Wall Street ire

  • 25 May 2010 at 11:24 AM

Leo Hindery Believes Wall Street is the Root of All Evil

By

We knew Leo Hindery, private equity investor, founder of the YES Network and staunch Democrat, was not a big fan of Wall Street. But his latest column on regulatory reform basically blames financiers for, well, just about everything.

. . .the profit-driven, greedy, selfish institution that with its unbridled compensation practices and current light-touch regulatory regime is, I truly believe, behind almost every major societal and economic ill that has befallen the United States since 1980.

Damn, Leo, that’s harsh. But he goes on. Read more »

  • 19 May 2010 at 5:23 PM

UBS Trader Pleads Guilty in Massive Bid Rigging Scandal

By

Mark Zaino, a former UBS trader who worked on the firm’s derivatives and municipal securities desk, pleaded guilty to fraud and conspiracy charges today in the wide-ranging investigation into sham auctions and bid rigging in financial products sold to municipalities.

Zaino is the first banker to plead guilty to charges and he has agreed to cooperate with investigators. Another banker at Bank of America, who participated in the massive bid-rigging scheme, is also providing information to the Feds about the scam. Read more »

  • 18 May 2010 at 11:58 AM

Behind the Massive Conspiracy to Rig the Muni Bond Market

By

If you thought the SEC’s charges against Goldman Sachs poured fuel on an already-raging populace fire, Wall Street’s involvement in a massive bid rigging scandal in the $2.8 trillion municipal bond market will fan the flames even more.

Earlier this month, we heard about an SEC investigation of conflicts of interest at big banks that bought credit default swaps on muni bonds they sold to state and local governments. But Bloomberg is out with a big investigative piece today about a massive bid-rigging scandal in the muni market that, if true, bilked 160 state agencies, local governments and non-profits out of hundreds of millions of dollars. Read more »