Wednesday, August 27, 2008

I Should Have Been A Banker

The streets is watching-JayZ

California: Citibank Stole $14 Million from its Customers

You know Citibank.196 yrs old,operates in 100 countries.
  • 2005 Sales $83,642,000,000
  • 2005 Net Income $24,589,000,000
  • 2006 Employees 300,000
  • 2005 Year End Assets $1.50 trillion US Dollars
Uh huh,that Citibank.Their victims:their poorest clients.
Key quotes:

“The company knowingly stole from its customers, mostly poor people and the recently deceased, when it designed and implemented the sweeps,” Brown said. “When a whistleblower uncovered the scam and brought it to his superiors, they buried the information and continued the illegal practice.”

In July of 2001, a Citibank employee uncovered the practice and brought it to the attention of his superiors. The employee was later fired for discussing the credit sweeps with an internal audit team.


In the words of a Citibank executive, “Stealing from our customers is a business decision, not a legal decision.” The same executive later said that the sweep program could not be stopped because it would reduce the executive bonus pool, Brown charged.

In other words,they stole from the people who could not afford to complain,much like our kleptocracy.What difference is there,pray tell,between these fellows and the kleptomaniacs we have running our parastatals and ministries?Opportunity.That's it.Deplorable,but oddly comforting.

The moral of the story?One,underneath our skin,we're all the same.Two,paraphrasing the Bible,those that have little,even that shall be taken away and added unto he that has much.And three, mattress bankers may be on to something;at least if you're poor:)

10 comments:

  1. and u want to be one of them...interesting...

    ReplyDelete
  2. look at them unabashedly trying to defend their actions.
    and look at you quoting the Bible in support!
    all i can say is, if you get in, give a sista a leg up!

    blatant thievery!

    ReplyDelete
  3. @Florida
    Na wa indeed

    @afro
    You obviously missed the sarcasm alert:)
    But consider,an armed robber in the US may take 10-50k in hitting a random bank,runs the risk of getting shot and possibly killed,and if caught may do upwards of 5 years hard time.

    These f*****s steal money from poor people for "bonuses",get caught,and they don't even get charged to court.They cut a deal,get fined and return to business as usual.

    You either joke or you get furious,and fury shortens my lifespan:)

    @geishasong
    I just wish I'D instituted the lawsuit...

    @ibiluv
    If you can't beat them,you join them....or pull a Keyser Soze.:)

    ReplyDelete
  4. wow..the world is turnin crazy..or rather, crazier..

    "You either joke or you get furious,and fury shortens my lifespan:)"...lol i like that!

    1st time here(i think)

    ReplyDelete
  5. wow, never heard about this and Citibank na my bank oh. Make I go check my account, sharpish.....

    ReplyDelete
  6. and they're not being sued or sanctioned?

    ReplyDelete
  7. so, we should beware of Nine now eh? come to think of it, why is ur name nine? is it a short form for four-one-nine?lol

    long time, how u?

    ReplyDelete
  8. @SolomonSyd
    Check out the article,they specifically went after people who were either bankrupt,too poor or too dead to complain.In this case anyway.

    @Fantasy Queen
    As part of a settlement,they paid $50 mill of their shareholder's money and closed the case.In comparison,purse snatchers get jail time.

    @Esme
    You should always beware of Nine:)

    I'm good.How family?

    ReplyDelete