CORRUPT JUDGE (RAKOFF) JUDGES CORRUPTION!
Memorandum: Judge Jed S. Rakoff, US District Court in Manhattan- Sentenced Rajat K. Gupta, Former Goldman Sachs Director to An Exceedingly Light Sentence of Two Years For Insider Trading.
Subject: Shame on you Judge Rakoff! You know all too well that others who committed the same crime were given a mandatory eight years in Maximum Security Prison.
From: Corporate “gun slinger’; Former Managing Director of Kidder Peabody; and Restructurer of Maryland Savings and Loan Banks in the 1980’s crises.
I am writing this blog because of the most bizarre sentencing rationale I have ever heard in my professional life as someone who owned numerous banks, brought down a NY Investment Bank for crimes less serious than that committed by Mr Gupta.
Today, Mr Gupta was sentenced by Judge Rakoff, a well-known scholarly judge, to what amounted to ‘slap on the wrist’ to Mr Gupta who provided ‘insider trading’ information to a hedge fund manager named Raj Rajaratanam. The specific case involved the following episode when Gupta called his confederate (Raj) after a Goldman Sachs Board meeting where Warren Buffet offered to make a 5billion dollar investment into GS. The confederate(Raj) made a five million dollar profit on this ‘insider trading’ information.
Now quite frankly, in the everyday world of toil and travail which most of us ‘ordinary people’ are accustomed to, this is a non-story. It’s just another story about the rich and corrupt serving each other from the same troth of crony capitalism and the manure of self –serving greed.
The most interesting part of this story is the judge, Jed Rakoff, is who pathetically disingenuous, ignorant, and arrogant but whom the media portrays as liberal activist heroic judge.
He made the following statement about Gupta: ”He is a good man. But the history of this country and the history of the world is full of examples of good men who did bad things.”
He made the following statement about Gupta: ”He is a good man. But the history of this country and the history of the world is full of examples of good men who did bad things.”
Are you kidding me?
Gupta was, is and will continue to be a crook!!
You should know that. First Gupta ‘philanthropic activities’ that you, your honor, so highly lauded, included working for your political patron (Bill Clinton) who appointed you, Judge Rakoff, to the bench on October 11, 1995.
You should know that. First Gupta ‘philanthropic activities’ that you, your honor, so highly lauded, included working for your political patron (Bill Clinton) who appointed you, Judge Rakoff, to the bench on October 11, 1995.
Now you and I know all too well, Judge, that you and Clinton may have attended Oxford University at the same time in 1966. Now I know you are pretty smart Jewish “boyshick”, but perhaps you may be a little too clever for your own good. As you and I know, you did not get that appointment because you were a ‘tzatzkeleh” [Yiddish for a ‘innocent’]. You whored or let me say it more elegantly, you ‘lobbied’ yourself into that position by way of two private firms that from my extensive experience in treating lawyers and taking down law firms and banks were not exactly on the “Up and Up” but that’s for you and your partners to waste your time on.
But here is the kicker!
You knew all too well from your previous experiences in White Collar crimes that Goldman Sachs was being investigated for ‘fraud’ and ‘deceptive practices’ in creating ‘securitized mortgages’ selling them as fraudulently rated AAA bonds which your friend Warren Buffet, the owner of Moody at the time of 2008 financial crisis owned forty per cent of Moody’s and had ordered them to take junk-rated mortgages [BBC] re rated them falsely into Triple AAA.
Of course you knew about that because you are considered in America’s expert on “White Collar Crime”.
You know all about Goldman Sachs… such things like- not only was GS selling fraudulent, junk bonds but they were literally ‘screwing’ their own customers by shorting these bonds with an index called the ABX. I also knew about this and called a few impotent Liberal Congressmen and Senators to tell them to investigate this travesty before there would be a financial collapse. It was too late. The Liberal Congressmen and other legislators were too busy learning about Baseball doping….(good way to take the public’s eye off the REAL CORRUPTION, get the average joe upset about baseball, old media trick, works every time, sorry Lance Armstrong).
So, boychick, you don’t mind me calling you that affectionate Yiddish term from one smart Harvard- attending Jew to another Smart-ass Harvard attending jew.
You see, boychick, unlike you I owned and took over banks that were literally corrupt, just like Goldman Sachs and took down Kidder Peabody [six hundred million dollars worth of junk assets bought by that ‘idiot savant’ Neutron Jack Welch]. So I know how bankers really work.
The entire crony capitalism system that you so cleverly like to delight in delineating in your fictional textbook is really based on ‘connections’ and ‘guanxi’ [Chinese].
Judge, you really are stepping on pretty treacherous grounds of self-righteousness with all your palaver and the nonsensical statement : “So why did Mr Gupta do it?” You asked on Wednesday. [I must admit you really have a flair for smug hysterical drama]. “Having finished his spectacular career at McKinsey in 2007…”
Side Bar: Dear reader, McKinsey is one of those consulting firms like Bain Consulting where they hire young graduates from Harvard or Yale who enter a business and tell the CEO what he already knows. Basically McKinsey is a bullshit company with no inherent value other than to give the Board of Directors and a failing company a “seal of approval”. So being ‘spectacular’ in a bullshit business translates into someone who knows how to suck up the slimy corporate ladder, lying, deceiving and heading up a company which lies , deceives, etc.
You get the idea!!! Bullshit begets bullshit. But when a ‘judicial American hero’ lauds this bullshit---it really sounds elegant and honorable. It’s not! It’s still bullshit!!
Back to our judges formidable, psychoanalytic crap,”..for all his charitable….”
Side bar: When crooks want to clean themselves and become ‘legal’ they create charities. Witness Slick Willie--- What a foundation he created! Also look at the CFR (Council on Foreign Relations)-- The Rockefellers; the Gates; the Buffets, etc.
American Charity—one of the biggest scams around-- is the American capitalist version of Catholic absolution for the sins committed against the poor and helpless and the sinner is then bestowed Grace. Once he receives that Grace from his ignominious charity which is used to bribe politicians and ingratiate oneself into the vaunted heights of the power elite then-..viola! all sins are forgiven!!!
Hey boyschik judge, you know that from your own ‘charity work’. Once again, boychick, remember you are no ‘tzatzkeleh’ [innocent].
The Judge continues like an ersatz effete Proust…”Gupta may have felt frustrated in not finding new business worlds to conquer” (What??!!).. .. Wait, there’s more from our hero judge… “Rajaarathnam , a clever cultivator of persons with information…..”
Sidebar: Reader—I told you that this judge was bullshitting himself by saying that Mr Raj‘was a clever cultivator of persons….” Remember what I said about how the judge had to suck up to Slick Willy and others in the judicial and political system. …..
In French there is a saying: “Qui s’excuse, s’accuse!” He who excuses himself , accuses himself. Remember ‘tricky DicK” ? “ I am not a crook!”
Back to our boyschick Proust :” … who held out prospects for exciting new international business opportunities that Gupta would fund and lead”.
I wondered what our Coke –headed Freud would have thought of this psychoanalytical BS?
I wondered what our Coke –headed Freud would have thought of this psychoanalytical BS?
As for me, Judge Rakoff, I think you are a phony. Pretentious! Arrogant! Ignorant—did you know that Indians have the highest rate of corruption in the world? And that India is not only rife with corruption but it’s lagging growth rate is due to the Guptas and the Rajs of this world?? But that would not be politically correct for you.
It’s simple boyschick: You are a judge because you sucked up to a crook and worked on behalf our crooks to get them out of prison. If it quacks like duck and looks like a duck... Then what are we supposed to think? What Vanity Fair tells us?
But remember I am only a simple Jewish psychiatrist, who worked for five US Presidents and saw more bankers indicted for corruption and allowed them to stay in prison for at least ten or more years in Maximum Security.
But thank God, I was never a ‘an American Judicial hero’ like you. I only treated lawyers who were grandiose and corrupt before they were sent to prison for lying, corruption and sucking up to the wrong people.
Unfortunately, unlike your Honor Judge Rakoff, I don’t try to piss over someone’s shoulder and try to make them think that it was raining.
Unfortunately, unlike your Honor Judge Rakoff, I don’t try to piss over someone’s shoulder and try to make them think that it was raining.
Honestly, in my humble opinion: you should retire ASAP, before you create any more injustices and spout more unbearable sophomoric nonsense.
Let me quote from a famous American Jurist ”The price of being a nice guy is too high---much too high—in terms of the system of justice.”
These were your words.
Do me and the country, a favor, ‘stop trying to be a nice guy!’
You are not!!!
Do me and the country, a favor, ‘stop trying to be a nice guy!’
You are not!!!
So goniff, get off the bench and let another one take your place and try to be a ‘nice guy’.
It’s only fair. And that’s what justice is all about!
yet another case of corruption by members of the club! yet again another extraordinary demonstration of the old boy network looking out for one another! your comment regarding most people being more concerned by minor scandal in sport is an entirely correct one, it seems one major scam after another passes with just a hint of disgust,your post nicely timed with burlusconis incredible four year sentence of which he will serve only a year and that is unlikely given his appeal process! once agai another thought provoking post that breaks it down for less academic people like myself,
ReplyDeleteThis is indeed an outrage! Someone from Goldman Sachs goes to jail? What went wrong, did he cheat the wrong people?
ReplyDeleteWe live in a world where Jon Corzine (former Goldman Sachs and an Obama bundler) never goes to jail. He can still trade on Wall Street! Stealing from personal investment accounts (just ask Gerald Celente) isn't a crime these days. Our jails are filled with victims from drug wars, but white collar crime is almost never prosecuted.
Attorney General Eric Holder (who used to work on Wall Street and provided amnesty to Marc Rich) recently announced that there will be no prosecutions of Wall Street from the 2008 financial crisis. Bernie Madoff was pointed out to the SEC, and they still couldn't figure that one out.
Instead of being prosecuted, we give the white collar criminals free money! The Fed's Ben Bernanke recently announce QEternity. We're printing $80 billion a month and sending that money directly to the most corrupt banking institutions. We've had presidential debates, but there wasn't a single question asked about this. Instead, the candidates were asked about non-issues like birth control.
Back in February-March 2008, I got a call from my broker (at a major firm). I had told my broker my position--we needed to invest for safety. My wife and I were not working as my wife was giving birth to our first child. (I was working at home writing on my etymology blog.) The broker suggested that we invest in Lehman Brothers.
There was a preferred stock offering of Lehman Brothers and there were commissions to be made. We were wiped out within six months.
No one has gone to jail.
The financial rating agency that gave Lehman Brothers the highest rating has not gone to jail. Warren Buffett (who accepted TARP money and who owned the financial rating service Moody's) won the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
The head of Lehman Brothers--Dick Fuld-- walked away with over 500 million dollars. He not only hasn't gone to jail, but he hasn't even had to surrender a penny.
The NY Fed chief who helped Lehman Brothers to lie on its balance sheet and fool investors was named Tim Geithner. He was promoted to Treasury Secretary.
This is the nation of crooks that we've become. The re-election of Barack Obama or the election of Mitt Romney will not change anything. They're both funded by the same Wall Street crooks.
America is dying before our eyes and no one is cleaning the house and setting things right.
FYI, I've researched some of the phrases that you have used:
http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/dont_pee_on_my_leg_and_tell_me_its_raining/
http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/gunslinger_or_gun_slinger/
http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/white_collar/
Barry Popik
DeleteExcellent comment.
The 'Big Picture' is the real story, here, not a small fish who got slapped on the wrist.
Unless, you make clear that the 'small fish' is representative of the larger picture -- I'm not sure this post accomplished that objective, if that was even the objective, at all -- it's just playing tiddledy winks.
Blogs are about 'personal peeves', I get that, but this subject, corruption at the heart of the financial system, really is about the whole, big, stinking, rotten sewer, which is the transnational banks and hedge funds.
And who controls them and more important, who protects them.
And who carries out their dirty work in foreign countries and, here, at home.
If this was a movie or a novel, this is where a "white knight" action (justice dispensed on the Q. T.") would be most effective because that's all these bankers understand.
That would be a compelling character in a novel or a movie -- the guy who was a 'contract' player for the bankers, but gets burned by the bankers (his family dies in a suspicious plane crash -- a plane he was supposed to be on -- say), and turns on the bankers with a mission to dispense justice - a combination Rambo and Jason Bourne.
Yes, it would have to be a one-way ticket for the character, but what a ride, I bet a movie like that would be a Block Buster.
Could you imagine how many people would buy tickets for that kind of movie?
(But given Hollywood and who controls it, I bet it would be difficult to get the finance to make it with the 'A' stars needed to make it work (the audience needs to strongly identify with the lead character).
These bankers are being given cover by the Council of Foreign Relations type Elite. How many of these bankers are members?
I bet you'd find quite a number.
Too bad Charles Bronson isn't available anymore for the role.
Could be an Oscar in the making if done right :-)
I think the movie going public would enjoy a little schadenfreude at the expense of the transnational bankers (a movie might be better than a novel at conveying the emotional angst of the bankers as they go down one by one -- emotional terror is knowing something or someone unstoppable is coming for you, but you don't know when or how.
DeleteGod knows the transnational bankers have inflicted misfortune, grief, and gut-wrenching suffering on a lot of people in this world via their humongous selfishness (evil).
Nice one Steve. It's clear the American People are justly disappointed and skeptical about getting any justice for the crimes that were committed against them by these bankers and their cronies.
ReplyDeleteAlso nice to see Mckinsey and folks called out for what they are. Hired political cover to give the C-levels the false approval of "Independent Experts". So True!