Posted on 05/20/2016 5:49:11 PM PDT by Lorianne
Five major banks and four traders were sued on Wednesday in a private U.S. lawsuit claiming they conspired to rig prices worldwide in a more than $9 trillion market for bonds issued by government-linked organizations and agencies.
Bank of America Corp (BAC.N), Credit Agricole SA (CAGR.PA), Credit Suisse Group AG (CSGN.S), Deutsche Bank AG (DBKGn.DE) and Nomura Holdings Inc (8604.T) were accused of secretly agreeing to widen the "bid-ask" spreads they quoted customers of supranational, sub-sovereign and agency (SSA) bonds.
The lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court by the Boston Retirement System said the collusion dates to at least 2005, was conducted through chatrooms and instant messaging, and caused investors to overpay for bonds they bought or accept low prices for bonds they sold.
"Only through collusion could a dealer quote a wider spread than market conditions otherwise dictate without losing market share and profits," the complaint said. "Defendants reaped millions of dollar(s) in profits at the expense of plaintiff and members of the class as result of their misconduct."
The proposed class-action lawsuit seeks triple damages, and follows probes by U.S. and European Union antitrust regulators into possible SSA bond price rigging.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
RICO for all. Dissolve a of A
Hm, it would make things interesting to pursue this as a RICO case.
Though I do wonder if this has the possibility for all these banks being audited and, if so, if it’ll reveal Federal Reserve linkages.
And Goldman Sachs also just got fined 5.2 BILLION for FRAUD.
Actually, I believe Anti-Trust laws kick into play here also. Sent the bums to jail. Wonder what their bud in Washington has to say about it? Say what Hillary?
Time to reintroduce Glass-Stegall and to break up the mega banks into regionals.
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