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HomeThe Wolf of Wall Street: Victims’ Stories
Posted by Larry Doyle on December 21st, 2013 8:09 AM |
I just picked up my weekend newspapers and see Leonardo DiCaprio gracing the cover of Barron’s.
This star will soon grace many movie screens in our nation as “the wolf of Wall Street’ or as we would call guys like this in the business, “just another scumbag.” But while the movie may entertain and appeal to our lower spirits, what about those whom this wolf and his fellow pack of scumbags preyed upon?
Thanks to the incredible work of one of our best financial journalists, Susan Antilla, we learn just how destructive vermin such as the real life individual, Jordan Belfort, whom Dicaprio depicts can be. (more…)
Is Washington Looking Out for Small Investors?
Posted by Larry Doyle on June 30th, 2010 2:09 PM |
How often have we heard that the proposed Dodd-Frank financial regulatory reform package is supposed to look out for ordinary, everyday, small American investors. Well does it? Let’s check in with Sense on Cents Hall of Famer, Bloomberg’s Susan Antilla who highlights some glaring holes in the proposed reform package. Susan writes, Lobbyists’ Smell Clings to Bank Bill,
At 2,315 pages, the Dodd-Frank Conference Report of proposals to fix U.S. financial regulations isn’t the stuff of summer beach reading.
It is, though, a starting point to understanding just how messed up financial regulations had become by the time the economy all but collapsed in 2008. And it gives great hints as to how serious lawmakers are about helping everyday, mere mortal investors who don’t worry about life-and-death issues like whether they will pocket a gazillion dollars in bonuses. (more…)
Has Oppenheimer Already Violated Its Auction-Rate Settlement with NY AG Cuomo?
Posted by Larry Doyle on March 29th, 2010 1:08 PM |
Is the great lie and fraud encompassing the auction-rate securities fiasco continuing even into the settlement process? Information, or the lack thereof, indicates it is. In the process, the injustice served cold to the thousands of ARS investors, especially those who purchased these so-called ‘cash’ instruments from Oppenheimer Holdings, continues.
Wall Street, Washington, and the bulk of the financial media (exceptions being author Phil Trupp, Bloomberg’s Susan Antilla, and the Washington Examiner’s Marta Mossburg) would prefer to keep the ARS fraud and fiasco neatly under the rug. I have no interest in allowing the fraudulent ARS perpetrators and their financial regulators any degree of comfort in this mess. (more…)
Mary Schapiro Owes America Some Answers
Posted by Larry Doyle on December 21st, 2009 8:47 AM |
Who is willing to ask the hard questions? Who is willing to call people out? Who is willing to fly in the face of the Wall Street-Washington incest? Regrettably, very few journalists and media outlets have the character and courage to truly serve the American public interest. Who is not lacking in the courage and character department? Bloomberg’s Susan Antilla.
Time and again, Antilla takes on Wall Street and the financial regulators. In my opinion, her finest piece of work comes out this morning. Susan Antilla writes, Hot Seat for SEC Chief Schapiro Won’t Cool Off:
The chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission has a past that is fast coming back to haunt her.
Mary Schapiro’s story has none of the lurid details of philandering celebrity golfers or hedge fund titans who get sued by ex-wives for concealing marital money.
Her history and two pending lawsuits, though, raise an important question for investors: Is the woman who oversees the U.S. financial markets someone willing to fudge the facts to get things done?
If what I heard in federal Judge Jed Rakoff’s New York courtroom last week is even close to accurate, I’d say that it’s time for some serious conversations as to whether Schapiro is the person we should entrust to the top SEC job.
I totally concur. Mary Schapiro, the current SEC Chair and formerly the head of FINRA, possesses a wealth of information on a number of topics for which America would like greater detail. What are some of these topics? (more…)
How Big Was Mary Schapiro’s Lie?
Posted by Larry Doyle on December 17th, 2009 2:55 PM |
Will our chief financial regulators be allowed to operate above the law?
That plea of immunity is the foundation of the FINRA defense in the complaint filed against it by Standard Investment Chartered. Recall that the very core of the Standard Investment Chartered vs. FINRA lawsuit is the premise that current SEC Chair Mary Schapiro and her then FINRA colleagues lied verbally and in a proxy statement about the details of a payment to FINRA member firms. FINRA paid 35k per firm and indicated that figure was the maximum allowed by the IRS.
I provided extensive details on this case in writing on October 22nd, NASDAQ Sale: Why Would Mary Schapiro and FINRA Execs Lie?
High five to Bloomberg’s Susan Antilla for doggedly pursuing this case. Susan reports on the hearing held yesterday on this case in United States Court in New York. Susan writes, Broker’s Lawyer Says FINRA Understated Offer to Firms,
A lawyer for securities firms suing the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority said sealed documents show its executives understated how much they could pay brokers in the 2007 merger that created the oversight body.
NASD, which became Finra after merging with the New York Stock Exchange’s oversight unit, could pay “something” from $70,000 to $111,000, Jonathan Cuneo, the lawyer for Benchmark Financial Services Inc. and Standard Investment Chartered Inc., said yesterday at a hearing, citing confidential Internal Revenue Service documents. NASD told brokerages in 2006 that IRS policy limited the payments to $35,000. (more…)
What’s Fueling America’s Rage?
Posted by Larry Doyle on November 20th, 2009 10:56 AM |
What is fueling America’s populist rage?
Is it the unemployment situation? Is it the volatility in the markets? The weakening greenback? Perhaps the generally perceived level of incompetence amongst our political and corporate leaders? Is it a media that does not hold our public officials and corporate leaders accountable?
While I could write extensively – and I have – on each of these questions, I am firmly convinced the ever increasing levels of populist rage go much deeper than any of these questions. How deep? To the very core of this great nation. What is at the core of any individual, institution, or nation?
Honesty and integrity.
Americans are a strong people. America is a proud land. That said, I believe we have allowed a semblance of moral decay to increasingly infiltrate our very core and we are now paying the price for it. How is this growing moral decay exemplified?
I am not suggesting that those who might hold differing opinions than mine on specific questions addressing ethical and moral topics as being the root of our current problems. I would like to think I am not so narrow-minded or judgmental. I do believe, however, that the rage sweeping our country on both sides of the political aisle stems from the reality that Americans are increasingly convinced that our political representatives, government officials, financial leaders, and their selected constituents have not been honest with America. (more…)
