JPMorgan, Lehman, UBS Named as Conspirators in Muni Bid-Rigging


March 26 (Bloomberg) -- JPMorgan Chase & Co., Lehman Brothers
Holdings Inc. and UBS AG were among more than a dozen Wall Street firms
involved in a conspiracy to pay below-market interest rates to U.S.
state and local governments on investments, according to documents filed
in a U.S. Justice Department criminal antitrust case.

A government list of previously unidentified "co- conspirators"
contains more than two dozen bankers at firms also including Bank of
America Corp., Bear Stearns Cos., Societe Generale, two of General
Electric Co.'s financial businesses and Salomon Smith Barney, the former
unit of Citigroup Inc., according to documents filed in U.S. District
Court in Manhattan on March 24. The papers were filed by attorneys for a
former employee of CDR Financial Products Inc., an advisory firm
indicted in October. The attorneys, as part of their legal filing,
identified the roster as being provided by the government. The document
is labeled "list of co-conspirators."

None of the firms or individuals named on the list has been charged
with wrongdoing. The court records mark the first time these companies
have been identified as co-conspirators. They provide the broadest look
yet at alleged collusion in the $2.8 trillion municipal securities
market that the government says delivered profits to Wall Street at
taxpayers' expense.

`Sufficient Evidence'

"If the government is saying they are co-conspirators, the
government believes they have sufficient evidence that they can show
they were part of the conspiracy," said Richard Donovan, a partner at
New York-based law firm Kelley Drye & Warren LLP and co-chair of its
antitrust practice. Donovan isn't involved in the case.

Naked Capitalism's Yves Smith weighs in on tonight's story:


JP Morgan, Lehman, UBS Alleged as Conspring to Cheat Municipalities
on Investments
Yves Smith
Naked Capitalism
Friday, March 26, 2010

Now it is getting closer to being official. This Bloomberg story
reports that not only do Wall Street firms screw their clients (hardly a
novel revelation these days) but a large group of firms allegedly
conspired to price-fix on guarantee investment contracts, a product used
by government issuers to park cash raised via bond issues before they
deploy it...


*Capitalists are destroying America*



--
Conservatives - just pretend Obama's health care legislation is another
unnecessary war and you'll feel better about it.

On Fri, 26 Mar 2010 05:59:39 -0400, hk
wrote:


JPMorgan, Lehman, UBS Named as Conspirators in Muni Bid-Rigging


March 26 (Bloomberg) -- JPMorgan Chase & Co., Lehman Brothers
Holdings Inc. and UBS AG were among more than a dozen Wall Street firms
involved in a conspiracy to pay below-market interest rates to U.S.
state and local governments on investments, according to documents filed
in a U.S. Justice Department criminal antitrust case.

but...but...this is IMPOSSIBLE!! the right tells us that the rich are
blessed of god...honest, pure....always with the interests of their
fellow man at heart...infallible...


after all, if they would do this, then they could screw with
healthcare, etc...

and we know they'd NEVER do that!!

On 3/26/10 6:07 AM, bpuharic wrote:
On Fri, 26 Mar 2010 05:59:39 -0400,
wrote:


JPMorgan, Lehman, UBS Named as Conspirators in Muni Bid-Rigging


March 26 (Bloomberg) -- JPMorgan Chase& Co., Lehman Brothers
Holdings Inc. and UBS AG were among more than a dozen Wall Street firms
involved in a conspiracy to pay below-market interest rates to U.S.
state and local governments on investments, according to documents filed
in a U.S. Justice Department criminal antitrust case.

but...but...this is IMPOSSIBLE!! the right tells us that the rich are
blessed of god...honest, pure....always with the interests of their
fellow man at heart...infallible...


after all, if they would do this, then they could screw with
healthcare, etc...

and we know they'd NEVER do that!!


Of course not!

Why, you know all that medicare fraud that is always being brought up by
the right? Who commits almost all of it? Businessmen.


--
Conservatives - just pretend Obama's health care legislation is another
unnecessary war and you'll feel better about it.

On 26/03/2010 4:18 AM, hk wrote:
On 3/26/10 6:07 AM, bpuharic wrote:
On Fri, 26 Mar 2010 05:59:39 -0400,
wrote:


JPMorgan, Lehman, UBS Named as Conspirators in Muni Bid-Rigging


March 26 (Bloomberg) -- JPMorgan Chase& Co., Lehman Brothers
Holdings Inc. and UBS AG were among more than a dozen Wall Street firms
involved in a conspiracy to pay below-market interest rates to U.S.
state and local governments on investments, according to documents filed
in a U.S. Justice Department criminal antitrust case.

but...but...this is IMPOSSIBLE!! the right tells us that the rich are
blessed of god...honest, pure....always with the interests of their
fellow man at heart...infallible...


after all, if they would do this, then they could screw with
healthcare, etc...

and we know they'd NEVER do that!!


Of course not!

Why, you know all that medicare fraud that is always being brought up by
the right? Who commits almost all of it? Businessmen.

Chumps like you are destined to learn th hard way.

Too bad liberals are like packs of rats, forcing the rest to live with
their mistakes. Maybe the answer is segregation, liberals live in a
liberal society, and conservatives live in a seperate one. And of
course, the taxing part of liberals be limited to liberals. Let the
liberals live their false dream and let conservatives not have to pay
for it.

--
--------------
Politicians don't provide anything, the tax payers do.

On Fri, 26 Mar 2010 06:18:07 -0400, hk wrote:

Why, you know all that medicare fraud that is always being brought up by
the right? Who commits almost all of it? Businessmen.

Harold, here's an idea for you. Trailer your low transom Parker down
to Key West, wait for a calm day, and make the 90 mile run south to
Cuba. It is one of the few places left in the world with a more or
less pure form of communism. Capitalism and free enterprise are not
entirely unkown there, but certainly discouraged on any kind of large
scale. I think you might be a good fit.

¿Tú hablas español?

On 3/26/10 9:16 AM, Wayne.B wrote:
On Fri, 26 Mar 2010 06:18:07 -0400, wrote:

Why, you know all that medicare fraud that is always being brought up by
the right? Who commits almost all of it? Businessmen.

Harold, here's an idea for you. Trailer your low transom Parker down
to Key West, wait for a calm day, and make the 90 mile run south to
Cuba. It is one of the few places left in the world with a more or
less pure form of communism. Capitalism and free enterprise are not
entirely unkown there, but certainly discouraged on any kind of large
scale. I think you might be a good fit.

¿Tú hablas español?





I'm not advocating communism. I'm just a tad weary government being
slammed when it is capitalism that put us into the dire straits we're
now "enjoying." Capitalism needs to be controlled; the "free market"
does not work except in theory when the capitalistic freebooters control
the markets.



--
Conservatives - just pretend Obama's health care legislation is another
unnecessary war and you'll feel better about it.

On Fri, 26 Mar 2010 09:16:09 -0400, Wayne.B
wrote:

On Fri, 26 Mar 2010 06:18:07 -0400, hk wrote:

Why, you know all that medicare fraud that is always being brought up by
the right? Who commits almost all of it? Businessmen.

Harold, here's an idea for you. Trailer your low transom Parker down
to Key West, wait for a calm day, and make the 90 mile run south to
Cuba. It is one of the few places left in the world with a more or
less pure form of communism. Capitalism and free enterprise are not
entirely unkown there, but certainly discouraged on any kind of large
scale. I think you might be a good fit.

¿Tú hablas español?

capitalism is certainly unknown in the US. the GOP has turned the US
into a mercantilist state

In article ,
says...

On Fri, 26 Mar 2010 09:16:09 -0400, Wayne.B
wrote:

On Fri, 26 Mar 2010 06:18:07 -0400, hk wrote:

Why, you know all that medicare fraud that is always being brought up by
the right? Who commits almost all of it? Businessmen.

Harold, here's an idea for you. Trailer your low transom Parker down
to Key West, wait for a calm day, and make the 90 mile run south to
Cuba. It is one of the few places left in the world with a more or
less pure form of communism. Capitalism and free enterprise are not
entirely unkown there, but certainly discouraged on any kind of large
scale. I think you might be a good fit.

¿Tú hablas español?

capitalism is certainly unknown in the US. the GOP has turned the US
into a mercantilist state

I think Wayne missed something during his current traveling to places
where health care is available to all.
It's happening here.
In a few short years there will no reason to travel to Cuba for health
care.
America will finally beat Cuba in terms of health care.
That should give any normal patriotic American some sense of pride.
We Americans do like to compete. Don't we?

hk wrote:
On 3/26/10 6:07 AM, bpuharic wrote:
On Fri, 26 Mar 2010 05:59:39 -0400,
wrote:


JPMorgan, Lehman, UBS Named as Conspirators in Muni Bid-Rigging


March 26 (Bloomberg) -- JPMorgan Chase& Co., Lehman Brothers
Holdings Inc. and UBS AG were among more than a dozen Wall Street firms
involved in a conspiracy to pay below-market interest rates to U.S.
state and local governments on investments, according to documents filed
in a U.S. Justice Department criminal antitrust case.

but...but...this is IMPOSSIBLE!! the right tells us that the rich are
blessed of god...honest, pure....always with the interests of their
fellow man at heart...infallible...


after all, if they would do this, then they could screw with
healthcare, etc...

and we know they'd NEVER do that!!


Of course not!

Why, you know all that medicare fraud that is always being brought up by
the right? Who commits almost all of it? Businessmen.


Aren't you a businessman? You are always peddling your worthless skills.

hk wrote:
On 3/26/10 6:07 AM, bpuharic wrote:
On Fri, 26 Mar 2010 05:59:39 -0400,
wrote:


JPMorgan, Lehman, UBS Named as Conspirators in Muni Bid-Rigging


March 26 (Bloomberg) -- JPMorgan Chase& Co., Lehman Brothers
Holdings Inc. and UBS AG were among more than a dozen Wall Street firms
involved in a conspiracy to pay below-market interest rates to U.S.
state and local governments on investments, according to documents
filed
in a U.S. Justice Department criminal antitrust case.

but...but...this is IMPOSSIBLE!! the right tells us that the rich are
blessed of god...honest, pure....always with the interests of their
fellow man at heart...infallible...


after all, if they would do this, then they could screw with
healthcare, etc...

and we know they'd NEVER do that!!


Of course not!

Why, you know all that medicare fraud that is always being brought up
by the right? Who commits almost all of it? Businessmen.


Businessmen? How do you define your job?