Santa Cruz County severs ties with JP Morgan, Bank of America

[Newsjock]

Source: San Jose Mercury News

SANTA CRUZ -- The county is severing ties with two banks involved in municipal bid-rigging scandals, county Treasurer-Tax Collector Fred Keeley announced Thursday.

Keeley said he is removing New York-based JP Morgan Chase and North Carolina-based Bank of America from an approved list of banks handling bond investments for Santa Cruz County. The decision was based on nationwide, multimillion-dollar settlements involving fraud allegations that the two companies negotiated agreements giving them a look at competitors' bids for handling the investments.

"There seems to be no limit to the greed of some of our nation's largest banks," Keeley said in making the announcement. "Whether it has been unjustifiable fees, collateralized debt obligations, betting against their own investment products through the purchase of credit default swaps, or now bid rigging.

"Local, state and federal governments should not be involved with those who have abused the trust of their customers, especially in the case of public agency investments."

Read more: http://www.mercurynews.com/central-coast/ci_19310560

[pinto]

1. Great statement and good move. Kudos Santa Cruz.

:thumbsup:

[MindandSoul]

2. Yes! You can always count on people in Santa Cruz to be ahaed of the game!

[cui bono]

3. When I went to UCSC my Marxism professor was the mayor!

He used to come in to the ice-cream store where I worked and he'd be wearing black converse high tops and an army fatigue jacket and I'd say "Hi Mike!". And when my roommate and I had a pot luck for the class he was the first one to ask who had the weed. I obliged, of course.

Santa Cruz is awesome! They also voted to ask Congress to look into impeaching Bush in 2003.

[Foolacious]

18. Yep, that's my alma mater!

A little while ago, but oh, the memories...

[TygrBright]

4. Go Banana Slugs! n/t

[dixiegrrrrl]

20. Banana slugs????

I know what banana slugs ARE, I did not know any ..team???? was named for them.

[TygrBright]

21. Yup. Santa Cruz Banana Slugs. SC is almost as cool as Antioch. n/t

[xiamiam]

5. yeah us..im here in santa cruz county..i love this..nt

[HCE SuiGeneris]

6. !

:kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick:

[Go Vols]

7. uh

FUCKIN A

[Magoo48]

13. My reaction as well.

[Le Taz Hot]

8. My favorite bumper sticker to this day:

"Keep Santa Cruz Weird" Seriously, SC, great move. May they lead the way for other municipalities on this.

[Fire Walk With Me]

9. Bank Transfer Day...Continues :)

[Enthusiast]

10. Santa Cruz sounds like my kinda place.

[hamerfan]

11. Great town!

And home to a great guitar company:

http://www.santacruzguitar.com/index.html

No affiliation with it and I'm too poor to own one. But great guitars.

[dadzilla]

12. Am I missing something...

in that there was a settlement on what I understand to be a criminal offense?

[bluesbassman]

16. Here's a link...

http://www.usatoday.com/money/companies/regulation/2011-07-07-jpmorgan-bid-rigging_n.htm

JPMorgan agreed to cooperate with the Justice Department's investigation into the municipal bid-rigging issue in exchange for not being prosecuted, the agency said. Under the agreement, JPMorgan also must pay restitution to victims of the alleged fraud.

The company admitted and accepted responsibility for the illegal conduct. It blamed it on former employees of a division that has since been shut down. The company said it "is pleased to have resolved this matter with its regulators."

Blamed it on a "former" employee. Yeah right, like the guy operated in a vacuum. :eyes:

[theaocp]

14. Lee Camp has some great thoughts on psychopaths like these CEOs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=zGWr_VtbDtI#!

[myrna minx]

15. K&R - But, but, but they're entitled to our money. ALL of it. Just because.

Good for Santa Cruz. :bounce:

[katty]

17. nice!!

[Beavker]

19. Some have said the paltry accounts we 99% transfer

from the Big 6, won't matter. They have huge clients. Whatever. I think it does matter.

However, it's time for more Municipalities to join that movement. That is serious money. Then other large organizations, small and medium sized businesses.

Then the banks can be left to defraud only the 1% since those are the only ones that have any money with them.