Customer Deposits Are Property of the Bank: Close Your Account NOW

By Susanne Posel - heintelhub.com - August 24, 2012 – h/t to MJ

In June of 2012, Eric Bloom, former chief executive, and Charles Mosely, head trader of Sentinel Management Group (SMG) were indicted for stealing $500 million in customer secured funds.

Both Mosely and Bloom were accused of “exposing” customer segregated funds “to a portfolio of highly risky derivatives.”

These customer funds were used to “back up personal investments” which were part of “collateral for a loan from Bank of New York Mellon” (BNYM).

This loan derived from stolen customer monies was “used to purchase millions of dollars worth of high-risk, illiquid securities, including collateralized debt obligations, or CDOs, for a trading portfolio that benefited Sentinel’s officers, including Mosley, Bloom and certain Bloom family members.”

Fast forward to August 9th of 2012, and the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals (CCA) rules that BNYM can be moved to first in line of creditors over the customers that had their funds stolen by SMG.

When a banking customer deposits their money into their bank account, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SPIC) are in place to protect the customer from fraud or theft.

The ruling from the CCA means that these regulatory systems will not insure customer funds, investments, depositors and retirees who hold accounts in banks.

In fact, the banking institution is now legally allowed to use those customer funds deposited as collateral, payment on debts for loans made, or free use on the stock market to purchase investments as the bank sees fit.

Fred Grede, SMG trustee, explained that brokers are no longer required to keep customer money separate from their own. “It does not bode well for the protection of customer funds.”

Since the ruling gives banks the right to co-mingle customer funds with their own, no crime can be committed for the use of customer deposited monies.

According to Walker Todd , former lawyer for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and Cleveland:

“Basically, there is a new 7th Circuit opinion saying that there is no reason to impose a constructive trust on a lender’s takings of customers’ funds from client commodity firms that were used (inappropriately) to secure the firms’ borrowings, as long as the lender can say that it did not know WITH CERTAINTY that customers’ funds were being repledged. Negligence and misappropriation (vs. knowing criminal intent) are now a sufficient excuse for letting the lender keep the money and go to the head of the line for distributions in bankruptcies of the client commodity firms.”

When a customer deposits money into a bank, the bank essentially issues a promise to have those funds available when the customer returns to withdraw the deposited amount.

When the same customer withdraws funds from their account (whether checking or savings) the customer assumes that the bank has enough funds to cover their withdrawal; including the presumption that their monies are separate from the bank’s assets.

Now, those funds are up for grabs by the bank at their discretion without explanation to the customer – nor is the bank obligated to recoup the customer should they “lose” those funds due to bad loans, bankruptcy or stock market loss.

In Texas, Pamela Cobb, manager of Bank of America (BoA), stole an estimated $2 million from customer funds for personal use. Cobb had been taking customer segregated funds since 2002.

Customers have complained of fraudulent charges placed on their accounts that BoA cannot explain. When the customer brings these charges to the in-house fraud department, they are given the run-around until they acquiesce.

Other customers have had their private possessions stolen right out of their safety deposit box held at BoA. The safety deposit box was drilled into and the contents shipped to the BoA corporate holding center in South Carolina.

In 1992 to 2003, Citibank called their theft of customer funds “account sweeping” wherein they stole more than $14 million from customers nationally.

Using computerized credit card processes to remove positive and negative balances from customers, the scheme included double payments or funds paid out on returned purchases that were then attributed back to the customer.

At Chase bank, an anonymous employee opened an account under a customer name (targeting an Alzheimer’s sufferer), complete with a personal debit card.

An estimated $300 per day was withdrawn on the fraudulent account. When family representing the victim alerted Chase, they brushed them off with an internal investigation claim – even as the family sought legal action.

Banking fraud against the elderly has risen of late, since banks realize they can steal massive amounts of cash from their aging customers with little to no repercussions.

The recent ruling on SMG has given the banking industry the legal backing they have been lacking when stealing from their customers.

Our financial institutions have been planning for a financial collapse wherein the US government will not offer assistance.

The resolution plans required by the Federal Reserve Bank, described schemes to have the major domestic banks remain afloat by selling off assets, finding alternative sources of funding, reducing risky measures that make a quick buck. These strategies were to be perfected with “no assumption of extraordinary support from the public sector.”

The mega-banks, through Wall Street, are also acquiring firearms, ammunition and control over private mercenary corporations like DynCorp and ‘Blackwater” as authorized by the Department of Defense (DoD) directive 3025.18 .

DynCorp is a military-based private mercenary contractor that provides (among other services) intelligence training and support, international security, contingency plans and operations. Ninety-six percent of their funding is based on annual revenues from the US federal government.

The international branch of DynCorp has operated as a “police force” even assisting local law enforcement during Hurricane Katrina.

Named as investors for the amassing of gun and ammunition manufacturers are Citibank, BoA, Barclays and Deutsche Bank who are pouring money into Cerebus and Veritas Equity who have taken over private corporations involved in the controlling riot situations.

The Federal Reserve Bank, one of the heads of banking cartels, has their own police force which operates as a protective security for the Fed against the American public.

As part of the Federal Reserve Act signed in 1913, the designation of a Federal Law Enforcement – special police officers that are exclusively regulated by authority of the Fed (whether in uniform or plain clothes.

These specialized police officers (who train with Special Response Teams) can work in tandem with local law enforcement or US federal agencies. These officers are heavily armed with semi-automatic pistols, sub machine guns and assault rifles as well as body armor.

Of recent, when withdrawing cash from an ATM, the daily allotted amount has decreased with some banks, thereby forcing the customer to go into the branch and extract the difference with a teller.

At this point, according to anonymous informants, the customer is taken into a backroom to be questioned as to why they want the cash, what they are purchasing with the cash, why they are not choosing to use a debit card or another form of digital trade to make the purchase. These questions are not only intrusive, they are illegal.

Some anonymous sources have said that banking representatives who conduct the integrations are directed to keep a record of customer responses on an online application that will be sent to the FBI in conjunction with Patriot Act mandates on tracking banking activity.

Customer funds are no longer secure, no longer backed by the FDIC or other insurance corporations, and banks are legally allowed to co-mingled customer money with other funds of the bank. The only safe place for your money is with you.

Now is the time to close your bank account.

Susanne Posel is the Chief Editor of Occupy Corporatism Our alternative news site is dedicated to reporting the news as it actually happens; not as it is spun by the corporate-funded mainstream media. You can find us on our Facebook page.

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Technorati Tags: DOD,Banks,Big Brother,banksters,money,BoA,New Economic World Order,global elites,NWO,Blackwater,DynCorp,FDIC,Deutsche Bank,Barclays,Cerebus,Veritas Equity,savings,your savings,Citibank,Federal Reserve,private army,SMG,preparedness,BNYM,the FED,banking cartels,International bankers,investors money,survival

American Freedom – Chinese Style?

A Chinese Group Plans To Construct A 200 Acre 

A Chinese group known as "Sino-Michigan Properties LLC" has bought up 200 acres of land near the town of Milan, Michigan.  Their plan is to construct a "China City" with artificial lakes, a Chinese cultural center and hundreds of housing units for Chinese citizens.  Essentially, it would be a little slice of communist China dropped right into the heartland of America.  This "China City" would be located about 40 minutes from both Detroit and Toledo, and it would be marketed to Chinese business people that want to start businesses in the United States.  Unfortunately, this is not just an isolated incident.  In fact, Chinese companies have been buying up land and businesses all over the country in recent years.  There has even been talk of establishing "special economic zones" inside the United States modeled after the Chinese city of Shenzhen.  It was inevitable that the Chinese were going to do something with the trillions of dollars that they have made flooding our shores with cheap products.  Now they are rapidly buying up pieces of America, and many of our politicians are welcoming them with open arms.

The town of Milan, Michigan is a small farming community of only about 6,000 people, but big changes are coming their way.  The following is from a recent Dayton Daily News article about this new project....

A group of mainland Chinese known as Sino-Michigan Properties LLC paid $1.9 million for 200 acres of farmland on Milan city limits in purchases this year and in 2011, according to local officials and property records.

Unfortunately, the goal does not appear to be to integrate this new "city" into the existing community in and around Milan.

Rather, it appears that all of the new housing will be sold to people coming over from China.  According to the Milan News Leader newspaper, the new housing units "would be marketed to Chinese business people who want to start companies in the United States".

In essence, we would be looking at a new Chinese city right in the middle of Michigan.

Doug Smith, senior vice president for business and community development for the Michigan Economic Development Corp., recently said the following about what the Chinese group plans to do....

"It’s a group that wants to build a China city, starting with housing over there in Milan"

Milan is not far from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, which is a very popular destination for Chinese students.  Apparently that is one reason why Milan was chosen.

This new project would be a Chinese community built by Chinese and specifically designed for Chinese.

But isn't this supposed to be America?

Fortunately, the project does not have final approval yet.  It still must be approved by the two townships outside of Milan where the land is located.

For some reason, the Chinese seem to be particularly interested in this area of the country.

For example, a different Chinese investment group has been busy buying up chunks of real estate over in nearby Toledo, Ohio.  The following is from an article in the Toledo Blade on May 26th, 2011....

Dashing Pacific Group Ltd., which has already purchased the nearby Docks restaurant complex for $2.15 million, put its $3.8 million offer to buy the southern 69 acres at the Marina District in East Toledo back on the table for approval by Toledo City Council. Additionally, Dashing Pacific Chairman Yuan Xiaohong, in a letter signed in Hangzhou, said the firm wants a two-year option to buy the decommissioned Toledo Edison power plant property on the site.

So should we be alarmed that the Chinese are buying up pieces of America?

Well, if they simply wanted to enjoy living in America and wanted to integrate into the wider community that would be one thing.

But it is another thing altogether to start dropping slices of communist China inside of U.S. territory.

In a previous article entitled "China Wants To Construct A 50 Square Mile Self-Sustaining City South Of Boise, Idaho", I discussed a potential deal that Sinomach (a company controlled by the Chinese government) was exploring with the government of Idaho.  The following is a description of that potential project from an article in the Idaho Statesman....

A Chinese national company is interested in developing a 10,000- to 30,000-acre technology zone for industry, retail centers and homes south of the Boise Airport.

There was talk that this "technology zone" would be modeled after the "special economic zones" that have been developed in China.  The city of Shenzhen is perhaps the most famous example of this.

Fortunately that deal appears to have stalled, but other mammoth deals have been moving forward in other parts of the country.

For example, the Chinese have been very busy gobbling up oil and gas fields.  The following is a quote from a local Texas news source about a deal that a company owned by the Chinese government did with Chesapeake Energy down in Texas....

State-owned Chinese energy giant CNOOC is buying a multibillion-dollar stake in 600,000 acres of South Texas oil and gas fields, potentially testing the political waters for further expansion into U.S. energy reserves.

With the announcement Monday that it would pay up to $2.2 billion for a one-third stake in Chesapeake Energy assets, CNOOC lays claim to a share of properties that eventually could produce up to half a million barrels a day of oil equivalent.

You can read more about that particular deal right here.

So is it really a good idea to be allowing the Chinese to buy up our precious energy resources?

The answer to that question is obvious.

Sadly, the examples noted above are not isolated incidents.  The truth is that the Chinese have been snapping up real estate and business assets all over America as a recent Forbes article explained....

According to a recent report in the New York Times, investors from China are “snapping up luxury apartments” and are planning to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on commercial and residential projects like Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn. Chinese companies also have signed major leases at the Empire State Building and at 1 World Trade Center, the report said.

So get ready - the Chinese are buying up U.S. land and they are moving in whether you like it or not.

So what will the long-term consequences be of allowing a communist superpower to buy up large sections of America?

That is a very good question.

Fed clears China's first US bank takeover

Yahoo ^ |Wednesday, May 09, 2012 6:33:39 PM · by GeorgeWashingtonsGhost · 18 replies

The United States on Wednesday opened its banking market to ICBC, China's biggest bank, for the first time clearing a takeover of a US bank by a Chinese state-controlled company. Just days after high-level US-China economic talks in Beijing, the Federal Reserve approved an application from Industrial and Commercial Bank of China to buy a majority stake in the US subsidiary of Bank of East Asia. The transaction will make ICBC the first Chinese state-controlled bank to acquire retail bank branches in the United States. ICBC has been the most aggressive of China's "big four" banks in expanding overseas. According...

 China & the Other Central Banks Are Buying Gold-Ranting Andy Hoffman--09.May.2012

The Financial Survival Network ^ | 05/09/2012 | Kerry Lutz  -  Listen to the Interview Here - http://financialsurvivalnetwork.com/2012/05/the-people-have-spoken/

www.FinancialSurvivalNetwork.com presents: "Ranting" Andy Hoffman gives us the update on the latest precious metals slam down; the reasons to own gold and silver couldn't be stronger. If the prices stay down this low, don't be surprised to witness a major flood of buying. We're also getting into the Indian Wedding Season, which will result in increased demand along with massive sovereign central bank purchases. This is worse than 2008, and banks are blowing up all over Europe. Spain has just bailed out its third largest bank. Who's going to bail out Spain? Greece is planning to reneg on its debt....

World Affairs Brief

Both Republican and Democratic administrations have been supplying the Chinese with high technology weapons systems for years, knowing that they, in turn, are supplying other enemies (Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, North Korea) as well. Both Russia and China continue to protest against any US anti-ballistic missile system, even though such systems are purely defensive. It doesn't take a genius to understand that ABM systems only threaten someone who intends to launch ballistic missiles someday.

"The US supplying Chinese with US high tech weapons systems?”

Note: He went into personal details not shown here, of experiences when as a person holding security classification, in U.S. weapons development, how they were ordered to allow Chinese military officers go over the details of secret projects they were working on !!

 Shocking News: China Sells Energy Pills Made From Baby Flesh

Customs officials in South Korea have uncovered a horrifying reality coming from China. Since last August, the Koreans have confiscated over 17,000 "energy pills" that were made from the dried flesh of babies. The rest of the nauseating details can be found HERE.

China is exporting pills made from dried and pulverized human baby flesh. [They are hyped as a medicinal cure-all.] DailyMail 2012 May 7 (Cached)
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2140702/South-Korea-customs-officials-thousands-pills-filled-powdered-human-baby-flesh.html#ixzz1uDZvdZaW

 Soy-Crop Bust Spurs China to Drain U.S. Bins: Commodities

 China Has Hacked Our Electric Power Grid: Read About It In Screwed!
By DICK MORRIS  -  Published on DickMorris.com on May 10, 2012

In our new book Screwed!, we report that almost unnoticed and with no threat of retaliation, China has likely hacked into the United States electric grid, potentially giving it the ability to paralyze our economy and our nation by tapping a few keys on a computer. (This is an ad by Dick Morris for his book… but the book is well worth reading.  He covers a lot of important topics in great detail that others are ignoring!)

Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Bush's anti-terrorism coordinator Richard Clarke reports that "in 2009, the control systems for the U.S. electric power grid [were] hacked and secret openings created so that the attacker could get back in with ease.  One expert noted that the hackers "left behind software that could be used to cause disruptions or even shut down the system."

While we cannot confirm that it was China that did the hacking, it is the only country with the technical expertise in hacking to have accomplished it.

What were the hackers after?  Clarke notes that "there is no money to steal on the electrical grid, nor is there any intelligence value that would justify cyber espionage.  The only point to penetrating the grid's controls is to counter American military superiority by threatening to damage the underpinning of the U.S. economy.  Chinese military strategists have written about how in this way a nation like China could gain an equal footing with the militarily superior United States."

Anti-terror watchdogs have long been aware of the danger of an electromagnetic pulse triggered by the explosion of a nuclear device in the atmosphere over the United States.  But by acquiring the ability to enter our grid anytime it wishes and disable it, China has likely acquired the ability to accomplish the same result without exploding a bomb.

Not only has Beijing likely hacked into our grid but, according to authors Brett M. Decker and William C. Triplett II in their excellent book Bowing to Beijing, China has even hacked into the Pentagon computer network "including the one serving [then] Defense Secretary Robert Gates." 

James Lewis, director of the technology and policy program at the Washington think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies called the Chinese hacking "an espionage Pearl Harbor."  Lewis told 60 minutes that China had downloaded vast amounts of information from every major U.S. agency saying that we have lost more information than is stored in the entire Library of Congress through Chinese hacking.

What is the U.S. doing about it? Nothing.  The modern day story of appeasement is not Obama's kowtowing to Muslim extremists as much as his total failure to confront China.

The president and Secretary of State Clinton fret over alienating China for fear that they will stop lending us money.  Romney, who understands these things better than either Obama or Clinton, emphasizes China's vulnerability. "We sell then $50 billion.  They sell us $400 billion.  They want a trade war?  Bring it on!"

The Chinese lend us money because they have to.  They buy dollars to make our currency artificially expensive and theirs' commensurately cheap.  With their currency manipulation, our products are 40% more costly in their markets and theirs' are 40% cheaper in our stores, fueling the imbalance of trade.  Once they own the dollars, what are they going to do with them?  The only safe thing is to buy U.S. Treasury notes, hence they "lend" us money.  If they stopped buying dollars and acquiring an unfair trade advantage over us, we wouldn't need them to keep lending us money, our economy would be thriving.

We cannot sit by complacently and let China rob us blind, hacking our technology, our military secrets, and our power grid.  We need a president who will stand up for America.

To grasp the appalling extent of Chinese hacking and espionage against the U.S. commercial and military sectors, read about it in Screwed!, on sale now!

Technorati Tags: China,Chinese,US bank takeover,watch the other hand,electric power grid,Screwed,i nvasion,Michigan,the Fed,banking

Thought For The Day - 9.29.08

“In Major Crisis, It Seems To Be The Little Guy That Gets Hit the Worst, Therefore, Unfortunately, It Is Up To The Little Guy To Watch Out For Himself!”

(Renters are often the ones left hanging in the middle in foreclosure proceedings and there are no signs to believe that will change.)

With the current wave of foreclosures that has swept the country, that we hope will diminish after the recently announced bailouts, many renters are finding themselves in the middle between lenders and their landlord; who is now the foreclosed on owner. They are finding themselves homeless, like the Smiths, after their cash-strapped landlord stopped making mortgage payments or could 

only make partial payments and their houses, condos, townhouses or apartment buildings were foreclosed upon, even though they have been making their monthly rent payments. 

The California Apartment Association, the state's largest organization of rental property owners, reported that nearly one quarter of all foreclosed single-family residences are renter occupied. And the number of renters trapped in the foreclosure debacle in duplexes and other multi-unit buildings is considerably higher. Total California foreclosures of single-family homes statewide rose more than 400 percent to a record 31,676 in the fourth quarter of 2007 from a year earlier and has been rising ever since.

The Smiths received notice last month, when a Trustee Sale Notice was posted on the front door of their townhouse, after their landlord had missed 6-months of mortgage payments and the property was foreclosed upon. And this seems to be the way most tenants are getting their notifications; inciting a sense of panic and feelings of insult, betrayal and lack of control.

For many people, this can mean even steeper rents on the horizon because the wave of foreclosures has created greater demand in the rental housing market -- a blessing to landlords who are not having foreclosure problems, but also leaves the door open for some gauging. And invariably, these situations mean a total loss of deposits paid by renters, so it is generally suggested that renters stop paying rent as soon as they are made aware of foreclosure proceedings and definitely upon notice of an impending sale. 

State and local officials say many evictions could be avoided or at least made less painful if people knew the legal protections available to them. However, few owners, lenders and property managers make such information available during the eviction process, and often cause renters to move before they have to without a penny… no deposit refunds, no months of free rent to counter balance their loss of deposits and no assistance check from the bank.  So renters beware!

 

This entire experience can be terrifying!! "It's something a number of jurisdictions have been discussing because it's a growing problem.", says Michaelyn Jones, general counsel to the Santa Monica Rent Control Agency, which oversees some of California's toughest rent-control rules. 

Many foreclosed properties were purchased by real-estate speculators or novice investors taking advantage of dirt-cheap loans and rising property values, who subsequently rented them to tenants before falling behind on mortgage payments. Plus now there is a newly reported scam whereby some owners, knowing they are on the road to pending foreclosure are renting their properties anyway or again, right before the Trustee Sale, and then vanishing with what can be a tidy sum, including as much as first and last month's rent, a security deposit and sometimes additional cleaning or pet deposits; leaving renters holding the proverbial bag and having to move again.

Some tenants don't find out that they have to move until they receive a letter from the bank or lender, that has taken the property back, or from the new owner after the Trustee Sale, either in letter form or by a representative showing up at their door, which sometimes includes the offer of an "assistance check" varying in amount from $1000 to $2500, to vacate quickly. In many cases it is to the renters' benefit to accept this assistance check, which usually includes a warning like: "Please keep in mind that the eviction process has started".

Offering financial inducements is a common practice when renters are being pressed to vacate a foreclosed-upon property, but there are several factors to weigh. It's called "Cash 4 Keys" and can involve payments of up to $2,500, ostensibly to help a tenant resettle but also to get him or her to waive any claims to the rental property. However in the wake rising foreclosures and rising rents, in many areas you now have 60-days from the day you receive official notification to vacate before having to be out or before eviction procedures can begin, giving you 2+ months of rent free living. So you need to weigh the value of two free months of rent against the amount of the assistance check being offered. And if you have an active lease in place, that lease could have to be honored. Be sure to check with Renters Rights and give your options some thought before the representative appears on your doorstep. Also, if your property has been purchased by a new owner, be sure to ask if you can stay on as a renter. 

The Smiths were told that if they didn't agree to the assistance money deal right away, their resettlement amount would be slashed in half from the original offer within a week and then to third a week after that. Then it would drop to nothing, and they'd still have to move out within 30-days. Sometimes the money reduction is enforced and sometimes not. If they really want you out, they will work with you and you could still get the original offer, but it is a gamble.

 

Also be wary of your previous landlord trying to collect rent, present or past, (before or after the trustee sale) or asking for a share in the moving assistance money. Once they have lost title to the property, they have no claim or rights to anything involving their former property.  However, some owners who know they are going to lose their property will give their tenants notice to move before the Trustee Sale, stating other reasons, so that they can then try and collect the assistance check, as if they had lived there themselves.  In some states owners have a very short time to be out and in others they have up to 6-months, but in almost all states, owners occupying their properties are offered larger inducements to get out than renters.

State officials have said that under California law, existing rental agreements are essentially wiped out when a property is foreclosed upon, but changes and amendments have and are being made daily, so keep checking. A few months ago renters occupying a foreclosed property only had 30 days' notice before being evicted; now they have 60. And those officials also said state law can be trumped by local rent-control statutes, which often provide tenants with more far-reaching protections. These "just cause" provisions of many municipal rent-control laws limit the ability of landlords to evict tenants, even those on month-to-month leases. They also include cases in situations when ownership of a property changes hands, such as a foreclosure.  So make sure to check both your state and local statutes as well as with Renters Rights type of organizations in your area, before making any final decisions, because in these trying times the laws and statutes are continuously changing, and the people representing the new or old owner of your property or representing the bank or mortgage company that has taken the loan on property back, if it didn’t sell, will not necessarily tell you the full truth, and sometimes don’t know the latest changes themselves.  Plus their focus or job is not to represent you.

 

However, not all "just cause" provisions are created equal. Some require that a tenant occupy a property for at least two years before an eviction notice is served. Others allow an eviction to proceed if the landlord plans to remove the property from the rental market or have a relative move in. And, not all rental properties may fall under a city's rent-control protections, allowing state law to apply. 

But anyone receiving a notice from a bank or property manager, which is often an assigned realtor, saying their rented home has been foreclosed on should contact City Hall and ask about rent-control rules that may exist in your area and whether your particular property is protected as well as checking with Renters Rights. Then ask the bank or property manager to specify the legal grounds for the eviction. If nothing else, this could result in a more generous offer of payout to get you moving or a little more time even with compensation.

And remember, do your homework and always get everything in writing!!!

How the federal bailout of the financial services industry will affect distressed homeowners remains unclear at this point.  Unidentified government officials said the administration has agreed to include some homeowner protections against foreclosures, which will hopefully reduce the numbers, but that won’t help renters when there are foreclosure situations.  Renters are often the ones left hanging in the middle in foreclosure proceedings and there are no signs to believe that will change with the bailout.