Fraud

From Huffington Post

We'll say it again, why bother arguing about new financial regulations, when existing regulations go unenforced?

Our financial system is corrupt our government regulators are at best incompetent and at worst complicit.

Once again regulators across two different presidential administrations of two different political parties had been on notice with regards to problems at a supposedly regulated company, and did nothing to protect the public.

PFG Collapse Hits Some MF Global Victims

When commodities brokerage firm MF Global collapsed last October, losing $1.6 billion in customer funds in the process, Christopher Dickerson was sure he'd dodged a bullet. Just one month before the collapse, Dickerson had taken the bulk of his money out of his MF Global account.

We typically try pretty hard to create posts for everyone, knowing of course that we seldom succeed at that goal.

This post is specifically for the about 12 people we know for sure are active in the commodity markets, although the moral should be washing over just about everybody about now.

The financial system across the entirety of "The West" is rotten to it's core, the call for more regulation and the condemnation of laissez fair capitalism miss the greater point, that being that the regulations in place are neither followed nor enforced, and that the regulators cashing the peoples paychecks are at best incompetent and at worst complicit in the now chronic frauds perpetrated by the banks.

To quote Peter Brandt on the issue,

CFTC stands for Commodities Futures Trading Commision.

Sorry about the ad, everybody is getting slicker about keeping their promotions in the vid.

We've run a number of interviews with law professor and former federal government banking regulator Bill Black who has become one of our personal heroes having put a no kidding thousands of bankers in jail during the Savings and Loan fiasco.

We learn something every time we stumble across one.

The overall quality isn't as good as the couple we have posted previously, but it is no less educational.

If you'd like to know how it is that the banks in this country were able to effect another no kidding trillions of dollars in fraudulent mortgages while riding off into the sunset with a bailout on the losses leaving you with the bill, Professor Black has your answers.

At just under 14 minutes, you have the time.

Way super double highly recommended.

Our highest recomendation. 

We have two previous interviews with professor Black posted here.

 What is a Ponzi scheme?

A Ponzi scheme is an investment fraud that involves the payment of purported returns to existing investors from funds contributed by new investors.

Ponzi scheme organizers often solicit new investors by promising to invest funds in opportunities claimed to generate high returns with little or no risk.

In many Ponzi schemes, the fraudsters focus on attracting new money to make promised payments to earlier-stage investors and to use for personal expenses, instead of engaging in any legitimate investment activity.

Clickee  Clickee

Why do Ponzi schemes collapse?

With little or no legitimate earnings, the schemes require a consistent flow of money from new investors to continue.

Ponzi schemes tend to collapse when it becomes difficult to recruit new investors or when a large number of investors ask to cash out.

And there you have it.

Social Security as explained by the SEC.

Here in southeastern Michigan, we always assume it only goes on in Detroit.

To be perfectly honest about it, we assume it always goes on in Detroit.

In our defense, we have beau coup evidence.

But ..... we couldn't be more wrong.

About it just going on in Detroit, we're not even a little bit wrong about it always going on in Detroit.

Here are two recent examples totaling just under $2,500,000 of fraud and theft by employees of the school district in which I happen to reside.

Richard Zaranek a former Chippewa Valley elementary school principal was sentenced to 31 months in prison for embezzling $399,691 from the school's child care and parent-teacher programs from 1996 to 2003. 

Zaranek a resident of Grosse Pointe Farms Michigan, siphoned funds from Cherokee's latchkey program and Parent Teacher Organization partly by persuading parents to let him handle the money.

He created phony paperwork to account for the funds and left enough money in the programs to avoid suspicion.

Zaranek also took school property - a tractor, a lawn mower, gym equipment, mountain-climbing equipment, a computer and a puppet theater.

The lawn equipment was found at his cottage in Hillman, Michigan.

Other items were said to be found at his home and at his brother's residence.

James Tague a former executive director of support services for Chippewa Valley Schools cheated Chippewa Valley Schools out of more than $2 million by inflating furniture bids through a company he secretly owned.

Tague pleaded guilty to charges of fraud.

The U.S. Attorney's Office said Tague worked out a scheme where companies he owned would bid on school furniture for the district and sell the merchandise at a huge profit to the school district.

 The following trailer is for a movie that is likely to be ignored.

It needs to be seen ...... everywhere.

People in my community are attempting to bring it to town.

And since I now have a national readership.

That would be about one reader in each of the fifty states.

I'm reaching out and encouraging everybody to make a small effort toward bringing this film to your town.

The Cartel

http://www.thecartelmovie.com/

I'll admit it.

I didn't read the entire page about Ponzi Schemes at the SEC site.

Feeling quite satisfied with myself, I quit reading where the post ended.

My friend Terry, anal puppy that he is, read every word and came up with the following.

What are some Ponzi scheme �red flags�?

Many Ponzi schemes share common characteristics. Look for these warning signs:

High investment returns with little or no risk. Every investment carries some degree of risk, and investments yielding higher returns typically involve more risk.

Be highly suspicious of any �guaranteed� investment opportunity.

Thanks to Terry for a very nice pickup.