The Washington Independent

Posts Tagged bernard madoff

Government Watchdog Warns Against Oversight Agency Expansion

By | 02.23.10 | 5:58 pm

The Project on Government Oversight today sent a stark warning to Congress: Don’t let the commercials paid for by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) fool you, because they’re the last people to whom you want to give expanded regulatory authority. According to POGO, FINRA’s incompetence or deliberate More…

Another Former Enron Exec Heads to Prison – But Where Are the Bankers?

By | 09.29.09 | 9:11 am

This shouldn’t go by unnoticed: The former head of Enron’s failed Internet division was just sentenced to 16 months in prison, The Washington Post reports. Joseph Hirko, the former broadband unit CEO also agreed to pay $8.7 million in restitution. Prosecutors contend Hirko falsely promoted Enron’s broadband division to More…

New Calls for a Countrywide VIP Program Investigation – But Nothing More

By | 09.28.09 | 10:44 am

This should get interesting: some Republicans are calling for further investigations into the Countrywide VIP mortgage scandal, The Wall Street Journal reports. As you might recall, a Senate Ethics Committee probe last month cleared Sens. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.)., and Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) regarding discounts on mortgages they received from More…

Wells Fargo Exec Who Partied in Foreclosed Beach House Loses Job

By | 09.15.09 | 9:00 am

Well, at least one banking executive is personally feeling the pain of the foreclosure crisis: Wells Fargo has fired a top employee who moved into a foreclosed Malibu beach house and threw lavish parties all summer there, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Cheronda Guyton, a senior vice president responsible

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Some of Madoff’s Innocent Victims Might Not Be So Innocent After All

By | 05.18.09 | 9:19 am

The investigation into disgraced financier Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme is taking a new turn, as the Securities and Exchange Commission begins investigating whether some of Madoff’s biggest “victims” actually were in on the scam, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Some of the victims apparently were able to state the More…

The Day’s Biggest Economic News: Judge Decides Fate of Bernie Madoff’s Mets Tickets

By | 04.14.09 | 5:15 pm

Sure, President Obama delivered a major speech on the economy and new figures show falling retail sales in March. But let’s face it, the biggest economic news probably is a judge’s ruling today that disgraced financier Bernard Madoff’s season tickets to the Mets can be auctioned off to More…

There’s More Than AIG to Be Outraged Over; Madoff Wants to Keep His $62 Million

By | 03.03.09 | 12:10 pm

Well, if this doesn’t take some nerve: After ripping off billions of dollars of other people’s money, disgraced Ponzi-schemer Bernard Madoff wants to hang on to his $7 million penthouse and his $62 million in cash, New York’s CBS affiliate says:

Court papers filed on Monday state that Madoff

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Wall Street’s Old-Fashioned $50 Billion Swindle

By | 12.12.08 | 8:49 am

Forget credit default swaps, mortgage-backed securities and all those complicated financial instruments that are causing the economy so much trouble. Wall Street is reeling today instead from a straightforward, by-the-books, $50 billion Ponzi scheme apparently orchestrated by the once-respected investor Bernard Madoff, a former chairman of the Nasdaq Stock More…