Thank you Stephen and Cindy!
*** gavin

Banker and Finance Arrests Continue – With Speed

Posted by Stephen Cook

 

Banker and Finance Arrests Continue – With Speed

Stephen: While we all eagerly await disclosure and containment of dark souls continues to produce visible results, the arrests of the banking cabal continue at quite a pace.
Cindy O has been posting the latest updates via her Consciously Connecting blog. She has 100 arrests  for July, alone.

I have simply run those from the last week, July 23-29, which is a total of 37, to show you things are in motion. If you wish to see Cindy’s whole list head here.

Bankers and Brokers and Inside Traders Arrested, Oh My!

By Cindy O – Conscious Connection – July 25, 2012
http://consciouslyconnecting.blog.com

1. 7/23/12: Suspect in underground bank network arrested - Shanghai police broke up an illegal banking network recently that involved 2 billion yuan ($314 million). The main suspect, identified only as Ge, 41, is accused of illegally making 2 million yuan in two years before he was detained. The underground banking network had more than 20 accounts in Shanghai and Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Guangdong provinces, according to investigators. In 2010, he is alleged to have developed an illegal foreign exchange network, China National Radio reported.
2. 7/23/12: Former East Berlin Woman Gets Almost 20 Years for Fraud – (Source: Greg Gross The York Dispatch, Pa. (MCT) — A former East Berlin real-estate agent who defrauded mortgage lenders of more than $6.2million by filing false loan applications, then pocketed about $2.3 million of that money, was sentenced to nearly 20 years in prison. Joanne M. Seeley, 42, now of South Carolina, was sentenced Friday to 238 months in prison following a two-day sentencing hearing. Seeley was convicted in November of four counts each of wire fraud and money laundering.
3. 7/23/12: Irish banker McAteer arrested by Anglo probe fraud squad officers - Willie McAteer is set to become the first banker prosecuted over the collapse of the toxic Anglo Irish Bank in 2008-2009. McAteer, an executive in the former rogue lender, is due in court in Ireland on fraud charges. Anglo’s former finance director was arrested this morning by fraud squad officers investigating financial irregularities at the bust bank.
4. 7/23/12: Former Financial Services Executive Indicted for Participation in a Conspiracy and Scheme to Defraud Involving Investment Contracts – (Source: FBI) - WASHINGTON—A former financial services executive was indicted yesterday for his participation in a far-reaching conspiracy and scheme to defraud related to bidding for contracts for the investment of municipal bond proceeds and other municipal finance contracts, the Department of Justice announced. The indictment charges Phillip D. Murphy, a former executive for a financial institution, with participating in a wire fraud scheme and separate fraud conspiracies from as early as 1998 until 2006.
5. 7/24/12: Anglo Irish Bank’s ex-CEO arrested for fraud - DUBLIN – Fraud detectives arrested the former chief executive of Anglo Irish Bank and charged him Tuesday over a conspiracy to hide colossal losses at the bank that brought the nation to the brink of bankruptcy. Forensic accountants found that Anglo provided secret loans to 16 insiders on condition they used the €1.1 billion ($1.35 billion) to buy Anglo stock.
6. 7/24/12: Former HSBC Employee Falciani Arrested In Spain, Mediapart Says - Herve Falciani, a former software technician at HSBC Holdings Plc’s Swiss private bank who gave client data to a French prosecutor, was arrested in Spain, Mediapart reported in a summary of an article on its website, without saying where it got the information. Switzerland accuses Falciani of stealing data and breaching banking secrecy, according to the report.
7. 7/24/12: Arrest of traders for rates manipulation imminent - US PROSECUTORS and European regulators are close to arresting individual traders and charging them with colluding to manipulate global benchmark interest rates, according to people familiar with a sweeping investigation into the rigging scandal. Federal prosecutors in Washington, DC, have recently contacted lawyers representing some of the suspects to notify them that criminal charges and arrests could be imminent, said two of those sources, who asked not to be identified because the investigation is ongoing.
8. 7/24/12: Six Guilty in U.K. Insider-Trading Ring at Banks’ Printers – Spain and Italy reinstated a short- sale ban on stocks as bank shares plunged to record lows, bond yields rose and the euro traded below its lifetime average against the dollar on concern the debt crisis is growing. Spain’s CNMV market regulator banned the creation of negative bets on equities through shares, derivatives and over- the-counter instruments for three months. Italy’s Consob prohibited the practice on 29 banking and insurance stocks for one week, citing “grave tensions” in financial markets.
9. 7/24/12 : Ex-Carlyle Consultant Seeks Probation For Insider Trading - Former A.T. Kearney Inc. partner Sherif Mityas asked to be sentenced to only probation for trading on information he learned as a consultant to the Carlyle Group (CG) about the private equity firm’s 2010 purchase of vitamin maker NBTY Inc. Mityas, who pleaded guilty in March to one count of securities fraud, filed a memorandum inBrooklyn, New York, federal court requesting that a judge impose a three-year term of probation. Federal guidelines point to a sentence of 10 to 16 months in prison, the filing said.
10. 7/24/12: Local Securities Trader Indicted on Six Year/$2.5M Investment Fraud Scheme – (Source: FBI) - ST. LOUIS, MO—Grahame E. Rhodes was indicted involving an investment fraud scheme of approximately $2.5 million beginning in 1995 through 2011. According to the indictment, Rhodes was a self-employed futures securities trader who solicited clients/investors— mainly family members, neighbors, and friends—by promising them high rates of returns on their investments. The indictment alleges that despite his promises, his investments were minimal and earned little or no return of income. He returned some money to investors representing it to be profits, but it was actually money from new investors. Rhodes allegedly told them he had invested their money when he had not, and delayed requests for withdrawal of their money by creating false excuses to justify the delay. The indictment states that on many occasions he converted the money for his own personal use.
11. 7/24/12: Former NY Employee of a Financial Institution Pleads Guilty for Role in Fraud Conspiracy – (Source: FBI) – WASHINGTON—A former financial institution employee pleaded guilty today for his participation in a conspiracy related to municipal bonds, the Department of Justice announced. According to the plea proceeding Alexander Wright, engaged in a fraud conspiracy in the municipal finance industry. The New York-based financial institution that employed Wright as a vice president of the municipal derivatives marketing group was a provider of investment agreements as well as other municipal finance contracts to public entities.
12. 7/24/12: Ashburn Realtor Sentenced to 7 Years for $7M Mortgage Fraud Scheme - (Source: FBI) - ALEXANDRIA, VA—Nadin Samnang, 29, of Ashburn, Virginia, was sentenced today to 84 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for orchestrating a mortgage fraud scheme that involved more than 25 homes in northern Virginia and over $7 million in losses to lenders. He was also ordered to pay restitution to the victim lenders and to forfeit to the United States nearly $1 million in proceeds of his unlawful conduct.
13. 7/25/12: Former McGinn, Smith, & Co. Inc. CFO Pleads Guilty – (Source: FBI) - ALBANY, NY—The former chief financial officer for McGinn, Smith, & Co. Inc., Brian Shea, 53, of Niskayuna, New York, pled guilty today before United States District Court Judge David N. Hurd to one count of corruptly interfering with the administration of the internal revenue laws. Shea faces up to three years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
14. 7/25/12: POLICE: Ex-Bank Manager Charged With Exploitation, Forgery in St. Charles – After a six-month-long investigation, a 56-year-old St. Charles woman was charged with financial exploitation of the elderly, forgery and felony theft, police said. Police arrested Lynn A. Pranga, St. Charles, after an investigation revealed the former branch manager of an MB Financial Bank violated a customer’s account by making unauthorized withdrawals of an account between 2009 and 2011. The investigation began Jan. 11 after an elderly MB Financial Bank customer reported to bank officials that his five-year certificate of deposit had been changed to a one-year CD and was worth far less than when it started out. Officials from the bank told the customer that records showed several withdrawals had been made from the account. He denied having made any withdrawals.
15. 7/15/12: Mexico fines HSBC $28 million in money laundering investigation - MEXICO CITY — Mexican regulators have levied a $28 million fine against the Mexico subsidiary of London-based HSBC bank for failing to prevent money laundering through accounts at the bank.Mexico’s National Securities and Banking Commission said Wednesday that HSBC has paid the fines, equivalent to 379 million pesos, or about half of the subsidiary’s 2011 annual profits. The commission, and a report by a U.S. senate investigative committee, found the bank failed to control suspicious flows of billions of dollars through its accounts and didn’t respond promptly after being warned about a huge swell in dollar cash transactions at the bank.
16. 7/25/12: 20 People Charged in Puerto Rico for Loan Application Fraud – (Source: FBI) – SAN JUAN—A grand jury returned a 45-count indictment charging 20 individuals with making false statements in loan applications, aggravated identity theft, and money laundering. According to the indictment, defendants Carlos D. Cuevas-Díaz, Miguel Ángel Echegaray-González, and Lee A. Arcia-Centeno conspired and agreed with each other, and with diverse other persons known and unknown to the grand jury, to knowingly make false statements or cause false statements to be made to mortgage lending institutions Equity Mortgage, Latin American, and Express Solution for the purpose of influencing the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) to insure the mortgage loans.
17. 7/25/12: Throop Man Sent to Jail for Conducting Unlicensed Mortgage Business, Theft- (Source: The Times-Tribune, Scranton, Pa. – In the eyes of the clients he provided mortgages to over several months in 2009, Timothy Tanana was a helpful professional. But in the eyes of Lackawanna County Judge Vito P. Geroulo on Tuesday, the 43-year-old Throop man was simply a “con man.” When it came time for Mr. Tanana to speak for himself before receiving a sentence of 11 to 23½ months in Lackawanna County Prison for theft and conducting unlicensed mortgage business, he dwelled on his mounting bills and gambling addiction. Judge Geroulo, however, pointed out that Mr. Tanana appeared to be trying to “smooth” him just as he had the 17 clients he persuaded to pay a total of $53,137.58 to him in fees – while he was already making a $160,000 salary.
18. 7/25/12: More Than 1,000 Bilked in Mortgage Modification Scam - (Source: The Press-Enterprise, Riverside, Calif. (MCT) — The operators of a boiler-room telemarketing company, US Homeowners Assistance, were ordered Tuesday, July 24, to pay more than $4 million in penalties for false mortgage modification loan promises made to more than 1,000 customers.
19. 7/26/12:FL Title Agency Owner Sentenced for Mortgage Fraud Scheme – (Source: FBI) - JACKSONVILLE, FL—U.S. Attorney Robert E. O’Neill announces that U.S. District Judge Henry Lee Adams, Jr. today sentenced Cynthia Darlene Strickland (46, Jacksonville) to 18 months in federal prison for bank fraud related to a mortgage fraud scheme. As part of the sentence, the court ordered Strickland to pay restitution to victims in the amount of $531,356. The court also entered a judgment against Strickland for $178,625, which was the amount of money she received as a result of the scheme. Strickland pled guilty.
20. 7/25/12: Capital One To Pay Millions After Being Charged With Improper Military Foreclosures – WASHINGTON — Capital One has agreed to pay $12 million to resolve allegations the bank violated special consumer protections in federal law for members of the military, the Justice Department announced. The government says Capital One wrongfully foreclosed on some homes and improperly repossessed some cars. In addition, the government says the bank obtained wrongful court judgments against some service members and improperly denied interest rate relief on some credit card and car loans. In a settlement under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, Capital One will pay $7 million in damages, including at least $125,000 to each service member whose home was unlawfully foreclosed upon and at least $10,000 to each service member whose vehicle was unlawfully repossessed. Capital One will provide a $5 million fund to compensate service members denied appropriate benefits on credit card accounts, auto and consumer loans.
21. 7/26/12: 7 Defendants Indicted in Alleged $8.5M Mortgage Fraud Scheme Involving Multiple Lenders- (Source: FBI) – CHICAGO—Seven defendants, including two real estate investors and three licensed loan originators, were indicted today for allegedly participating in a scheme to fraudulently obtain more than 20 residential mortgage loans totaling approximately $8.5 million from various lenders. The indictment alleges that the mortgages were obtained to finance the purchase of properties by buyers who were fraudulently qualified for loans while the defendants allegedly profited. As a result, various lenders and their successors incurred losses because the mortgages were not fully recovered through subsequent sale or foreclosure. All seven defendants were charged with one or more counts of mail fraud and/or wire fraud in a 12-count indictment that was returned by a federal grand jury. The indictment also seeks forfeiture of at least $8.5 million.
22. 7/27/2012: Michael Marin, Ex-Wall Street Trader, Took Cyanide After Guilty Arson Verdict - PHOENIX — A former Wall Street trader who collapsed in court after being found guilty of arson and later died committed suicide by taking cyanide, according to an autopsy released Friday. The Maricopa County medical examiner’s office toxicology tests showed Michael Marin, 53, had the poison in his system. The report also noted an apparent suicide note emailed by Martin shortly before his death and cyanide found in his car afterward. After he was found guilty of arson in June, Marin put his head in his hands and appeared to put something in his mouth. He then drank from a sports bottle.
23. 7/27/12: Citibank’s Indonesian Scandal Deepens As Convicted Debt Collectors Go Missing – Irzen Octa, an Indonesian businessman, died in a Citibank office under mysterious circumstances last March, while debt collectors were questioning him about money he owed on a Citibank credit card. Now, two of the three collectors convicted in Octa’s death are reportedly on the run from the law. Arif Lukman and Henry Waslinton, who were each sentenced to five years in prison last month for their role in the March 2011 interrogation, have failed to answer a court summons for detention, according to theJakarta Globe. On Wednesday, both men were declared fugitives. Octa, who owed Citibank more than $11,000 at the time of his death, met with third-party collectors on March 28, 2011, in an attempt to negotiate a settlement. He was found dead in the Citibank office that afternoon. Post-mortem reports from various doctors have given his cause of death as asphyxiation, brain hemorrhage and “blunt violence,” according to The Washington. In the past, Citi customers in India have alleged that debt collectors working on behalf of the bank threatened to kill them or remove their organs if they did not pay. A Citi spokeswoman told reporters that these were “isolated cases.”
24. 7/27/12: CBI arrests banker for Rs 50K bribe- India, PATNA: A CBI team on Thursday caught Samastipur-based Kshetriya Gramin Bank branch managerShiv Kumar red-handed when he was entering the bank after accepting a bribe of Rs 50,000 from a complainant, Laxmi Sah, a resident of Samastipur.CBI SP B K Singh said a loan of Rs 4.30 lakh under the Pradhan Mantri Rojgar Yojana was sanctioned to Sah for setting up an oil mill. But the branch manager was demanding Rs 70,000 for withdrawal of the loan amount. Sah lodged a complaint with the CBI on July 23, he said.Singh said a CBI team verified the allegation and laid a trap on Thursday. The complainant reached the bank and the branch manager gave him Rs 1 lakh and came out of the bank with him. Kumar gave the complainant an envelope and asked him to put Rs 70,000 into it.
25. 7/27/12:TD bank denies wrongdoing after court convicts U.S. fraudster in $7B Ponzi scheme- Robert Allen Stanford was the stereotype of a Texas tycoon, oozing the extravagance billions of dollars buys: a fleet of private jets, yachts and helicopters; mansions, castles and a private island; mixing with celebrities and world despots; being knighted and hosting a world sports tournament where he put up the US$20-million purse. At the height of his outsized life, however, his banking empire collapsed and, last month, a U.S. court exposed his US$7-billion fraud, sentencing the 63-year-old to 110 years in prison. Now, attention is turning to the role a respected Canadian bank may have played in allowing Stanford to strip 21,000 investors of their savings.
26. 7/27/12: Virginia Mortgage Broker Pleads Guilty in $700,000 Fraud Scheme – (Source: FBI) - WASHINGTON—Donald M. Ramsey, 45, a mortgage broker from Alexandria, Virginia, pled guilty today to a charge of conspiracy to commit bank and mail fraud for his part in a scheme that cost lenders more than $700,000.
27. 7/27/2012: Bankrupt Sean Quinn: I’m scared to go to prison but I won’t back out of it- BANKRUPT businessman Sean Quinn has said he is afraid to go to prison but he won’t back out of it. Last week, a High Court judge jailed the son and nephew of the disgraced businessman for three months after finding failures to adequately comply with court orders aimed at reversing measures stripping multi-million assets from the Quinn family’s international property group. Sean Quinn Junior is currently serving a three month sentence. Peter Darragh Quinn failed to turn up in court and a warrant has been issued for his arrest.
28. 7/27/12: Barclays Execs Under Another Investigation AND BANK SET ASIDE HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS FOR MISSELLING DERIVATIVES – (NEWSER) – Barclays raised a whole bunch of eyebrows when it released its earnings today—and in the process revealed, among other things, that current and former senior executives were under an investigation totally unrelated to the Libor. UK regulators are looking into whether the bank sufficiently disclosed details of the $11.45 billion cash injection it got from Middle Eastern investors during the 2008 financial crisis, the Wall Street Journal reports. If that weren’t enough, the company also revealed that it had set aside $705 million to cover misspelling of derivatives to small businesses, and that it was facing a number of lawsuits over the Libor scandal. On the call, departing Chairman Marcus Agius apologized yet again for that mess, and said he was working to find his own replacement, along with one to fill the hole left by former CEO Robert Diamond. “It is tempting to find a quick solution,” he said. “It is important that the right selection is made.”
29. 7/27/12: Foreclosure Prevention Business Owner Pleads Guilty in Major Mortgage Fraud Scheme – (Source: FBI) - WASHINGTON—Carline M. Charles, 41, who operated a business that supposedly would rescue distressed homeowners from foreclosure, pled guilty today to conspiracy to commit bank fraud for her role in a mortgage fraud scheme that cost lenders at least $1 million, announced U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen, Jr. and James W. McJunkin, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office.
30. 7/27/12: CO Man Pleads Guilty to Scheming Investors Out of $7M for Personal Use – (Source: FBI) – MINNEAPOLIS—Earlier today in federal court, a 37-year-old Colorado man pleaded guilty to scheming investors out of $7 million. Evan Matthew Flaxman, of Silverthorne, Colorado, pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud in connection to the scheme. Flaxman, who was charged on June 14, 2012, entered his plea before United States District Court Judge Patrick J. Schiltz.
31. 7/27/12: Former Hedge Fund Manager Receives Over 6 Years in Prison for Being in Charge of Ponzi Scheme – (Source: FBI) – A hedge fund manager was sentenced today in Brooklyn federal court to serve 78 months in prison for running a Ponzi scheme. Ward Onsa, 60, of Naples, Florida, the manager of New Century Hedge Fund Partners LP, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Dora L. Irizarry. Onsa pleaded guilty in December 2011 to operating the scheme, which resulted in losses to investors of over $3 million dollars. The court also ordered restitution to be paid to the defendant’s victims.
32. 7/27/12: Man From Ohio Charged with Investor Fraud- (Source: FBI) — A resident of East Liverpool, Ohio, has been indicted by a federal grand jury in Pittsburgh on charges of wire fraud, United States Attorney David J. Hickton announced today. The defendant defrauded three investors by representing that he was a successful currency trader and obtaining $78,000 from them for this purpose and thereafter retaining and spending more than $49,000 for his own purposes, while earning no profits for investors and incurring more than $28,000 in currency trading loses. The law provides for a maximum total sentence at each count of 20 years in prison, a fine of $250,000, or both.
33. 7/27/12: – SEC, FINRA Enforcement Roundup: $268M Insider Trading Scheme Busted – Charges of insider trading in a secondary stock offering, accounting violations, insider trading around an acquisition and efforts by a phony company president to push a fake penny-stock investment were among enforcement actions taken by the SEC, while FINRA censured and fined a firm for a registered representative’s unsuitable and excessive trading in client accounts.
34. 7/27/12: Comsys CEO pal charged with insider trading – CHICAGO (MarketWatch) -The Securities and Exchange Commission said Wednesday that it has charged a friend of a CEO of a Houston-based employment services firm with insider trading for using confidential information he learned “while they were spending time together.” Accused is Ladislav “Larry” Schvacho, who the SEC charges illegally made $511,000 by using the information to trade around the 2010 acquisition of Comsys IT Partners Inc. by Manpower Inc. (US:MAN) They claim that he gleaned nonpublic information while Comsys CEO [Larry Enterline] “called other Comsys executives to discuss the acquisition and through confidential, merger-related documents to which Schvacho had access.” He then compiled a portfolio of 72,000 shares of Comsys in the weeks before the acquisition, the SEC said, using all available cash in his brokerage accounts to buy it. Schvacho then sold half of his Comsys shares as soon as the deal announcement was made.
35. 7/27/12: Ipswich: Santander worker avoids jail over thefts from customer accounts – A BANK worker with a gambling addiction who embezzled more than £12,000 from customers’ accounts has walked free from court after a judge gave him a suspended prison sentence. Sentencing Matthew Farr, 23, who gambled £85,000 away in a 15-month period leading up to his arrest, Judge Rupert Overbury said he had “exploited” his position with Santander bank to systematically steal money from customers’ accounts. “The harm caused by what you have done has not only caused financial loss but also an incalculable erosion of public confidence in the banking system which is particularly serious in these current economic times,” said the judge.
36. 7/27/12: Kosovan central bank launches sting operation on unlicensed financial institutions – The Central Bank of the Republic of Kosovo (CBK) today (July 27) carried out surprise visits to two locations on suspicion of the conduct of unlicensed financial activity. The operation was approved by the executive board of the central bank shortly before the investigations were launched.
37. 7/27/12: Traders’ assets frozen in CNOOC-Nexen deal – A federal court on Friday froze the assets of traders accused of trading on inside information ahead of a controversial bid by China’s state-run CNOOC for Canadian oil company Nexen Inc., U.S. securities regulators said. The Securities and Exchange Commission sought the action and said certain traders used accounts in Singapore and Hong Kong to reap more than $13 million in illegal profits by buying up Nexen shares ahead of the deal.

To read Cindy’s full list head here:
http://consciouslyconnecting.blog.com/2012/07/25/bankers-and-brokers-and-inside-traders-arrested-oh-my/

above update:
 http://the2012scenario.com/2012/07/banker-and-finance-arrests-continue-with-speed/#more-137240