(CNSNews.com) - President Joe Biden gave a short speech on Monday morning to address the collapse of two major U.S. banks—the Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank—and stated: “Our banking system is safe. Your deposits are safe.”
The California-based Silicon Valley Bank was taken over by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation on Friday and, on Sunday, the FDIC took control of the New York-based Signature Bank after it was closed by state regulators.
On Sunday, Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen, Federal Reserve Board Chair Jerome H. Powell, and FDIC Chairman Martin J. Gruenberg released a statement that, in part, said the following:
“After receiving a recommendation from the boards of the FDIC and the Federal Reserve, and consulting with the President, Secretary Yellen approved actions enabling the FDIC to complete its resolution of Silicon Valley Bank, Santa Clara, California, in a manner that fully protects all depositors. Depositors will have access to all of their money starting Monday, March 13. No losses associated with the resolution of Silicon Valley Bank will be borne by the taxpayer.
“We are also announcing a similar systemic risk exception for Signature Bank, New York, New York, which was closed today by its state chartering authority. All depositors of this institution will be made whole. As with the resolution of Silicon Valley Bank, no losses will be borne by the taxpayer.”
While the resolution announced by Yellen, Powell and Gruenberg said that their solution “fully protects all depositors” and that depositors “will have access to all of their money,” the FDIC only guarantees deposits up to $250,000—not over that level.
“Deposit insurance guarantees repayments of deposits at a bank up to the insured limit, $250,000,” says a report by the Congressional Research Service.
“It is intended to prevent bank runs and reduce the risk of systemic failure of the banking system,” says CRS. “Banks pay deposit insurance premiums to the FDIC, which maintains the DIF [Deposit Insurance Fund] to meet its obligations of insuring deposits and resolving failed banks.”
In his address on Monday morning, Biden indicated that all of the money for bailing out these two failed banks will come from the DIF. “No losses will be borne by the taxpayers,” he said.
President Joe Biden: “Good morning, everyone. Before I leave for California, I want to briefly speak about what’s happening to Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank.
“Today, thanks to the quick action of my administration over the past few days, Americans can have confidence that the banking system is safe. Your deposits will be there when you need them.
“Small businesses across the country that had deposit accounts at these banks can breathe easier knowing they’ll be able to pay their workers and pay their bills. And their hardworking employees can breathe easier as well.
“Last week, when we learned of the problems of the banks and the impact they could have on jobs, some small businesses, and the banking system overall, I instructed my team to act quickly to protect these interests. They have done that. They have done that.
“On Friday, the government regulator in charge, the FDIC, took control of Silicon Valley Bank’s assets. And over the weekend, it took control of Signature Bank’s assets.
“Treasury Secretary Yellen and a team of banking regulators have taken action — immediate action. And here are the highlights:
“First, all customers who had deposits in these banks can rest assured — I want to — rest assured they’ll be protected and they’ll have access to their money as of today. That includes small businesses across the country that banked there and need to make payroll, pay their bills, and stay open for business.
“No losses will be — and I want — this is an important point — no losses will be borne by the taxpayers. Let me repeat that: No losses will be borne by the taxpayers. Instead, the money will come from the fees that banks pay into the Deposit Insurance Fund.
“Because of the actions of that — because of the actions that our regulators have already taken, every American should feel confident that their deposits will be there if and when they need them.
“Second, the management of these banks will be fired. If the bank is taken over by FDIC, the people running the bank should not work there anymore.
“Third, investors in the banks will not be protected. They knowingly took a risk and when the risk didn’t pay off, investors lose their money. That’s how capitalism works.
“And fourth, there are important questions of how these banks got into these circumstances in the first place. We must get the full accounting of what happened and why those responsible can be held accountable. In my administration, no one, in my view — no one is above the law.
“And finally, we must reduce the risks of this happening again. During the Obama-Biden administration, we put in place tough requirements on banks like Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, including the Dodd-Frank Law, to make sure the crisis we saw in 2008 would not happen again.
“Unfortunately, the last administration rolled back some of these requirements. I’m going to ask Congress and the banking regulators to strengthen the rules for banks to make it less likely that this kind of bank failure will happen again and to protect American jobs and small businesses.
“Look, the bottom line is this: Americans can rest assured that our banking system is safe. Your deposits are safe.
“Let me also assure you: We will not stop at this. We’ll do whatever is needed on top of all this.
“Let’s also take a look — a moment to put the situation in a broader context. We have made strong economic progress in the past two years. We’ve created more than 12 million new jobs — more jobs in two years than any President has ever created in a single four-year term. Unemployment is below 4 percent for 14 straight months. Take-home pay for workers is going up, especially for lower- and middle-income workers. And we’ve seen record numbers of people apply to start new businesses — more than 10 million of them — more than 10 million applications over the last two years starting businesses.
“Now we need to keep the program — this progress going. That’s what swift action that my administration, over the past few years, is all about: protecting depositors, protecting the banking system, protecting the economic gains we have made together for the American people.
“Thank you. God bless you. And may God protect our troops. See you in California.”
Until a few months ago, Rep. Maxine Waters, (D-CA) was the chair of the House Financial Services Committee, and currently is the ranking member of the minority. She represents a district in the very state that contains Silicon Valley.
One would think that any sentient consumer of information – both from media and from Congressional sources – would understand the difference between silicon and silicone. Silicon is an element (Si is its symbol), prominently found on the periodic table of elements.
(source )
Silicone, in contrast, is a manmade (oops, person-made) polymer, useful in many applications, including caulk and boob-enhancement, but is useless for manufacturing semiconductors.
Chemical structure of silicone (source )
Why Ms. Waters habitually says “silicone” when “silicon” (which is what is used in semiconductor fabrication) is the correct term is a question that I don’t care to speculate on. But somehow, I don't see her recaulking the bathrooms in her multi-million dollar Hancock Park mansion that's not even in her congresional district.
Even as late as yesterday on MSNBC with (who else?) Joy Reid, Waters idiotically repeated her habit of calling Silicon Valley Bank “Silicone Valley Bank.”
VIDEO
Just remember that Democrats consider themselves the party of the well-educated and smart people.
Hat tip: Ed Lasky
Photo credit: YouTube screengrab
Sam Bankman-Fried: Why isn't that guy in jail? By Monica Showalter
Democrat mega-donor Sam Bankman-Fried, whose cryptocurrency platform FTX just collapsed in a hail of fraud allegations, pretty well walks around free to do what he pleases, out in the palmy Bahamas.
That raises questions as to what is going on here, why that guy isn't, like Bernie Madoff or the assorted Enron characters, in jail for his misappropriation of customer funds from his cryptocurrency exchange, FTX, through a secret "back-door," to his Alameda Research hedge fund, run by his kinky-weird ex-girlfriend, Caroline Ellison .
FTX did, after all, insist to its cryptocurrency platform customers that it would never use their deposits for speculative trading purposes.
According to Coindesk, an industry publication of the cryptocurrency and related fields :
...FTX and other crypto exchanges are not banks. They do not (or should not) do bank-style lending, so even a very acute surge of withdrawals should not create a liquidity strain. FTX had specifically promised customers it would never lend out or otherwise use the crypto they entrusted to the exchange.
Well, it did.
The kinds of crimes now alleged about the now-bankrupt firm include secretly spiriting customer funds to Alameda for trading purposes, use of FTX assets as collateral so that Alameda could borrow and risk even more on its own behalf, immense personal loans to FTX executives which likely signaled criminal intent-- with Coindesk calling this one a biggie:
The FTX situation has more smoking guns than a shooting range in Texas, but you might call this one the smoking bazooka – a glaringly obvious sign of criminal intent. It’s still unclear how the bulk of those personal loans were used, but clawing the expenditures back will likely be a major task for liquidators.
...bailing out other troubled cryptocurrency exchanges with FTX exchange money, drawing praise as a sort of J.P. Morgan protector of the crypto industry, and the purchase of a tiny U.S. bank in Washington state, which Coindesk compared to the activities of the beyond-filthy Pakistani Bank of Credit & Commerce International's activities, which also attempted to buy itself a U.S. bank, in its case for money-laundering purposes.
All this, while claiming he had no idea what was going on at his company, and drawing lots of fawning press as a result of his help to his leftist charities and Democrats. Coindesk lays out some of the grosser ones :
It is now clear that what happened at the FTX crypto exchange and the hedge fund Alameda Research involved a variety of conscious and intentional fraud intended to steal money from both users and investors. That’s why a recent New York Times interview was widely derided for seeming to frame FTX’s collapse as the result of mismanagement rather than malfeasance . A Wall Street Journal article bemoaned the loss of charitable donations from FTX, arguably propping up Bankman-Fried’s strategic philanthropic pose. Vox co-founder Matthew Yglesias, court chronicler of the neoliberal status quo, seemed to whitewash his own entanglements by crediting Bankman-Fried’s money with helping Democrats in the 2020 elections – sidestepping the likelihood that the money was effectively embezzled.
The guy keeps getting good press despite his misuse of customer funds, which he ending up losing $10 billion of, spoonfeeding to the still-fawning media that he "made mistakes." Notice that Vox is happy to excuse him because he donated to Democrats, and the WSJ seems to be more concerned about these leftist charities, which promoted hideous ideas like "ranked choice voting," than they are about the people who lost their life savings. Some of the leftist press itelf , including vox, was funded by Bankman-Fried, and now is out of its promised grants from him and not happy about it.
That may be some kind of means of warding prosecutors off, the oodles of good press, which makes prosecutors look like bad guys if they go after him.
Prosecutors actually have bigger problems, though, in that in previous cases, such as that of Madoff, the bad guys admitted their culpability and provided their receipts. Bankman-Fried isn't doing that even as everything he says sets off bee-ess meters, as Jim Geraghty notes in his piece in National Review. Ankush Khardori, a former federal prosecutor, wrote a good, knowledgeable piece about the problems they are having on just legal issues in putting this guy away.
What does an investigation of an international financial fraud like this look like? To simplify matters greatly, the government is going to be looking for three things — documents, witnesses, and data — to determine whether SBF or those around him committed fraud. Let’s take these in turn.
He then goes into the problems with all of those matters, in documentations, witnesses, and data, plus the fact that the FTX entity and Alameda Research, are both based in the Bahamas, meaning, outside the U.S. regulatory framework, though they can still bring prosecutions based on U.S. customer losses. Emails may be on foreign servers, Google and other U.S. big tech companies may not be involved in those emails, the emails may have been deleted, the ledgers themselves may be inaccurate, and a lot of people inside the company didn't know what was going on, which will make the investigation take a lot of time.
Other thorny investigations, such as that of Elizabeth Holmes, took years, and this one could, too.
But letting this guy walk around free is problematic, too, because he is busy getting himself good press to turn that bad narrative about himself around so that the prosecutor don't dare act against him and the length of the investigation gives him time to do it.
What we may see is him donating even harder to Democrats than he already has (to the tune of $40 million) perhaps now through shell corporations to keep the lawmen at bay while the fawning press will continue to serve as his apologists. The press, as one commentator noted, devotes more time to 'exposing' Elon Musk, who spends his own money, than it does to SBF, who spends other people's money and loses it. We saw a lot of that going on with the Jeffrey Epstein case -- the knowledge that he had stuff on many prominent Democrats and others seems to have bought some kind of political protection and kept prosecutors at bay, for a time at least, with the Caribbean ensconcement another useful layer.
It goes to show the toxic influence of these donations to Democrats, and some Republicans, too, although those seem to have been done through an ignorant, unwitting, lieutenant . Bankman-Fried was the Democrats' second-largest donor, and all that he did seems to have been done on stolen money. The Democrats who took this money should be forced to make whole the defrauded investors since misappropriated money hardly becomes the property of the person who takes it.
But that might be too much at this stage. What's important now is that Bankman-Fried not be allowed to prop up any more Democrats or their odious wokester causes.
Image: Screen shot from YouTube video posted by Cointelegraph, via Wikimedia Commons // CC BY-SA 3.0
Bankrupt cryptocurrency firm FTX, whose former CEO Sam Bankman Fried spent nearly $40 million to help Democrats in this year's midterm elections, now owes its creditors at least $3 billion.
Judicial Watch investigated the scandal and obtained documents from the U.S. Treasury related to the controversial bailout. The famously remiss House Ethics Committee, which is charged with investigating and punishing corrupt lawmakers like Waters, found that she committed no wrongdoing . The panel bought Waters’ absurd story that she allocated the money as part of her longtime work to promote opportunity for minority-owned businesses and lending in underserved communities even though her husband’s bank was located thousands of miles away from the south Los Angeles neighborhoods she represents in Congress.
CRYPTO - Was FTX Simply a Fraudulent Criminal Scam? $10BN Customer Funds & $2BN Investor Money Lost
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ER4vt5ei7sg
MAXINE WATERS IN BED WITH SAM.... JUST FOLLOW THE MONEY!
FTX Disaster - 7 Unbelievable Bankruptcy Discoveries https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJn6IiYid6A
T he 30-year-old entrepreneur donated $5 million to a super PAC that supported President Joe Biden in 2020 and $40 million this cycle, largely to Democrats. He contributed $6 million to the House Majority PAC, $1 million to the Senate Majority PAC, and nearly $900,000 to the Democratic National Committee.
Everybody wins when Maxine sells her endorsement, Maxine's
family with cash, and others with cash turned into newfound
power. The only losers are the voters, who get these
misleading junk mail flyers in their mail and vote on arguably
false premises.
What a racket this is for people like Waters. Still no sign of any
legislation to stop this practice. MONICA SHOWALTER
BELOW IS THE IMAGE OF BANKSTERS' RENT GIRL MAXINE. HARDLY SUPRISING HER HUSBAND IS A BANKSTER!
Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX Cronies Gave $300k to House Committee Members Investigating Him House Financial Services Committee chair Maxine Waters has dodged questions about crypto titan's donations
Sam Bankman-Fried a
Sam Bankman-Fried Aimed to Outpace George Soros as Largest Democrat Donor Lam Yik/Bloomberg via Getty Images SEAN MORAN
28 Nov 2022 0
2:21
Disgraced former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried tried to build a political empire to rival Democrat megadonor George Soros.
Puck News reporter Theodore Schleifer wrote that Bankman-Fried personally bought a Democrat startup, Deck, spending roughly $4 to $5 million to buy out the existing investors to the Democrat analytics firm. Bankman-Fried reportedly heard about the startup from Mind the Gap, a Democrat donor network founded by his mother, Barbara Bankman-Fried.
The purchase of Deck served as Bankman-Fried’s political scheme to be the “biggest donor in the Democratic Party,” even outshining Democrat megadonor.
Democrat megadonor George Soros on January 23, 2020 in Davos, eastern Switzerland. (FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP via Getty Images)
Bankman-Fried and Ryan Salame, co-CEO of FTX Digital Markets, served as two of the largest donors to Republicans and Democrats last cycle. Bankman-Fried fell just below Soros as the largest Democrat donor.
Ryan Salame, co-CEO of FTX Digital Markets. (Twitter)
In all, Bankman-Fried donated roughly $40 million to Democrat politicians and PACs, while Salame gave about $23 million to Republicans and PACs supporting the GOP.
Puck News wrote that the former FTX CEO sought advisers and conducted data experiments to help Democrats in the 2024 election cycle:
I have previously reported that S.B.F.’s team was actively looking for future advisors to join them in drafting “plays” for the 2024 cycle, and that one of those ideas was to fund some more progressive organizations, for instance. Some of those plans were already underway. I have learned in recent days that S.B.F. was already quietly funding some experiments across the Democratic ecosystem, such as randomized-controlled trials that might have yielded data that could help Democrats in 2024, according to two people familiar with the work, by assessing the impact of things like community newsletters, Facebook ads, and so-called “relational organizing.”
In all, the report suggested that Bankman-Fried might have spent roughly $100 million, but according to Schleifer, “That could be an undercount.”
Sean Moran is a congressional reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3 .
Crypto Firm Led by Democratic Megadonor Owes Creditors $3 Billion Sam Bankman-Fried / Getty Images Washington Free Beacon Staff • November 21, 2022 1:32 pm
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Bankrupt cryptocurrency firm FTX, whose former CEO Sam Bankman Fried spent nearly $40 million to help Democrats in this year's midterm elections, now owes its creditors at least $3 billion.
The firm, which was once valued at $32 billion, filed for bankruptcy on Nov. 11, leaving a total of $3.1 billion owed to its top 50 creditors, the Washington Post reports :
The revelations, which came in a filing to U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware late Saturday, offer a striking portrait of the sheer number of entities that had considerably invested in, lent money to, or otherwise engaged with a three-year-old company that had done little to demonstrate it could properly safeguard the assets entrusted to it. Its top 50 creditors are owed a total of $3.1 billion, the filing showed, with the largest due $226 million.
The names of the creditors were redacted. […]
In a separate filing Saturday, new FTX chief executive John J. Ray said the company will seek sales and other forms of capitalization to ensure that as many creditors as possible get their money. He noted that some of the subsidiaries of FTX "have solvent balance sheets, responsible management, and valuable franchises," which could facilitate that process. Some 130 FTX sister companies are part of the bankruptcy filing.
Cofounder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, who resigned when FTX filed for bankruptcy, and other FTX executives gave a total of $300,351 to nine members of the House Financial Services Committee. The largest donations went to Democrats working on regulating the crypto industry, the Washington Free Beacon found. Earlier this year, Bankman-Fried pledged $1 billion to Democratic campaigns in the 2022 midterm election. Now the crypto scion has lost all of his $16 billion net worth.
In the court filing, FTX listed one million potential creditors. Ray said the company is seeking sales and other forms of capitalization to ensure that its creditors get their money, but the process may prove difficult as Ray found serious inadequacies in FTX's record-keeping.
"The main companies in the Alameda Silo and the Ventures Silo did not keep complete books and records of their investments and activities," Ray wrote in the filing, referring to some of Bankman-Fried's entities. He added, "One of the most pervasive failures of the FTX.com business in particular is the absence of lasting records of decision-making."
Published under: Bankruptcy , Crypto , Democratic Donors
Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX Donated over $300,000 to Lawmakers Investigating Him
601 Jeenah Moon/Bloomberg via Getty; David Dee Delgado/Getty
SEAN MORAN
19 Nov 2022 0
4:03
Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried and his cofounders donated over $300,000 to nine lawmakers who are now investigating the company for wrongdoing.
Bankman-Fried and his cofounders donated $300,351 to nine members of the House Financial Services Committee; the largest donations were to members of the Digital Assets Working Group, which is working on cryptocurrency regulation.
The House Financial Services Committee announced earlier this week that the committee would investigate any wrongdoing by Bankman-Fried and FTX.
Only Rep. Chuy Garcia (D-IL) said he would return a $2,900 donation from Bankman-Fried.
Although Bankman-Fried has donated to Republicans, 95 percent of the donations went to Democrats and Democrat campaign committees.
Bankman-Fried’s PAC, Protect Our Future PAC, spent $199,851 backing Garcia. The disgraced CEO and his brother, Gabriel, gave $40,300 to Rep. Ritchie Torres’s (D-NY) campaign and two of his political committees, the Torres Victory Fund and La Bamba PAC. Bankman-Fried and his head of the regulatory division gave $16,600 to Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ). Other Bankman-Fried employees gave $500 to Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT), and $9,100 to Rep. Sean Caster (D-IL).
Torres, Gottheimer, Himes, and Casten were all members of the Digital Assets Working Group.
Bankman-Fried also gave $11,600 to Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-MA) and $5,000 to the super PAC for Rep. Cindy Axne (D-IA).
Bankman-Fried also generously donated to Sens. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and John Boozman (R-AR), who have pushed a cryptocurrency regulation bill, the Digital Commodities Consumer Protection Act, a bill that Bankman-Fried backs.
The Washington Free Beacon reported :
His intensive lobbying campaign appeared to pay off before his company’s demise. He supported legislation proposed by Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D., Mich.) and Sen. John Boozman (R., Ark.) that would have subjected the crypto industry to regulation by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, not the larger and aggressive Securities and Exchange Commission.
Bankman-Fried donated $5,800 to Stabenow’s campaign in February and $20,800 to her joint fundraising committee in January. Bankman-Fried gave $5,800 to Boozman in January and $5,800 to committee member Sen. John Hoeven (R., N.D.) in June. He gave a combined $31,000 to campaigns and joint fundraising committees tied to Sens. Cory Booker (D., N.J.), Tina Smith (D., Minn.), Dick Durbin (D., Ill.), and Kirsten Gillibrand (D., N.Y.), who serve on the Senate Agriculture Committee.
The 30-year-old entrepreneur donated $5 million to a super PAC that supported President Joe Biden in 2020 and $40 million this cycle, largely to Democrats. He contributed $6 million to the House Majority PAC, $1 million to the Senate Majority PAC, and nearly $900,000 to the Democratic National Committee.
House Financial Services Committee Chair Maxine Waters (D-CA) has dodged questions on whether Democrats should return donations from Bankman-Fried and his associates.
Sean Moran is a congressional reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3 .
Waters Has Shoveled Over $1 Million in Campaign Cash to Daughter Joe Schoffstall -
Rep. Maxine Waters (D., Calif.) has now dished out more than $1 million in campaign payments to her daughter following the 2020 elections.
Karen Waters has pocketed $1.13 million for providing an array of services for her mother's campaign since 2003. The majority of the cash is for her role in running a controversial slate-mailer operation, in which California politicians gave money to Waters's campaign in exchange for mailers bearing her endorsement.
The mailers have become increasingly lucrative for the younger Waters over the years. During the 2020 cycle, her payments hit a high of $240,000 . That's significantly more than the $90,000 her firm, Progressive Connections, took in during the 2006 election cycle. The Federal Election Commission gave Waters the green light for the mailer operation in 2004.
While slate mailers are commonplace in states like California and Oregon, the practice is extremely rare at the federal level. In fact, Waters appears to be the only federal politician to use a slate-mailer operation. As such, the arrangement between her and her daughter has led to complaints from watchdog groups asking the FEC to audit the campaign.
Many prominent California politicians have paid to be featured on the mailers. Vice President Kamala Harris twice shelled out tens of thousands from her campaigns for a spot on the mailers. California governor Gavin Newsom (D.) and former senator Barbara Boxer (D.) have likewise dished out cash for Waters's support.
The practice has received criticism from local media."While some of these mailers reflect the earnest political values of the organizations that put them together, many are pay-to-play money-makers that blur the line between endorsement, paid advertisement and extortion," CalMatters wrote last year.
Waters's campaign did not return a request for comment.
Maxine Waters Pays Daughter Hundreds of Thousands in Campaign Funds
Rep. Maxine Waters's (D., Calif.) campaign paid her daughter hundreds of thousands in campaign funds during the 2020 election cycle, according to Federal Election Commission records.
Karen Waters received $240,000 from her mother’s campaign for a variety of campaign activities, including soliciting campaign contributions from other candidates in exchange for the congresswoman's endorsement on campaign mailers, Fox News reported .
This is not the first time Maxine Waters has used the controversial practice to raise funds for her campaign, and her campaign has paid her daughter for years to help manage the scheme.
From 2006 through 2020, Waters’s campaign shelled out more than $1 million to her daughter—either directly or through Progressive Connections, Karen Waters’s public relations firm—for producing what are known as slate mailers featuring her mother's endorsement of California candidates. Karen Waters raked in more than $200,000 from her mother’s campaign during the 2018 election cycle, the Washington Free Beacon first reported .
Watchdog groups have filed complaints asking the FEC to audit Waters's campaign for using the mailers. The campaign has faced criticism for the mailers since 2010, when one watchdog group first reported that the congresswoman had been paying her daughter to run the operation .
California Democrats including Governor Gavin Newsom, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris have donated tens of thousands of dollars to Waters’s campaign for the endorsement mailers.
Though the FEC caps individual campaign contributions at $2,800, payments for the slate mailers are considered "reimbursements" for Waters’s endorsement. The commission issued an advisory opinion in 2004 allowing Waters permission to run the operation through her campaign.
Waters was first elected to Congress in 1990 and serves California's 43rd Congressional District.
Maxine Waters Unfit to Chair House Financial Services Committee Considering her record and documented history of poor ethical and moral fitness, it’s outrageous that Maxine Waters is up for chair of the ultra-powerful House Financial Services Committee, which has jurisdiction over the country’s banking system, economy, housing, and insurance. With Democrats taking control of the House of Representatives, come January the 14-term California congresswoman is expected to head the committee, which also has jurisdiction over monetary policy, international finance, and efforts to combat terrorist financing. Throughout her storied political career, Waters has
been embroiled in numerous controversies,
including abusing her power to enrich family
members, getting a communist dictator to harbor a
cop-murdering Black Panther fugitive still wanted
by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and
accusing the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
of selling crack cocaine in black neighborhoods. A few months ago, the 80-year-old Democrat from Los Angeles encouraged violence against Trump administration cabinet members. “If you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd and you push back on them and you tell them they are not welcome anymore, anywhere,” Waters said at a summer rally in Los Angeles. Judicial Watch filed a House ethics complaint against Waters for encouraging violence against Trump Cabinet members. Among her most corrupt acts as a federal legislator is steering millions of federal bailout dollars to her husband’s failing bank, OneUnited. Waters allocated $12 million to the Massachusetts bank in which she and her board member husband held shares. OneUnited subsequently got shut down by the government and American taxpayers got stiffed for the millions. Judicial Watch investigated the scandal and obtained documents from the U.S. Treasury related to the controversial bailout. The famously remiss House Ethics Committee, which is charged with investigating and punishing corrupt lawmakers like Waters, found that she committed no wrongdoing . The panel bought Waters’ absurd story that she allocated the money as part of her longtime work to promote opportunity for minority-owned businesses and lending in underserved communities even though her husband’s bank was located thousands of miles away from the south Los Angeles neighborhoods she represents in Congress. The reality is that without intervention by Waters OneUnited was an extremely unlikely candidate for a government bailout through the disastrous Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). The Treasury Department warned that it would only provide bailout funds to healthy banks to jump-start lending and OneUnited clearly didn’t meet that criteria. Documents uncovered by Judicial Watch detail the deplorable financial condition of OneUnited at the time of the government cash infusion. The records also show that, prior to the bailout, the bank received a “ less than satisfactory rating .” Incredibly, after that scandal Waters was chosen by her colleagues to hold a ranking position on the House Financial Services Committee she will soon chair. The only consequence for blowing $12 million on her husband’s failing bank was a slap on the hand to Waters’ chief of staff (her grandson) for violating House standards of conduct to help OneUnited. Waters, who represents some of Los Angeles’ poorest inner-city neighborhoods, has also helped family members make more than $1 million through business ventures with companies and causes that she has helped, according to her hometown newspaper. While she and her relatives get richer (she lives in a $4.5 million L os Angeles mansion), her constituents get poorer. The congresswoman was also embroiled in a fundraising scandal for skirting federal election rules with a shady gimmick that allows unlimited donations from certain contributors. Instead of raising most of her campaign funds from individuals or political action committees, Waters sells her endorsement to other politicians and political causes for as much as $45,000 a pop. It wouldn’t be right to part without also noting some of Waters’ international accolades. She has made worldwide headlines for her frequent trips to communist Cuba to visit her convicted cop-assassin friend, Joanne Chesimard, who appears on the FBI’s most wanted list and is also known by her Black Panther name of Assata Shakur. Chesimard was sentenced to life in prison after being convicted by a jury of the 1979 murder of a New Jersey State Trooper. With the help of fellow cult members, she escaped from jail and fled to Cuba. Outraged U.S. lawmakers insisted she be extradited but Waters always stood by her side, likening the cop-assassin to civil rights leader Martin Luther King. In fact, Waters wrote Cuban Dictator Fidel Castro a letter to assure him that she was not part of the group of U.S. legislators who voted for a resolution to extradite the cop murderer. Waters told Castro that she opposed extradition because Chesimard was “politically persecuted” in the U.S. and simply seeking political asylum in Havana, where she still lives. In the 1980s Waters accused the CIA of selling crack cocaine to blacks in her south-central Los Angeles district to raise millions of dollars to support clandestine operations in Latin America, including a guerrilla army. During the infamous 1992 Los Angeles riots the congresswoman repeatedly excused the violent behavior that ironically destroyed the areas she represents in the House. She dismissed the severe beating of a white truck driver by saying the anger in her district was righteous. She also excused looters who stole from stores by saying they were simply mothers capitalizing on an opportunity to take some milk, bread, and shoes. Should this ethically and morally challenged individual, who has repeatedly displayed behavior unbecoming of a federal lawmaker, be at the helm of an influential congressional committee that oversees the financial sector ?
CLEARLY WE KNOW HOW MUCH BILLARY, HILLARY AND THE OBOMB MADE SERVICING CRIMINAL BANKSTERS. ALL PAID VIA 'SPEECH' FEES AT ABOUT $500k EACH. OBAMA PRIDED HIMSELF IN MAKING SURE NO CRIMINAL BANKSTER EVER WENT TO PRISON. MOST OF HIS BANKSTERS CONTINUE TO THIS DAY TO PLUNDER WITH IMPUNITY!
KAMALA HARRIS WAS WAITING ON THE SIDELINES IN CA AS A.G. SUCKING OFF WELLS FARGO AND 'KING OF FORECLOSURES' STEVEN MNUCHIN.
THE OLD WHORE FEINSTEIN FOUGHT AGAINST ENDING 'CONSULTANT FEES TO FAMILY MEMBERS' BRIBES AS HER PIMP HUSBAND, RICHARD BLUM WAS DOLING OUT BIG MONEY TO BOXER SO SHE WOULD VOTE FOR ANYTHING THAT BENEFITED THE CRIME DUAL OF FEINSTEIN-BLUM.
FEINSTEIN IS A WHORE FOR RED CHINA, HAS SERVED THEM LONG FOR 'DEALS' THAT HER PIMP MADE. FEINSTEIN HAS LONG VOTED IN THE SENATE FOR ANYTHING THAT WOULD BENEFIT RED CHINA.
FEINSTEIN IS ALSO THE BIGGEST WAR PROFITEER IN U.S. HISTORY. SHE'S SO FUCKING CORRUPT SHE QUICKLY ENDORSED JOE BIDEN FOR THE PRESIDENCY, AFTER ALL, HE'S A FEINSTEIN CLONE.
Maxine Waters's paid-mailer racket snowballs By Monica Showalter
When we last visited Rep. Maxine Waters's hightly questionable 'slate-mailer' money-making racket in 2019, where candidates and causes get Waters's endorsement in exchange for cash, her daughter Karen who runs the thing had just pocketed $50,000.
Well, the operation seems to have gotten
bigger, and Karen appears to be richer, all from
mama Maxine's simple word of endorsement.
According to Fox News , citing federal election data and a 2018 report from the Washington Free Beacon :
The reelection of U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters to another term in Congress last month proved to be something of a financial windfall for Karen Waters, the California Democrat's daughter, federal election data suggest.
Karen Waters received a total of about $240,000 from her 82-year-old mother’s campaign during the election cycle, Federal Election Commission records show.
The dollar figure appears to mirror what Karen Waters received during her mother’s previous campaign in 2018, when the daughter was paid “more than $200,000,” according to a November 2018 report by the Washington Free Beacon .
Which is nice work if you can get it. Seriously, this person makes $240,000 which is nearly equal to what the mayor of Los Angeles makes, or the average U.S. Senator makes , or Maxine herself makes as a House member at $ 174,000 a year . It's more than House Speaker Nancy Pelosi makes ( $223,500 ). It's certainly more than California's Gov. Gavin Newsom ( $210,000 ) makes.
All for the little task of assembling a mailer to fill the voters' junk mail takings and then the recycle bins in one part of one county, and collecting cash on the content. Running the country's largest state with the world's seventh largest economy, by contrast, is less important stuff. Karen Waters must be brilliant.
Which raises questions as to why Waters, a far left demogogue, is selling her endorsements for cash, and what the payers of these endorsements, are really getting for their money. We know the Waters machine is strong, but so strong as to merit inflated fees and salaries for Waters and her family? This is known as getting rich while in public office. Waters is the only one who's doing this sleazy machine-politics practice on a national scale, but don't imagine other Democrats aren't also looking to cash in.
Everybody wins when Maxine sells her
endorsement, Maxine's family with cash, and
others with cash turned into newfound power.
The only losers are the voters, who get these
misleading junk mail flyers in their mail and
vote on arguably false premises.
What a racket this is for people like Waters. Still no sign of any legislation to stop this practice.
Image: Gage Skidmore, via Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 2.0
After Bank Bailout, Tester Raises Money From Partner of Silicon Valley Bank’s Law Firm Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) walks with aides as he leaves the Senate floor at the U.S. Capitol on December 22, 2022. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images) Sen. Jon Tester (D., Mont.), who bills himself as a "strong advocate for rural America," attended a fundraiser Monday cohosted by a partner at the law firm that represents Silicon Valley Bank.
Michael Danaher, a cohost for Tester’s Palo Alto, Calif., fundraiser, is a partner at the firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich and Rosati, which represents the bank and other Silicon Valley ventures, the New York Post reported . Other cohosts for the event—which cost between $250 and $6,600 to attend—included Greg Avis, the founder of venture capital firm Summit Partners, and Matt Glickman, a tech entrepreneur who cohosted a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton with disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes in 2016.
Tester’s attendance will likely draw unwelcome scrutiny as he prepares for a contentious reelection campaign. Tester, considered one of the most vulnerable Senate Democrats in the 2024 cycle, has faced criticism from liberals for his vote for a 2018 bill that cut regulations for mid-sized banks like Silicon Valley Bank, whose collapse last week is the second-largest bank failure in U.S. history. Tester, a member of the Senate Banking Committee, has not addressed his vote for the bill.
The Biden administration is under fire for bailing out depositors in the bank, which had more than $200 billion in assets. The Treasury Department said it will fully cover deposits at the bank, even above the $250,000 covered by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. The administration claims that taxpayers will not foot the bill, but it is widely expected that banks will jack up fees on customers in order to pay for higher insurance premiums brought on by the bailout, which has been described as "socialism for the rich."
The fundraiser is the latest example of Tester’s campaign activity contradicting his image as a champion of rural values and "Montana’s unique way of life." The Washington Free Beacon reported that Tester’s campaign spent $1.2 million since 2006 on catered events and restaurants, including a Beltway haunt that caters to "celebrities" and "powerbrokers," and another that enforces a "strict upscale dress code" for its patrons.
Sen. Tillis on SVB collapse: 'I believe we're going to find some shortcomings in supervision'
have been even rescued partly.
Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom praised the Biden administration's decision to bail out Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), but he failed to mention his ties to the now-defunct institution, which holds at least three of his wine companies and reportedly has other financial connections to his family.
"The Biden Administration has acted swiftly and decisively to protect the American economy and strengthen public confidence in our banking system," Newsom said in a statement Sunday. "Their actions this weekend have calmed nerves, and had profoundly positive impacts on California.
"California is a pillar of the American economy, and federal leaders did the right thing, ensuring our innovation economy can continue to grow and move forward."
FORMER CHIEF OF STAFF TO GAVIN NEWSOM SIDING WITH WALGREENS IN ABORTION PILL FIGHT AMID RISING TENSIONS
Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom praised the Biden administration's decision to bail out Silicon Valley Bank but failed to mention his ties to the now-defunct institution.
According to a report by The Intercept, President Biden's decision to bail out the bank protects Newsom's wine companies — CADE, Odette and PlumpJack — which the bank lists as clients on its website.
Additionally, the outlet reported that Newsom's wife, Jennifer Siebel , founded a charity called the California Partners Project that received $100,000 from SVB in 2021 at Newsom's request. It also reported that the president of SVB Capital, John China, was a founding member of the charity's board of directors.
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A longtime former employee of Newsom's who handled his finances reportedly told the outlet the governor also kept personal accounts with SVB a number of years.
GOP PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES REACT TO SILICON VALLEY BANK COLLAPSE; TRUMP BLAMES ‘OUT-OF-CONTROL DEMOCRATS’
A customer stands outside a shuttered Silicon Valley Bank headquarters March 10, 2023, in Santa Clara, Calif.
SVB, which was the 16th largest bank in the U.S., was taken over by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Friday when it didn't have enough cash on hand to cover withdrawals by its depositors amid a run on the bank. It was the second-biggest bank failure in U.S. history and the largest since Washington Mutual went under in 2008.
Biden reiterated Monday that the federal government would guarantee depositors at the banks access to their funds but that no such protection would be offered to the bank's investors. His administration has also fired the leadership at both banks.
President Biden speaks about the U.S. banking system March 13, 2023, in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, D.C.
Newsom's office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment. However, a spokesperson told The Intercept, "Governor Newsom’s business and financial holdings are held and managed by a blind trust, as they have been since he was first elected governor in 2018."
Fox News' Chris Pandolfo and Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report.
