In June of 2005, Citigroup agreed to pay $2 BILLION to settle a class-action suit brought by Enron stock and bond holders. It is the largest settlement to date over the high-flying Enron. Lehman Brothers agreeded to a $222.5 million and Bank of America agreed to $69 million earlier that year.
In March 2005, The Federal Reserve barred Citigroup Inc., the largest U.S. financial institution, from making major new acquisitions until it corrects regulatory problems that have gotten it into trouble in several countries. The unusual move by the central bank came less than a month after Citigroup, stung by a series of scandals in the United States and abroad.
In March 2004, Citigroup said it would pay around $3 Billion in settlement of the class action suit brought by investors of WorldCom, who had accused Citigroup of participating in financial fraud.
On Febr 2006, executives of GenRe and AIG were indicted for one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud, four counts of securities fraud, two counts of causing false statements to be made to the Securities and Exchange Commission, four counts of wire fraud and two counts of mail fraud.
In Febr 2010,Citigroup notified all its account holders that as of April 1, 2010 that they will require 7 days notice of any withdrawals from checking accounts!
March 17, 2010 - The economy is terrible. Even with the supposed recovery that elected officials keep talking about, there is little evidence of new jobs. This combined with other monumental issues that include healthcare reform, border control and talk of global warming are putting fire in the blood of average citizens. Citizens who have never seriously thought about running for public office. Citizens who have little or nothing in the way of campaign funds but who have the heart to believe that they can make a difference. Citizens who are fed up with the idea that Washington should be legislating everything from which doctor you use to how much sugar you should consume. People are angry and it is beginning to show. Dave Corsi is one of them.
March 16, 2010 - As April approaches, you are probably thinking about taxes… at least income taxes. And if you are like most people, you are looking for things that can reduce your tax bills. But one tax reduction that many people tend to overlook is reducing their property tax bills. These bills have nothing to do with the IRS - other than the fact that property taxes are tax deductible - but in many cases they may be larger than the amount you owe to the IRS. That's the bad news. The good news is that if you purchased your home less than five years ago, there is a good chance that you can get your property tax bill reduced.
March 12, 2010 - So you've lost your job and perhaps your home. The last thing you probably need is to have your state tax authorities coming after you for money. But the states are having real financial difficulties of their own. While most of their problems are due to the overspending of politicians, it doesn't alter the fact that their incessant need for money is a real problem given the state of the economy. Furthermore, with upcoming elections in November, the last things that most state politicians want to do are raise taxes or cut services. Because of these facts, the several states are looking at aggressive measures to extract more tax money from their residents. In some cases, they are also considering delays in sending out tax refunds… until August. Essentially, this would mean that the states are getting interest free loans from tax payers.
March 10, 2010 - Citibank sent out 600,000 notifications to its customers last month to warn them about a large data breach. The bank inadvertently published customer Social Security Numbers on the exterior of envelopes containing year-end tax data.
March 9, 2010 - Beginning on April 5th, the next big bank bailout to be paid for by taxpayers will launch. The official name it has been given by the Obama administration is the Home Affordability Foreclosure Alternative (HAFA) program. Unofficially, it can be referred to as Cash of Keys. The program is being paid for by taxpayers and it provides money to mortgage servicers and to troubled homeowners. But the biggest beneficiaries of the program are likely to be lenders who are getting bailed out a second time. The only real difference this time is that the government is attempting to disguise the program as something else.
March 5, 2010 - When it comes to protecting your identity from crooks, you always need to remain vigilant. There are two ID theft scams that are becoming more and more popular that our readers need to be aware of. One of them preys on desperate job seekers. The other on virtually anyone. Both of them can catch their victims completely off guard.
March 4, 2010 - The Federal Reserve is proposing new credit card rules that would limit fees that banks can charge credit card holders. The rules are the last portion of legislation enacted by Congress to place certain limits on banks with regard to interest rates and fees. Most of the new regulations went into effect last month, with the remaining rules to go into effect in August. As a part of the rule making process, the public can comment on the rules. We strongly encourage our readers to participate in this process.
March 3, 2010 - Tomorrow morning, the latest job numbers are due to be released by the federal government. They are expected to be bleak and the White House is now in full-on finger pointing mode. But they aren't pointing the finger where you might think. They're not blaming those pesky Republicans or tea baggers. They're not singling out individual members of Congress that they consider to be obstructionist. No, they are blaming the weather; specifically the snow fall that has blanketed much of the country. Who would have thought that with global warming being such a big problem that snow could possibly result in an additional 100,000 or so job losses? Maybe we should track down Al Gore to explain how this all works!
February 26, 2010 - Today, Vice President Joe Biden laid out his plan for protecting retirement savings plans from unscrupulous brokers and con artists. While the plan does have some good points and it does attempt to protect consumers from conflicts of interest that many brokers have, it also ignores the 800 pound gorilla in the room. The fact that the United States Government continues to collect Social Security taxes from every working American and then spend the monies collected on everything other than Social Security. Any investment manager who acted in this way would find themselves quickly locked up in a federal penitentiary.
