Large Wall Street firms fined $1.8 bn in US over lax recordkeeping

Yahoo – AFP, September 27, 2022 

Large Wall Street firms agreed to pay $1.8 billion in fines over failures to keep electronic records such as text messages between employees on personal mobile phones, US authorities announced Tuesday. 

Barclays, Bank of America, Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs were among the firms that agreed to fines over "longstanding failures" to maintain and preserve electronic communications that must be available to regulators in the course of oversight, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said in a statement. 

The SEC announced a total of $1.1 billion in fines on 16 institutions in all. The 16 firms listed included some companies such as Morgan Stanley with affiliated firms also covered by the agreement. 

In a parallel action, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced it reached settlements totaling $710 million from the same group of financial institutions over the same offenses. 

"Finance, ultimately, depends on trust. By failing to honor their recordkeeping and books-and-records obligations, the market participants we have charged today have failed to maintain that trust," SEC Chair Gary Gensler said in a statement. "Since the 1930s, such recordkeeping has been vital to preserve market integrity. 

"As technology changes, it's even more important that registrants appropriately conduct their communications about business matters within only official channels, and they must maintain and preserve those communications." 

An SEC investigation uncovered "pervasive off-channel communications" involving a range of senior and junior investment bankers and traders -- omissions that "likely" deprived it of communications in agency probes, it said. 

Bank of America was fined a total of $225 million under the two settlements. 

Financial giants agreeing to $200 million in settlements were Barclays, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and UBS. 

Nomura, Jefferies and  Cantor Fitzgerald will pay respectively $100, $80 and $16 million 

The SEC in December 2021 fined JPMorgan Chase $125 million for the offense, spurring an industry-wide regulatory crackdown on poor recordkeeping, the SEC said.

Related Article:

"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it), Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once),Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse), Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version)

“… The Shift in Human Nature

You're starting to see integrity change. Awareness recalibrates integrity, and the Human Being who would sit there and take advantage of another Human Being in an old energy would never do it in a new energy. The reason? It will become intuitive, so this is a shift in Human Nature as well, for in the past you have assumed that people take advantage of people first and integrity comes later. That's just ordinary Human nature.

In the past, Human nature expressed within governments worked like this: If you were stronger than the other one, you simply conquered them. If you were strong, it was an invitation to conquer. If you were weak, it was an invitation to be conquered. No one even thought about it. It was the way of things. The bigger you could have your armies, the better they would do when you sent them out to conquer. That's not how you think today. Did you notice?

Any country that thinks this way today will not survive, for humanity has discovered that the world goes far better by putting things together instead of tearing them apart. The new energy puts the weak and strong together in ways that make sense and that have integrity. Take a look at what happened to some of the businesses in this great land (USA). Up to 30 years ago, when you started realizing some of them didn't have integrity, you eliminated them. What happened to the tobacco companies when you realized they were knowingly addicting your children? Today, they still sell their products to less-aware countries, but that will also change.

What did you do a few years ago when you realized that your bankers were actually selling you homes that they knew you couldn't pay for later? They were walking away, smiling greedily, not thinking about the heartbreak that was to follow when a life's dream would be lost. Dear American, you are in a recession. However, this is like when you prune a tree and cut back the branches. When the tree grows back, you've got control and the branches will grow bigger and stronger than they were before, without the greed factor. Then, if you don't like the way it grows back, you'll prune it again! I tell you this because awareness is now in control of big money. It's right before your eyes, what you're doing. But fear often rules. …”

Australian Rules club hit by 'heartbreaking' Indigenous mistreatment claims

Yahoo – AFP, September 21, 2022 

Australian Rules' chief executive said Wednesday it was "hard to find more serious allegations" after a top club was accused of separating Indigenous players from their families and pressuring one couple to have an abortion. 

In the latest racially tinged scandal to hit Australia's most popular spectator sport, Hawthorn Football Club said an internal investigation into how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander players were treated had raised "disturbing" historical claims. 

The club did not go into detail, saying the matters were "confidential". 

But public broadcaster ABC reported harrowing accounts of young Indigenous players pressured to end contact with their families and focus on their sporting careers. 

The ABC said in a period about a decade ago, players were relocated away from family and pressed to change their mobile phone numbers. 

One allegation related to a prospective father who told the club he and his partner were expecting a child and was advised to terminate the pregnancy. 

"At face value it's hard to find more serious allegations," Australian Football League (AFL) chief Gillon McLachlan said. 

"There are so many people hurting today and have been hurting for a long time. As a game we will do everything to ensure the hurt you experienced is not a hurt experienced by others." 

McLachlan said an external panel of four independent, appropriately qualified people would conduct a separate investigation for the AFL. 

"We need to run a proper investigation to get to the bottom of it and this is important out of respect for those making the allegations and out of respect for those being accused," he said. 

Hawthorn, the 13-time premiership-winning side -- with the Latin motto translated as "let us be judged by our acts" -- are based in Melbourne. 

Allegations of separating Indigenous players from their families and forced estrangement are particularly sensitive in Australia. 

Until the 1970s, white-dominated Australian governments forcibly removed Aboriginal children from their parents in an attempt to eradicate Indigenous cultures. 

Indigenous AFL legend and former "Australian of the Year" Adam Goodes retired in 2015 after being subjected to months of racially motivated booing by spectators. 

In 2021, the president of top Australian Rules side Collingwood resigned after evidence of systemic racism at the club.

 Hawthorn chief Justin Reeve backed the AFL's independent investigation, calling the findings of their internal review "heartbreaking". 

Asked whether Hawthorn had a culture problem, Reeve replied: "I think Australia has a culture problem, historically, and I think like all of us, we focus on every day being better and building a great environment for our club. 

"I feel confident from the report as well that currently our players feel culturally safe," he added. 

"But like so many institutions, I think we have to face our history and our past and we have to act responsibly and we have to cooperate and move forward from that."