Good-bye old and stodgy, hello colorful and fabulous. American Express Financial Advisors and Credit Suisse First Boston are undertaking extreme makeovers that would make the “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” gang squeal and lisp with pride. In an effort to remake themselves to the general public after a series of scandals including, but not […]
Lawyers, regulators and politicians rejoice! You are getting paid. Time for some “big pimpin” up in NYC! Class-action attorneys and politicians have been partying down like P-ditty! This past month Citigroup has agreed to pay $2 billion to settle a class action suit over its role in hawking off Enron stock and bonds. J.P. Morgan […]
The Securities and Exchange Commission has been the theoretical guardian of the financial markets for decades. One of the jobs that SEC undertakes is the collection of financial records for publicly traded companies. For the first time ever the SEC disclosed its own financial records and ironically they read like a penny stock. The Government […]
The Wall Street Journal reported that the brokerage division at Citizens Financial Group agreed to pay a $3 million fine to Massachusetts securities regulators to settle allegations that the company engaged in “unethical and dishonest conduct” in its sales of variable annuities to elderly customers on Cape Cod. We feel that “unethical and dishonest” is […]
The evil empire strikes again! Citigroup/Smith Barney once again out does themselves with their immoral creativity and ingenuity. Their ability to steal and defraud without conscience is chilling. Citigroup/Smith Barney has been ordered to pony up $208 million to settle Securities and Exchange Commission fraud charges that two of its subsidiaries profited on transfer-agency discounts […]
Things are starting to get very scary in the world of hedge funds. We have reported on many of the more spectacular blowups and rip-offs over the past few years, now as we predicted the larger “more credible” funds are starting to show some serious foundation cracks. Currently, a large number of hedge funds are […]
Move ’em on, head ’em up Head ’em up, move ’em on Move ’em on, head ’em up Rawhide Count ’em out, ride ’em in, Ride ’em in, count ’em out, Count ’em out, ride ’em in Rawhide! Keep movin’, movin’, movin’ Though they’re disapprovin’ Keep them dogies movin’ Rawhide! Don’t try to understand ’em […]
An interesting dilemma I face being the host of the Watchdog on Wall Street Radio Show is the seemingly implausible nature of many of the stories I report. I receive countless e-mails and phone calls from astonished listeners regarding stories we cover on the show or here in the Markowski Monthly. The big investment firms […]
Law enforcement and the time honored pursuit of bad guys has been successfully practiced under the bottom/up principal. It’s a simple concept, law enforcement agencies try to get lower level criminals to tattle on their superiors in order to bring down the entire crime syndicate. That practice has worked extraordinarily well in snuffing out the […]
Every single time I see a politician or Attorney General holding some ridiculous “pat myself on the back” press conference I get nauseous. Case in point, Alan Hevesi, New York State Comptroller telling all who would listen that the $2 billion WorldCom settlement he had just negotiated with J.P. Morgan Chase “represented a substantial recovery […]