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Rather than shutting down and firing govt and private whistleblowers, there should be $1M tax-free rewards for whistleblowers' info that leads to court, and a further contingency payment as percentage of penalties/fines paid.
Whoopsies. There I said it, are you happy?
Bank of America to Pay $137 Million in Muni Cases
By Jeff Bliss and Martin Z. Braun - Dec 7, 2010 12:20 PM CT
Bank of America Corp. agreed to pay $137 million to settle investigations of its involvement in a conspiracy to rig bids on 88 municipal bond contracts, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and Justice Department said.
Bank of America, based in Charlotte, North Carolina, agreed to pay $36 million to settle an SEC case. The bank will pay an additional $101 million to resolve investigations by other federal and state agencies, the SEC said.
Bank of America has been aiding a nationwide Justice Department probe since at least 2007 in return for leniency. The settlement also involves 20 states, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Internal Revenue Service and the Federal Reserve Bank, Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said in a release.
The company’s “cooperation has led to an aggressive, ongoing investigation by the Department of Justice into anticompe ive activity in the municipal bond derivatives industry,” Christine Varney, who heads the Justice Department’s An rust Division, said in a statement.
“Bank of America is pleased to put this matter behind it and has already voluntarily undertaken numerous remediation efforts,” the company said in a statement.
Eight former bankers and financial advisers, including former employees of UBS AG, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Bank of America, have pleaded guilty in connection with the probes.
Cost to Taxpayers
The conspiracy included more than 200 deals involving state agencies, local governments and nonprofit groups across the country, according to do ents filed in federal court. The scheme may have cost taxpayers more than $1 billion, according to Steven Feinstein, a finance professor at Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts.
On Dec. 1, Peter Ghavami, the former co-head of UBS’ municipal derivatives group, was arrested as part of the four- year investigation after arriving in John F. Kennedy International Airport.
Ghavami, a Belgian national living in Moscow, faces a fraud charge tied to a $100,000 kickback for steering an investment agreement with a U.S. state to another bank.
Former JPMorgan banker James L. Hertz on Nov. 30 admitted to participating in bid-rigging and fraud conspiracies that delivered profits to Wall Street at taxpayer expense.
The Justice Department’s criminal investigation centers on investment agreements that municipalities enter with money raised through bond sales.
Guaranteed Contracts
The so-called guaranteed investment contracts let them earn a return until the cash is needed for schools, roads or other public works. The U.S. Treasury Department encourages compe ive bidding to ensure that localities get market rates.
Prosecutors have said that favored bankers got inside information from brokers who handled bidding for the contracts so they could carve up the market. In some cases, bankers admitted paying kickbacks to brokers.
In September, Douglas Lee Campbell, a former municipal derivatives executive with the bank, pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate. In May, Mark Zaino, who worked for UBS’s municipal bond and derivatives trading desk from 2001 to 2006, pleaded guilty to participating in a conspiracy to rig bids for the contracts.
Bank of America’s cooperation is an example of a Justice Department program under which the first company in a cartel to inform prosecutors about the illegal collusion is shown leniency. The program had been renewed on an annual basis until Varney earlier this year successfully lobbied Congress to extend the program until 2020. [meaning that other companies were involved--RG]
“Any time you have a law that automatically sunsets every year, you create a lot of uncertainty,” she said in an interview last month. “If you’re a lawyer counseling a client, you’re not so sure you want to recommend that they take advantage of the leniency program when you’re not sure the leniency program is going to be there.”
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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-1...aud-cases.html
Rather than shutting down and firing govt and private whistleblowers, there should be $1M tax-free rewards for whistleblowers' info that leads to court, and a further contingency payment as percentage of penalties/fines paid.
What...
You don't want to tax millionaires?
wtf is a tax millionaire?
LOL...
You are a hoot.
Reread what I said to your response.
ok.
I don't want to tax whistleblowers doing good for society.
Taxing billionaires for winning in the Wall St/commodities/derivatives casino is great.
You could see whistleblowers as outsourcing/privatizing/deputizing the policing of govt, corporations, capitalists.
Boutons clearly wants to blow someones whistle.
Damage control before wikileaks releases BofA's corruption?
Feds should cram back down all the toxic onto the banks and drive them to bankruptcy, and start over. They are all insolvent except for taxpayers bailout. 'em
Each state should get some fed funds to start its own non-profit bank, templated on the very successful Bank of North Dakota.
I see...
You want to pick and choose winners and losers in the tax scheme, rather than having equality.
You want to give $1million tax free, but tax families making $250k+
Come on man... Think about what you're saying.
Inheritors get a gift of $5M tax free from parent's estate for doing nothing,
but $1M + contingency tax free for wistleblower who outs a criminals is unfair.
Think about what you're saying.
"tax equality" for you is 25% income tax on someone making $20K/year, leaving them $1250/month, and 25% income tax on someone with income of $250M/year, leaving them to scrape by on $16M/month.
Really? I just recently looked this up:
$5mil is in the 55% marginal rate for estate taxes. It becomes an effective tax of $2,390,800, or 47.816%. It just isn't fair to take that much over a death. It isn't income.Code:Lower Limit Upper Limit Initial Taxation Further Taxation $0.00 $10,000.00 $0.00 18% of the amount $10,000.00 $20,000.00 $1,800.00 20% of the excess over $10,000 $20,000.00 $40,000.00 $3,800.00 22% of the excess over $20,000 $40,000.00 $60,000.00 $8,200.00 24% of the excess over $40,000 $60,000.00 $80,000.00 $13,000.00 26% of the excess over $60,000 $80,000.00 $100,000.00 $18,200.00 28% of the excess over $80,000 $100,000.00 $150,000.00 $23,800.00 30% of the excess over $100,000 $150,000.00 $250,000.00 $38,800.00 32% of the excess over $150,000 $250,000.00 $500,000.00 $70,800.00 34% of the excess over $250,000 $500,000.00 $750,000.00 $155,800.00 37% of the excess over $500,000 $750,000.00 $1,000,000.00 $248,300.00 39% of the excess over $750,000 $1,000,000.00 $1,125,000.00 $345,800.00 41% of the excess over $1,000,000 $1,125,000.00 $1,500,000.00 $448,300.00 43% of the excess over $1,250,000 $1,500,000.00 $2,000,000.00 $555,800.00 45% of the excess over $1,500,000 $2,000,000.00 $2,500,000.00 $780,800.00 49% of the excess over $2,000,000 $2,500,000.00 $3,000,000.00 $1,025,800.00 53% of the excess over $2,500,000 $3,000,000.00 and over $1,290,800.00 55% of the excess over $3,000,000
Why then, should the small business owner, filing chapter S, should pay in the 39.6% tax bracket at $200,000k?
I do. Do you ever think?
And tax equity to you is stealing everyone assets that are more than what you think they should make.
Yes, actually, it is income.
The person recieving the funds is better off economically then they were before the transaction.
Fine, but it shouldn't be taxed just because of a inheritance. It is already taxed in normal operations.
How about only taxing any cash transferred, assets only get taxed as capital gains when sold? Why do you like double taxation?
If you inheret a $2 million business, have to pay almost $500k to keep it, you still got it for free. Now you sell it to come up with that $500k, and now have to pay capital gains on $1 million!
Don't you see... no matter how you slice it, the death tax on assets is double taxation.
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