaps in 2011, making them one of the bank's biggest sources of profit.

[tularetom]

1. Very interesting article and it gives me hope - except for one thing

At least one of these civil suits or RICO prosecutions is bound to be appealed ultimately to the Supreme Court. And I can foresee them ruling that banks are not people (my friend) and therefore cannot be sued or prosecuted.

And yes, I'm fully aware of the irony of that statement. I believe that our institutions are corrupt enough to try to pull off something like that.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

2. If it is the policy of the Federal government to prop up big banks on the grounds that they are "too

big to fail," and taxpayer bailouts must be provided if they get close to failing, there is no way that DOJ or the Federal courts are going to allow meaningful lawsuits to proceed.

We are now coming up on the four-year anniversary of the big bank bailouts and the statute of limitations on prosecuting banksters is running. The banksters, with the support of those who control the Federal government, are bigger than those who are bringing any civil lawsuits in this country.

[enough]

3. k&r (nt)

[mbperrin]

4. Life is sweet without banks. Haven't needed or used one since 1978.

Damn them all, and sink them all.