Matt Taibbi's New Rolling Stone Piece. WOW!!!

[2banon]

The $9 Billion Witness: Meet JPMorgan Chase's Worst Nightmare


Meet the woman JPMorgan Chase paid one of the largest fines in American history to keep from talking

By Matt Taibbi | November 6, 2014


Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-9-billion-witness-20141106#ixzz3IJjVVzBS
Follow us: @rollingstone on Twitter | RollingStone on Facebook

Fleischmann is the central witness in one of the biggest cases of white-collar crime in American history, possessing secrets that JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon late last year paid $9 billion (not $13 billion as regularly reported – more on that later) to keep the public from hearing.

Back in 2006, as a deal manager at the gigantic bank, Fleischmann first witnessed, then tried to stop, what she describes as "massive criminal securities fraud" in the bank's mortgage operations.

Six years after the crisis that cratered the global economy, it's not exactly news that the country's biggest banks stole on a grand scale. That's why the more important part of Fleischmann's story is in the pains Chase and the Justice Department took to silence her.

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-9-billion-witness-20141106#ixzz3IJjCczhT
Follow us: @rollingstone on Twitter | RollingStone on Facebook

[Wellstone ruled]

1. Shades of the John Mack

story on the same subject. Same shit just a new day on Wall Street,notice how this just now pops.

[Phlem]

33. yes,

the timing is interesting.

[navarth]

37. can you elaborate?

when I hear 'the timing is interesting', I am intrigued, and also kicking myself for not knowing what you're referring to. Do you mean the timing in conjunction with this election? Or with the recent separation from his former gig?

Just curious, no need to answer me if you don't want.

[Phlem]

39. It could be complete coincidence, it was just curious.

Last edited Fri Nov 7, 2014, 04:56 PM - Edit history (1)

Remember, as humans we also see patterns when there aren't any.

[navarth]

105. ah.

well, I share your curiosity. All the best EOM

[SomethingFishy]

2. I for one am glad to see him back in RS..

He is one of the last true journalists, and he'll get way more readers at RS.

Once again he's the thorn in the side of the financial industry. I fucking love this guy!

[maddiemom]

20. I'm sure Taibbi has the ghost of Hunter Thompson stirring a bit in approval from time to time.

Vampire Squid, indeed!

[woo me with science]

3. Jaw-dropping corruption by our own government,

under a Democratic administration. The Third Way is not what it pretends to be. We are dealing with slimy corporate sociopaths and criminals...in the financial castles and in our own government.

One of the ongoing myths about the financial crisis is that the government is outmatched by the legal talent representing the banks. But Fleischmann was impressed by the lead attorney in her case,a litigator named Richard Elias. "He sounded like he had been a securities lawyer for 10 years," she says. "This actually looked like his idea of fun – like he couldn't wait to run with this case."

She gave Elias and his team detailed information about everything she'd seen: the edict against e-mails, the sabotaging of the diligence process, the bullying, the written warnings that were ignored, all of it. She assumed that it wouldn't be long before the bank was hauled into court.

Instead, the government decided to help Chase bury the evidence. It began when Holder's office scheduled a press conference for the morning of September 24th, 2013, to announce sweeping civil-fraud charges against the bank, all laid out in a detailed complaint drafted by the U.S. attorney's Sacramento office. But that morning the presser was suddenly canceled, and no complaint was filed. According to later news reports, Dimon had personally called Associate Attorney General Tony West, the third-ranking official in the Justice Department, and asked to reopen negotiations to settle the case out of court.



Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-9-billion-witness-20141106#ixzz3IJnvzrej
Follow us: @rollingstone on Twitter | RollingStone on Facebook

[Zorra]

12. Not prosecuting acts of financial terrorism is a big part of why Democrats just got slaughtered.

[randome]

15. Because Republicans are promising to do this?

[hr][font color="blue"][center]All things in moderation, including moderation.[/center][/font][hr]

[Zorra]

19. No. nt

[LondonReign2]

21. No, because Democrats aren't

Maybe we should give people a reason *to* vote beyond "they aren't doing it either".

You knew that, but playing dumb seems to be your preferred tactic.

[Zorra]

24. Correct on every point.

[randome]

27. And are people clamoring to prosecute banksters? Other than here?

I haven't heard much around the water cooler about that. I'm in favor of greater prosecutions but to say this had anything to do with the election is wrong.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]All things in moderation, including moderation.[/center][/font][hr]

[LondonReign2]

28. Probably not the folks around your water cooler at Third Way headquarters

[Zorra]

29. Have you seen Summer Hathaway lately, by any chance?

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[Fawke Em]

91. Um, why yes they are.

As many as 44 percent of those polled believe the government should not have bailed out financial institutions, while only 22 percent thought it was the right move. Fifty-three percent think not enough was done to prosecute bankers; 15 percent were satisfied with the effort.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/15/us-wallstreet-crisis-idUSBRE98E06Q20130915

[rhett o rick]

47. Are you trying to make a point with that question? If you don't agree with the post

why don't you make a statement?

[SolutionisSolidarity]

51. They didn't vote Republican. They stayed home.

We can't compete with the Republicans by being slightly less corrupt. Republican voters don't care much about corruption, but ours do.

[laserhaas]

71. Staying home - is voting Republican

I'm just sayin.........

[mimi85]

16. The 30% turnout didn't help either. nt

[Zorra]

22. Not prosecuting terrorist banksters was part of why the turnout was only 30%. nt

[Calista241]

104. Jamie Dimon being in jail wouldn't have made a single bit of difference as to why some random

person in Georgia or Iowa came to the polls on Tuesday or not.

Only 40% of people in Ferguson, MO voted last Tuesday. Now that SHOCKS me. All the protests, all the violence, and yet still people don't show up to vote.

[2banon]

80. I'm surprised it wasn't fewer, under the circumstances.. n/t

[2banon]

67. I completely agree.

beyond astonishing.

[Phlem]

32. Get ready to continue this over and over again.

I just came from another thread, the 3rd way still on DU are arguing the opposite

Of course I'll do my part too.

[Aerows]

100. I'm so damn sick

of third-way politics.

[Phlem]

112. I here ya!

Just yesterday someone was slamming Democrats trying to be liberal and win in KY, failing to see that Allison Grimes ran the 3rd way strategy complete with "I like guns" like he's suggesting and STILL LOST.

That's what we're dealing with.

The stupid is very deep with some.

Hang in there we'll fix it, we just have to remove the third way completely and run on our Liberal Principles again.
That way figuring out our strengths and weaknesses with out 3rd way conservative babble getting into the mist. In a way it was our fault for letting them control the liberal Democratic dialogue within our party.

No More.

[Autumn]

54. Those cuff links Jamie Dimon flashed sure do make sense now don't they?

Yes indeed they do.

[woo me with science]

113. Damn....

[2banon]

74. Incredible isn't it? Jaw dropping incredible. n/t

[Aerows]

101. It's a tremendous eye-opener.

Thanks for posting it and starting this discussion. Corruption isn't a strong enough word for this thievery.

[2banon]

102. Just got through listening to Matt and Alayne Fleischmann on DN!

They made a personal appearance on today's Democracy Now! ..go tune in. it was a good one. naturally.

[True Earthling]

92. Until you make individuals feel personal pain there will be no deterrent...

There was no financial pain to JPM management but lower level employees who had nothing to do with it paid the price. Dimon should be charged with perjury and Fleischman's bosses including Dimon should have been personally charged with fraud.

The deal was widely considered a good one for both sides, but Chase emerged with barely a scratch. First, the ludicrously nonspecific language surrounding the settlement put you, me and every other American taxpayer on the hook for roughly a quarter of Chase's check. Because most of the settlement monies were specifically not called fines or penalties, Chase was allowed to treat some $7 billion of the settlement as a tax write-off.

Couple this with the fact that the bank's share price soared six percent on news of the settlement, adding more than $12 billion in value to shareholders, and one could argue Chase actually made money from the deal. What's more, to defray the cost of this and other fines, Chase last year laid off 7,500 lower-level employees. Meanwhile, per-employee compensation for everyone else rose four percent, to $122,653. But no one made out better than Dimon. The board awarded a 74 percent raise to the man who oversaw the biggest regulatory penalty ever, upping his compensation package to about $20 million.

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-9-billion-witness-20141106#ixzz3IPKJu8rs
Follow us: @rollingstone on Twitter | RollingStone on Facebook

[johnnyrocket]

4. Taibbi's back, baby!

[Go Vols]

50. +1

[Hissyspit]

5. "But that morning the presser was suddenly canceled, and no complaint was filed."

"But that morning the presser was suddenly canceled, and no complaint was filed. According to later news reports, Dimon had personally called Associate Attorney General Tony West, the third-ranking official in the Justice Department, and asked to reopen negotiations to settle the case out of court."

Steal big. And be .1%er.

[woo me with science]

8. [phone] And the use the money

to buy another cabinet post.

[mother earth]

25. Got that right. nt

[Dopers_Greed]

6. So he's back at RS?

Excellent news

[brush]

83. Got to give it to him. He found out the real deal with Omidyar

Seems he has a conscience. Meanwhile, Greenwald is still working with Omidyar and raking in dough and taking bows while Snowden is stil in Russia.

At lease Snowden's girlfriend joined him but Id say Greenwald is the one who made out like a bandit.

[Warren Stupidity]

7. Where is the bus and where are the under bus chuckers?

Last edited Thu Nov 6, 2014, 08:07 PM - Edit history (1)

Taibbi threads are not enjoyable without some under bus chucking.

[Jackpine Radical]

10. Taibbi hates Obama. He's only doing this to make the Obama Administration Look Bad.

Bush. Cheney. Pole dancer. Benghazi--Oh, wait…

[Warren Stupidity]

18. ty

[rhett o rick]

46. Aren't you thinking of Snowden?

[Jackpine Radical]

53. No, I'm babbling incoherently & emitting distractions

as quickly as I can to provide cover for Holder while arrangements are being made to have Taibbi disappeared.

[rhett o rick]

56. I don't think cover is needed. They are getting more bold all the time. But be careful.

I think torture is back on the table, so to speak.

[laserhaas]

72. You're right about that. Romney & his ilk don't care who knows.

DOJ, SEC, Task Forces - won't touch them.

Just look for high paying jobs - as a cure of their willful blindness.

N'est-ce pas!

[2banon]

79. 1+

[KoKo]

9. Bookmark! Great News .....he's back at "Rolling Stone!"

Didn't know that. He did well there...the other GIG with Obidyar wasn't a good fit. Too confining for his style.

[Lodestar]

114. "Too confining" indeed. He thought it would be expansive and he found himself

wrapped up with managerial duties that may not have been a good fit, and a boss who apparently was micro-managing
the small stuff at the expense of the big picture. At any rate, I've missed his writing and am so glad he's back. I see that
the editor of The Intercept, John Cook, also quit and went back to his home at Gawker.

[Android3.14]

11. Well thank goodness Obama will finally do something about it

Oh wait.
Now I remember.

[sendero]

107. LOL..

... Obama will do nothing, and then everyone wonders why no one can be bothered to vote.

[AnAzulTexas]

13. glad he's back

I've missed his reporting over the last year or whatever

[Hissyspit]

14. K&R

[riverbendviewgal]

17. Glad he is back

and I sent this out to my friends with a wow, Like you.

I went to an inauguration party for Obama in 2009. I have a pic of me so happy and raising a glass of white wine to his life size cardboard cutout. I didn't vote for him but me and most of my Canadian friends loved him.

I defended him when my racist brother said he would like to see him dead and that Obama is the worst president ever and should be impeached. Sigh.

Some friends still do love him but now I have found myself disillusioned. His handling of the Banking and Wall Street fraud has been head shaking. He bowed downed to the bankers and Wall Street.

i feel like we all were Dorothy.

[TBF]

36. And people wonder

why folks under 45 didn't vote. This is the answer.

[laserhaas]

73. As one fighting Mitt the Pitts - for similar; I'm still all in on Barack Obama

You have to understand - there's pressure from our party high ups - to do status quo.

For more reasons than 1.

If anyone has a reason to be miffed that prosecutions aren't happening, I'm one at the top. Be that as it may, Holder is part of the problem and his leaving is part of the solution.

I'm just sayin.......

[2banon]

76. I have very racists right wing family members in the South

Their hatred for Obama on day one was glaringly and deeply racist. Additionally the accusations of him being Hitler (on day one) and a communist was beyond the pale of ludicrous, but then followed with "fascist dictator" over the issues that BUSH/CHENEY INSTITUTIONALIZED! Hair pulling for their astonishing ignorance on this point.

On the other hand I was painfully aware (as WE ALL should have been) that selecting Big Banksters/Wall Streeters for his cabinet the day after his election revealed a horrible ugly truth which would not, could not bode well for the working class and rank and file Democratic VOTERS, which has been reported and exposed repeatedly.

It's so past time for rank and file activists and all Dem Party supporters to stop protecting, and making exudes for those in office allowing this corruption to continue and fester.

[KamaAina]

23. More here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025776073

where it is implied that the subject matter of the piece is what caused his abrupt departure from First Look Media.

[mother earth]

26. K & R for Matt, absolute love how he exposes these bastards for what they are. nt

[blkmusclmachine]

30. Too Rich To Jail

[stuffmatters]

31. Yay, Matt's Back!

I hope he gets back on the tv circuit too. He's been so missed.

[TBF]

34. Amazing story -

and not surprising. If I were her I'd stay in Canada.

[Octafish]

35. "massive criminal securities fraud"

Well, pardon me.

[Rex]

49. It is amazing how well the ownership society controls the govt.

The SEC piss you off!? Just call their boss and offer a bribe! I blame a lot of this mess on Alan Greenspan, he legitimized corporate crime.

[sgtbenobo]

52. Jamie Dimon....

....should die in prison.


Carry on.

[Jackpine Radical]

55. Pardon you? It depends.

Bernie Madoff' sentence proved that a paltry theft of about $20 bil isn't enough to buy you immunity. The TARP bailout was for 700 bil. None of those guys went to jail. I figure, as a rough estimate, you have to get away with at least $100 bil to be too big to jail.

[brush]

85. Yeah, I remember Paulson's presser back in '08 announcing the bailout . . .

and how the 700 billion would save the economy.

Turns out that it amounted to way more, 12 trillion thereabouts, and much of it, like the pallet loads of cash

flown into Iraq during the W years, mysteriously disappeared.

These big crime families keep making out like bandits. They make the Mafia look like rank amateurs.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

38. Now the question becomes, "Will the 1% demand action?"....

If not than this goes nowhere.

Then again, Republicans may do hearings to find out how Eric Holder and Obama conspired to cover up for,....oh wait.

Yeah,...this goes nowhere.

[okieinpain]

89. LOL.

[ctaylors6]

40. Wow. Reminded me of this story...

written by a NYT journalist who himself "joined millions of otherwise-sane Americans in what we now know was a catastrophic binge on overpriced real estate and reckless mortgages." I always remember it being written from the perspective of a homeowner who is an economic reporter for the NYT.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/17/magazine/17foreclosure-t.html?pagewanted=all

Thank you for posting the RS article.

[2banon]

78. That was a sad but interesting read. I hope he did good with his book ...

at least he had that as a way out of his crises.

[AzDar]

41. K & R

[Go Vols]

42. K&R

[sabrina 1]

43. It is so tragic that these major criminals and fraudsters were protected from prosecution by

Last edited Fri Nov 7, 2014, 12:40 AM - Edit history (1)

by our government. I know people who are still trying, and probably never will, to recover from the results of their massive crimes against the people.

Good for this courageous woman for trying, against all odds, to try to stop them. She needs to be protected as we know how they treat those who expose their crimes, see Wikileaks, Glenn Greenwald et al.

[woo me with science]

58. +1000000

[Enthusiast]

44. I am surprised they didn't find Fleischmann dead.

These fucking miscreants have killed for less.

[sabrina 1]

63. I know, I worry about people who dare to tell the truth about them. I remember the

woman who revealed the robo signing, in Florida I believe, she ended up dead so their primary witness was unable to testify. Very 'lucky' break for the criminals.

I hope she has protection. The best protection to make herself very prominent to the public.

[JEB]

66. Very brave stepping forward. I am hoping

others who saw some of this shit are inspired to also step forward. We know there are others who understood the wrong doings.

from the article:

Then, on December 15th, a Chase sales executive held a lengthy meeting with reps from GreenPoint and the diligence team to examine the remaining loans in the pool. When they got to the manicurist, Fleischmann remembers, one of the diligence guys finally caved under the pressure from the sales executive. "He had his hands up and just said, 'OK,' and he cleared it," says Fleischmann, adding that he was shaking his head "no" even as he was saying yes. Soon afterward, the error rate in the pool had magically dropped below 10 percent – a threshold that itself had just been doubled to clear the way for this deal.

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-9-billion-witness-20141106#ixzz3IMIhWTq1
Follow us: @rollingstone on Twitter | RollingStone on Facebook

[ReRe]

45. Taibbi

Marking this so I can come back and finish it later. Only got half way through it! Thanks, 2banon!

[Rex]

48. Unfuckingbelievable!

[woo me with science]

59. Yup. EVERYONE, READ THE ARTICLE. SEND IT TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW.

Both parties work for these criminals.

The real groundbreaking realization we all need to come to, as a nation, is that the parties are purchased and working together now for corporate interests.

Red versus Blue is a con game. Corporatists depend on our not realizing that the political game has changed, and that party loyalty is a distraction. We need to unite on ISSUES and POLICY, not party, and get the corporate corruption out of government.

I think these Taibbi threads, and this thread: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025776260
are the most important on DU right now, because they show that we are dealing with an entirely different political game than the propaganda tells us we are.

[sabrina 1]

64. Remember when they introduced the 'team colors'? I remember even a few of our media 'news' people

expressing wonder that the country might be so easily divided into two colors. Very clever of them, slapping two labels on millions of people. I am sure a lot of studying went into that.

What worries the most are those who simply won't get into one of those color boxes or the others. That is why we see so many attacks on people like Ralph Nader, who saw the truth, I have to admit, way before many of us did.

I marvel at the effort that goes into attacks on anyone who doesn't fit into their little color boxes. In fact, that made me wonder about the whole thing, since many of those they targeted are actually TELLING THE TRUTH. It's psychological warfare they wage on ANY dissenters.

But they are losing. And getting more and more desperate, see OWS which refused to become 'political' as their sycophants in the media desperately tried to get them to do. THAT movement REALLY scares them.

[JEB]

77. God forbid that people care about policy over politics.

Thanks for say that. I hope they are scared and I know that people, actual people, are desperate for truth tellers.

[sabrina 1]

99. Yes, that is how I identify them now. Raise an issue like the Ban on Offshore Drilling eg

how the President totally opposed it in the campaign, then lifted it, and you will get a barrage of personal attacks on how you just 'don't like this President'. No substance, as we expect from Democrats, just ignore the issue and attack the messenger.

They CAN'T discuss issues because they support Republican issues and it would blow their cover if they were to engage in real policy discussions. So they insult, use ridiculous talking points from their Think Tank, 'you are not in the reality based community' 'concern troll' 'purity troll' etc, all prepared to attack the Left with rather than engage in a discussion about issues, they KNOW they dare not do.

[2banon]

65. This! ^^^^1000++++

[Rex]

69. Gonna keep these threads kicked for about a week.

Seems the minions of the 1% are having a meltdown!

[2banon]

82. thanks for your help!

[KingCharlemagne]

57. But you see, Ms. Fleiscmann waited too long. She should have

come forward earlier. That's the REAL PROBLEM.

[alfredo]

60. Kickinfuckinare

[Babel_17]

61. The few investigative journalists we have left are to be treasured

Hopefully they'll be emulated if we can manage a renaissance of real reporting.

[laserhaas]

70. Amen to that!

[JEB]

62. Greed, graft, corruption:

Seems to be the American way. Lots of others were privy to the same shit she saw. I hope more have the courage to step forward.

[U4ikLefty]

68. I hear Fleischmann has boxes is her garage. nt

[Aerows]

97. Her husband

is a pole dancer.

[Autumn]

75. This should be everywhere

Holder and Dimon need to be investigated.

[2banon]

86. Hear, Here!

[JEB]

81. Democrats aspiring to run for or keep their offices

should take this and put it to good use. Time to fucking stand up.

[2banon]

84. Apparently, too few are not owned

else, this issue would have been THE campaign meme to have guaranteed overwhelming voter turnout and a huge Democratic Party WIN. Patently obvious to me. Clear as Rain.

[heaven05]

87. the article in Rollingstone

truly stunning and absolutely revealing. geez Our country's justice officials and people we trust with our welfare are truly co-opted and bought off. Fleischmann is courageous. Banks and corporations truly do own our country and after last Tuesday they will own even, more....those justice officials and politicians souls, if they don't already.

[2banon]

103. Matt revealed something interesting this morning on DN!

Paraphrasing, towards the end of the interview he addresses the issue of Holder's - shall I say-"lack of enthusiasm" to seek the appropriate level of justice in prosecuting these bastards, because his own professional career is as an attorney defending these people.

That's who he was before becoming AG. And Matt further added that's the culture of the AG's office in general, that's who all those people are.

So, wow, that explains alot to me!

[GliderGuider]

106. This is how all the corruption got locked into the system. Revolving doors everywhere.

Big Banks
Big Pharma
Big Oil
Big Ag

Big Money
Big Law
Big Power

Round and round and round she goes.
Where she stops, nobody knows.

[2banon]

108. Yeah...

And Eric Holder was a Professional defender of these criminals before he was selected as AG. No wonder he's their man.

[GliderGuider]

111. The Morgan Chase Cheer:

"Eric Holder he's our man,
If he can't save us, no one can!"

[GliderGuider]

88. My position on voting is reinforced by these revelations:

All modern democratic political systems have been suborned and corrupted by corporate interests.

My morality doesn't permit me to participate in corrupt systems if I can avoid it.

What about yours?

[woo me with science]

90. kick

[2banon]

93. bumpity bump.. n't

[stage left]

94. K&R

For the horrible truth.

[truebrit71]

95. That is a very disturbing article.

And it does not bode well for our future...

[Rex]

96. The level of this crime is amazing.

[Aerows]

98. K & R

This is an INCREDIBLY important story.

[Puglover]

109. He and the whistle blower

were just on DemocracyNow.

http://www.democracynow.org/2014/11/7/matt_taibbi_and_bank_whistleblower_on

It is astounding.

[2banon]

110. Yeah, just watched it. Yes, astonishing, and learned something about Holder too.

I didn't realize his firm defended these guys, and I didn't know the Justice dept is now populated with the atty's whose mission is to protect these criminals, and to disregard "white collar" crime.