As previously mentioned, in an interview with Forbes, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange claimed that the next leak will be about a big US bank. Assange refrained from sharing details, saying only that the big reveal will be early next year and that its impact, ballparking it, could take down a bank “or two.”
Working under the assumption one is taking Mr. Assange’s threat seriously, the leak in question would obviously have to be pretty damn damning. Because I don’t know if Jules is aware of this, but in America, we don’t let banks fail (sorry, Lehman), even if they want to. Take Citi– they’ve tried as hard as possible and yet, still kicking. If Tim Geithner has to place a bank on a floating piece of debris while he freezes his ass off in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean to save it, he will.
Given that appears to be an intelligent, if slightly eccentric individual, though, Assange probably knows this and still makes the bold claim. So–can anyone even conceive of something that would be so bad that the government would say, “let’s let this one go?” Obviously we’re not talking about a little insider trading or front-running here, which would be shocking to find out financial institutions didn’t dabble in. Is it possible Assange could have information that could embarrass a US bank more than it’s already embarrassed itself? To the extent it actually went down for the dirt nap?
Tell us which who will be on the bad end of this “shitty deal” and why. As a commenter pointed out earlier, it could be Bank of America, based on an interview Assange gave in 2009, but who knows what. Rampant speculation encouraged.
Doesn’t really matter, because one of the more violence-prone countries will make the guy disappear by then. Mark by words; Muammar wanted to keep his love of Ukrainian titties private.
I think it has to be Senior leaders of BofA approving foreclosure scam etc.
“lover of Ukranian titties” is my new email signature. Thanks.
-LB
That sounds about right to me. That would definitely rip a bank’s street reputation to the floor.
yep
Most likely to do with trading on inside information or front running.
Wiki Leaks is a friend of mine.
This goes deeper than you can even imagine. That’s all I can say at this time.
-D. Bove
I gotta make some calls.
-K Lewis
hope this is a joke comment, if not, are you huffing glue? it’s a commonly accepted fact that banks insider trade and front-run. not exactly the stuff of institution destruction.
Wiki Leak was one of my favowite daytime talk show hostesses. But how does she know so much about banks?
sometimes deeper is good
-Ping Capital
Bye Bye Goldman!
Of course it’s BofA – it was already reported about the breach:
Oct. 8 (Bloomberg) — A former Bank of America Corp. computer programmer was accused in a lawsuit by the bank of stealing 21 confidential files the day before he was to be fired.
Rao Chalasani e-mailed the files to himself the night before the company was to announce it was firing 400 people, including him, Bank of America said in a complaint filed yesterday in federal court in Manhattan. Chalasani worked in New York for the bank’s global markets portfolio management group, according to the complaint.
“It appears that defendant stole key documents from the company with the intent of causing harm to Bank of America’s business and reputation,” the bank said.
Bank of America is seeking a court order requiring Chalasani to return the files, plus unspecified damages. The files included profit-and-loss figures, current securities trading positions and company risk assessments, according to the bank.
Chalasani didn’t immediately return a voice-mail message left yesterday at his home in New Jersey.
On Sept. 30, as part of a security review of large files sent by employees outside the company, Bank of America discovered that on Sept. 20 at 9:32 p.m., the night before the firings were to be announced, Chalasani sent the 21 files from his company e-mail address to a personal address, the bank claimed.
Possible Job
Bank of America said Chalasani was told on Sept. 22 that he was to be fired. He was being considered for a position with a different department, Chalasani was told, although it wasn’t certain he would get the job, Charlotte, North Carolina-based Bank of America said in the complaint.
Files Chalasani allegedly took included those titled “Consolidated_Balance_Sheet.xls,” “RDM_Stress_Scenarios.pdf” and “Global_Credit_Summary_.xls.”
The case is Banc of America Securities LLC v. Chalasani, 1:10-CV-7681, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).
To contact the reporter on this story: Bob Van Voris in federal court in Manhattan at rvanvoris@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: David E. Rovella at drovella@bloomberg.net.
Julian, you fuckin’ prick. Stay outta my way, and leave my sources alone, if ya know wuts good for ya. Consider dis a friendly reminder.
- CG
Imposter! Everyone knows the DTs have rendered the real Ken Lewis unable to manipulate a phone’s keypad.
ahahaha AMAZING!!! you even changed the type to emulate his Eye-tailian accent! you sir are a comedic genius!!!!
That’s debatable chiefo, word on the street it’s Citibank and their dealings with the Saudis.
shup up and die already.
Mocking a joke that is intentionally unoriginal and not funny to begin with doesn’t mean you’re smarter; it just means you’re a bigger douche
My abilities are fuckin’ limitless, ya know. I just show yous guys small glimpses of my greatness.
-CG
I can’t imagine that, even if there were emails saying that 50% of Congress got sweetheart FOA loans from Countrywide, and that same bank foreclosed on orphans and baby seals, how it would mean a bank would “go down”. They have Goldman betting against its own clients – and still in business. Citi was insolvent – and still in business.
They will just wall off a bunch of people while stating the emails are phony, then stall in court if necessary, pay some fines, “neither admit nor deny”, and – voila.
kind of the point of this post, no? what could POSSIBLY be so bad/worse than anything that’s happened already that would make a bank “go down”?
The frightening thing– and I’m serious here– is that there’s a chance he’s going to post emails with OUR OWN (at least those of us here who either work or have worked for a big bank) names/titles/contact info because he’s going to dump out like 250k pages of dreck. Anyone here really care to have, say, Last Bastion of Balance know your name, phone number and email address?
Pictures of Vikram in a Scream mask at Richard Kimball’s Halloween party.
hopefully people will stop using fucking email for work shit
-machete
Commentary about same interview:
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6AT40520101130
WikiLeaks chief said in 2009 group had BofA data
CHARLOTTE, North Carolina | Tue Nov 30, 2010 12:26pm EST
(Reuters) – WikiLeaks has several gigabytes of data from a Bank of America Corp executive’s hard drive, the organization’s founder Julian Assange said in a published interview in 2009.
Unless the email has nude haloween party or dwarfs in the title, I have no concerns.
Compliance Department
courtney comstock is going to have a lot of on-location stalking on her plate
Please. Citi stock would probably go up with people thinking some J/V with Goldman imminent.
Bene there. Trust me, they’re nice.
I can see it now: “Citi GoldSack”.
-THe Guy Who Can “See It Now”
Was that comment really miserable for you to read? Yes? Ok good. Every 1 second your life is worse makes me smile for 1 second. It’s a zero sum game between you and me.
I thought everyone on here must work for the SEC, given the amount of time spent/wasted commenting on hedge fund trader’s “probing” management styles (ahem PJ), guys that have no other concerns, JT Marlin or UBS sucking …
So basically we will be told that BoA makes bad business decisions….like we didn’t already know that from the Countrywide deal.
nothing in a stolen file could ever be entered into evidence by any regulatory authority, so whatever bank this is would not face any criminal or civil charges, no matter how bad it is. Assange is talking out of his wiki-leaking asshole.
- guy who knows about legal stuff from watching lots of Law & Order
*they are
NOW there selling BAC?
The hard-drive in my possession may or may not contain an email stating the following
“and that was the first time i sucked a dick for tarp money…but it wouldn’t be the last”
-J. Assange
Bess ……give this guy a job.
FWIW if Assange dies he’s released an insurance file with every single bit of information Wikileaks has received to date. Basically it’s encrypted and if he dies or goes missing or whatever the key gets leaked. He’ll be dead but he’ll still get his revenge.
What if “Guest” is a masochist?
“nothing in a stolen file could ever be entered into evidence by any regulatory authority, so whatever bank this is would not face any criminal or civil charges, no matter how bad it is.”
Not true. So long as the lawyers are not involved, it’s admissible in court.
Please don’t out me like that
-J Gundlach
If the investment bank leaks are along the same line as the latest gov’t cables, there are probably emails discussing the size of Sallie Krawcheck’s boobs.
I head the files are about some bank called Central. And that Central Bank made tons of sweetheart deals to bail out feckless borrowers. My friend Ben who works at Central says BS to all that but he may be lying.
let me gather my thoughts on this whole matter of assange…
It is abundantly clear to anyone who doesn’t have his/her head in the mud that this world is run by less than 1% of those who have 99% of the wealth. It is those wealthy folks that control the news waves and have the safeguards in place not only to protect their wealth, but to ensure that they don’t lose wealth. It is imperative that the rich get richer, and they have institutions and mechanisms out there that to ensure that as well. Do you really think elected people care for the people who voted for them? No, no, no! The rich want to get richer, and with world assets in finite amounts, everyone else MUST lose. Most people will work more for their money…or they will pay may for their goods/services…and that’s just they way it will always be so long as people are loyal to the system as it is. Just imagine if enough people moved away from respecting any form of currency. That would surely put a dent on the power of money. In any event, Assange is just another “threat” to the system that serves the uber-wealthy. What effect can on guy have really? He’s going to leak something? So what! Truth be told, when it comes to a LOT of things, anyone with half a brain already knows what’s going on in the back rooms, yet we turn a blind eye and a deaf ear. The wealthy know this, that 99% of the world has an attention span of an ant, and that people like Gandhi and King are not amongst us these days so why bother. Assange is just noise right now…and probably will be discredited and we’ll all just move on.
If the Mossad/MI6/CIA/whoever has the ability to generate a computer virus that can target and destroy an Iranian nuclear power facility I’d imagine they’d have the capability to eliminate this too…. just sayin’
TL;DR
-J6P
I would think that evidence which proved that a bank’s balance sheet was greatly inflated would bring that institution to its knees in short order, particularly if their true ratios were short of regulatory requirements but also just if it undermined confidence in their financial strength. Especially if fraud was involved, in which case there would be no public sympathy for a bailout b/c of the bank’s culpability.
My guess is that most institutions play some games with subjective areas of accounting impacting asset values, especially with derivatives, SPEs, or other off-balance sheet items. Nothing new there, and nobody in the industry bats an eyelash, but if a smoking-gun memo were leaked, there would be a huge PR issue.
Wasn’t there a rumor a few months back that Citi was fudging their quarterly numbers?
Heh plus they have showed enthusiasm for the more “conventional” methods like sticking magnetic bombs on people’s cars…
It’s already out there though. When he leaked the Iraq war stuff he put up an insurance file that’s encrypted (six ways to Sunday) and basically just needs a giant character string punched in to open. So unless they find a way to eliminate a specific string of characters that nobody knows in advance…
The only banks that could go down are those that have not yet. i.e. Goldman Sachs.