Citibank: Will Anyone Hold Rubin And Prince Accountable?

[marmar]

from AlterNet:



Posted by Zach Carter at 5:28 am
September 9, 20102

Citibank: Will Anyone Hold Rubin And Prince Accountable?
Posted by Zach Carter on @ 5:28 am


Former Citibank Chairman Robert Rubin knew about mounting subprime mortgage losses at his company, but still allowed executives to mislead to Citibank’s shareholders about those losses, according to the SEC. But that same agency wants to let Rubin off the hook for an offense that has sent others to jail, and which contributed directly to Citi’s epic taxpayer-funded bailout.

Those subprime losses were no small matter. Citi told its shareholders it had $13 billion in subprime exposure, when the actual figure was almost $40 billion higher. As the financial crisis deepened, Citi’s heavy involvement in the subprime business nearly destroyed the bank, propelling it into one of the ugliest bailouts of 2008. The new revelations about the depth of Rubin’s involvement in Citi’s subprime scam come from a damning court filing the SEC turned over on September 7, at the request of Federal Judge Ellen Huvelle, and reported by Joshua Gallu and William McQuillen for Bloomberg News. The SEC has been dragging its feet and pulling its punches on the Citi case, which appears to be one of the most straightforward examples of Wall Street fraud from the crash of 2008. The agency is still trying to prevent fraud charges from being filed against either Citi CEO Chuck Prince or Rubin, who served as Treasury Secretary under President Bill Clinton before raking in more than $120 million at Citi.

According to court documents, the SEC believes that all of Citi’s top officials knew exactly what was going on with the bank’s subprime accounting, and knew that the official line being fed to the public was bunk. Lying to your shareholders is a big, straightforward no-no in Corporate America—it’s considered securities fraud, subject to both hefty fines and jail time.

Thanks to the corporate reform laws Congress passed after the Enron debacle, every top executive at every significant U.S. corporation has to personally verify every accounting statement her corporation issues. That signature means that the executive is personally liable for the accuracy of those statements, and subject to criminal prosecution for egregious inaccuracies. But while the SEC has been forced to acknowledge that it believes every top official at Citi knew about the subprime scam, it is only seeking a slap on the wrist against two officials: CFO Gary Crittenden and former investor relations chief Arthur Tildsley. .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2010/09/09/citibank-will-anyone-hold-prince-and-rubin-accountable/

[Fumesucker]

1. No

SATSQ

[xchrom]

2. they're the people we turn to in order to run government agencies.

if we throw them in jail -- who will we get to tell government what deregulation or minor regulation or new ways to screw the masses financially?

they are indispensable to american incompetence and the great screwing.