Corruption

Make No Mistake About It: The Storm Has Hit in Turkey

by Oilprice.com •  • Comments Off on Make No Mistake About It: The Storm Has Hit in Turkey

Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan, his party (the AKP), and the business elite attached to them have become targets of a focused corruption scandal that he may not survive. It should shake investor confidence to its core.

Epic Duel In Spain Between The Politically Connected CEO Of A Collapsed Bank And A Judge

by Don Quijones •  • Comments Off on Epic Duel In Spain Between The Politically Connected CEO Of A Collapsed Bank And A Judge

By Don Quijones: In most places these days, it’s probably easier to pass a camel through the eye of a needle than it is to pass a corrupt CEO of a failed bank through a wide-open prison gate. But a judge in Spain tried – and it’s costing him dearly.

The Rajoy Horror Picture Show Lumbers On

by Don Quijones •  • Comments Off on The Rajoy Horror Picture Show Lumbers On

By Don Quijones: Two years ago, Mariano Rajoy rode a wave of public anger to victory in Spain’s general election. The man who could never win anything was suddenly gifted the closest any politician can hope to get to absolute power in an ostensibly democratic society. 

Gagging Doubt: French Crackdown On French And American Bloggers Who Question Megabank Balance Sheets

by Wolf Richter •  • Comments Off on Gagging Doubt: French Crackdown On French And American Bloggers Who Question Megabank Balance Sheets

France’s Financial Markets Authority slapped fines on two bloggers, Frenchman Jean-Pierre Chevallier and American Mike “Mish” Shedlock, “for having spread inexact information about the level of indebtedness” of megabank Société Générale. Instead of going after banks, bank regulators are going after bloggers! It’s more convenient.

Coming Soon: Corporate Tools To Hollow Out National Sovereignty

by Wolf Richter •  • Comments Off on Coming Soon: Corporate Tools To Hollow Out National Sovereignty

Now “trade agreements” are negotiated behind sealed doors, without public oversight, beyond the reach of Congress. The text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership is secret, but some sections were leaked. It deals with trade only on the margins. Corporate interests dominate. It mocks democracy, establishes kangaroo courts, and taxpayers are on the hook.

What You Need to Know about the Latest Oil Trading Scandal

by Oilprice.com •  • Comments Off on What You Need to Know about the Latest Oil Trading Scandal

Dan Dicker, Oil & Energy Insider: Manipulations and fraud in the capital and commodity markets: Now four traders from my old home, the NYMEX, are suing BP, Shell, Statoil, and Vitol Group for collusion and manipulating Brent oil trades to fix reported prices.

Portrait of a Kleptocrat

by Don Quijones •  • Comments Off on Portrait of a Kleptocrat

For a certain segment of the population in Spain, albeit quite a small one, life has never been better.

Fear, Loathing, and Collective Amnesia in Crisis-Ridden Spain

by Don Quijones •  • Comments Off on Fear, Loathing, and Collective Amnesia in Crisis-Ridden Spain

By Don Quijones: If Spain and Catalonia were playing real, rather than figurative, Russian Roulette, the revolver would be loaded with two or three bullets. Now an extra one was slipped into a chamber: prize-winning economist Juan Valerde announced that Madrid may have to “bomb Barcelona” in order to put a halt to the region’s rising separatist aspirations.

Spanish Government Caught Erasing Evidence in Corruption Case

by Don Quijones •  • Comments Off on Spanish Government Caught Erasing Evidence in Corruption Case

Spain’s government plumbed new depths of political chicanery and incompetence this week when it openly admitted that it had tampered with evidence in the Bárcenas affair, a corruption case implicating many of its senior ministers.

The Unthinkable Happens: A Former TBTF Bank Chief Goes to Jail

by Wolf Richter •  • Comments Off on The Unthinkable Happens: A Former TBTF Bank Chief Goes to Jail

Contributed by Don Quijones: Just when you thought the concept of universal justice was dead, a courageous Spanish judge, Elpidio José Silva, did what no other judge in the Western world, bar Iceland, dared to do: He refused to grant bail to a former top banker, sending him to prison before facing trial for his alleged role in Spain’s financial crisis.