928 – Executive Order 13519 – Establishment of the Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force November 17, 2009

928 – Executive Order 13519 – Establishment of the Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force
November 17, 2009

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By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and in order to strengthen the efforts of the Department of Justice, in conjunction with Federal, State, tribal, territorial, and local agencies, to investigate and prosecute significant financial crimes and other violations relating to the current financial crisis and economic recovery efforts, recover the proceeds of such crimes and violations, and ensure just and effective punishment of those who perpetrate financial crimes and violations, it is hereby ordered as follows:
Section 1. Establishment. There is hereby established an interagency Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force (Task Force) led by the Department of Justice.

Sec. 2. Membership and Operation. The Task Force shall be chaired by the Attorney General and consist of senior-level officials from the following departments, agencies, and offices, selected by the heads of the respective departments, agencies, and offices in consultation with the Attorney General:

(a) the Department of Justice;

(b) the Department of the Treasury;

(c) the Department of Commerce;

(d) the Department of Labor;

(e) the Department of Housing and Urban Development;

(f) the Department of Education;

(g) the Department of Homeland Security;

(h) the Securities and Exchange Commission;

(i) the Commodity Futures Trading Commission;

(j) the Federal Trade Commission;

(k) the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation;

(l) the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System;

(m) the Federal Housing Finance Agency;

(n) the Office of Thrift Supervision;

(o) the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency;

(p) the Small Business Administration;

(q) the Federal Bureau of Investigation;

(r) the Social Security Administration;

(s) the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigations;

(t) the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network;

(u) the United States Postal Inspection Service;

(v) the United States Secret Service;

(w) the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement;

(x) relevant Offices of Inspectors General and related Federal entities, including without limitation the Office of the Inspector General for the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, and the Office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program; and

(y) such other executive branch departments, agencies, or offices as the President may, from time to time, designate or that the Attorney General may invite.

The Attorney General shall convene and, through the Deputy Attorney General, direct the work of the Task Force in fulfilling all its functions under this order. The Attorney General shall convene the first meeting of the Task Force within 30 days of the date of this order and shall thereafter convene the Task Force at such times as he deems appropriate. At the direction of the Attorney General, the Task Force may establish subgroups consisting exclusively of Task Force members or their designees under this section, including but not limited to a Steering Committee chaired by the Deputy Attorney General, and subcommittees addressing enforcement efforts, training and information sharing, and victims’ rights, as the Attorney General deems appropriate.

Sec. 3. Mission and Functions. Consistent with the authorities assigned to the Attorney General by law, and other applicable law, the Task Force shall:

(a) provide advice to the Attorney General for the investigation and prosecution of cases of bank, mortgage, loan, and lending fraud; securities and commodities fraud; retirement plan fraud; mail and wire fraud; tax crimes; money laundering; False Claims Act violations; unfair competition; discrimination; and other financial crimes and violations (hereinafter financial crimes and violations), when such cases are determined by the Attorney General, for purposes of this order, to be significant;

(b) make recommendations to the Attorney General, from time to time, for action to enhance cooperation among Federal, State, local, tribal, and territorial authorities responsible for the investigation and prosecution of significant financial crimes and violations; and

(c) coordinate law enforcement operations with representatives of State, local, tribal, and territorial law enforcement.

Sec. 4. Coordination with State, Local, Tribal, and Territorial Law Enforcement. Consistent with the objectives set out in this order, and to the extent permitted by law, the Attorney General is encouraged to invite the following representatives of State, local, tribal, and territorial law enforcement to participate in the Task Force’s subcommittee addressing enforcement efforts in the subcommittee’s performance of the functions set forth in section 3(c) of this order relating to the coordination of Federal, State, local, tribal, and territorial law enforcement operations involving financial crimes and violations:

(a) the National Association of Attorneys General;

(b) the National District Attorneys Association; and

(c) such other representatives of State, local, tribal, and territorial law enforcement as the Attorney General deems appropriate.

Sec. 5. Outreach. Consistent with the law enforcement objectives set out in this order, the Task Force, in accordance with applicable law, in addition to regular meetings, shall conduct outreach with representatives of financial institutions, corporate entities, nonprofit organizations, State, local, tribal, and territorial governments and agencies, and other interested persons to foster greater coordination and participation in the detection and prosecution of financial fraud and financial crimes, and in the enforcement of antitrust and antidiscrimination laws.

Sec. 6. Administration. The Department of Justice, to the extent permitted by law and subject to the availability of appropriations, shall provide administrative support and funding for the Task Force.

Sec. 7. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:

(i) authority granted by law to an executive department, agency, or the head thereof, or the status of that department or agency within the Federal Government; or

(ii) functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.

(b) This Task Force shall replace, and continue the work of, the Corporate Fraud Task Force created by Executive Order 13271 of July 9, 2002. Executive Order 13271 is hereby terminated pursuant to section 6 of that order.

(c) This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.

(d) This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.

Sec. 8. Termination. The Task Force shall terminate when directed by the President or, with the approval of the President, by the Attorney General.

BARACK OBAMA

The White House,

November 17, 2009.

NOTE: This Executive order was published in the Federal Register on November 19.

Daily Telegraph news story suppressed May 27, 2009

Daily Telegraph news story suppressed May 27, 2009
Posted by thedukeofurl in Economics.
Tags: Daily Telegraph, Geithner bailout, news story removed from web, Patterson
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Naked Capitalism, Zero Hedge, and The Analytic are all engaged in trying to discover the truth of a report by Evans-Pritchard that appeared in the Daily Telegraph and which was suddenly removed from the paper’s web site following a complaint. According to the report, Mark Patterson, chairman of MatlinPatterson Global Advisors, a private equity firm and recipient of initial TARP funding, said in a meeting in Qatar that the Geithner bailout was a sham and that the banks were insolvent.

You can find the report here – http://zerohedge.blogspot.com/2009/05/mark-patterson-its-sham-banks-are.html .

A number of disturbing inferences arise from this case. One is that web content is inherently fragile and can disappear overnight. Were the paper deposited in a library, some record of it will have been kept (as has luckily happened electronically in this case, but you can’t count on it). An argument for a publically accessible digital archive available into the indefinite future as “hard copy” in principle is?

Another is that a media organization, presumably after consultation with its lawyers, removed a news report simply upon receipt of a complaint, which may never be recoverable from the original source. There does not appear to be anything to stop the newspaper from digitally shredding the report thereby having it “go missing”.

Should Mr Patterson’s comments be viewed as a matter of private concern although made in a public arena? If what the paper initially published was factually incorrect, as MatlinPatterson claim, then surely the paper should have left the story as is, as it has had to do with the hard copy version, and issued a public apology to Mr Patterson in a subsequent issue of the paper. This would seem to be the most appropriate way of dealing with such conflicts.

The thing is, if Patterson did say what he is reported as saying, he is right. “Geithner’s put” is rubbish.

It will be interesting to see whether Naked Capitalism, http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/ , The Analytic, http://theanalytic.com/ , and Zero Hedge, http://zerohedge.blogspot.com/ , will be able to get to the bottom of this affair.

MURDERING MARVIN SCHUR….93 year old retired machinist slowly freezes to death in his own home in Bay City, Michigan – because the power company cut off his electricity in the dead of winter Posted in Uncategorized by gangbox on the January 28, 2009

from the BAY CITY [MICHIGAN] TIMES:

Relatives stunned to learn Marvin Schur died of hypothermia

by Tom Gilchrist | The Bay City Times

Wednesday January 28, 2009, 10:12 AM

Courtesy photoMarvin Schur, center, stands with his nephews Gerald Walworth, left, and William Walworth in this photo taken in Pompano Beach, Flo.

William Walworth remembers the late Marvin E. Schur as their “Uncle Mutts,” a U.S. Army medic wounded in World War II who earned the Purple Heart.

While browsing the Internet on Tuesday from his Florida home, a stunned Walworth recognized his uncle as someone else: the 93-year-old widower who froze to death inside his Bay City home.

“I just couldn’t believe the story … and then my lower jaw dropped when I saw it happened in Bay City, Michigan. It was like reading your own obituary,” said Walworth, 66, of Ormond Beach, Fla.

“It incensed me that somebody would turn off the damn electricity. Wouldn’t somebody knock on the door and find out something – especially up north where you get brutal temperatures?”

Bay City officials said they don’t believe anyone made one-on-one contact with Schur, found dead Jan. 17, four days after the city installed a device to limit flow of electricity to his home.

Neighbors discovered Schur’s body inside his 1600 S. Chilson St. home, lying on the floor next to his bed, wrapped in several layers of clothes.

“It seems to me a lot of people dropped the ball,” William Walworth said.

Nighttime temperatures in Bay City dropped to about 5 degrees below zero on each of the four nights after the city installed the limiter.

“Those were some of the coldest days of the year, too,” said Shannon Pauwels, 36, Schur’s next-door neighbor who with her husband, George, found Marvin Schur’s body.

Bay City Electric Light & Power workers attached the limiter outside Schur’s home because he had fallen behind in his utility payments.

Though a limiter allows the flow of some electricity, if one uses more electricity than allowed by the device, it trips the limiter and the home loses all electricity until someone goes outdoors to turn the limiter back on.

Marvin Schur and his late wife, Marian (Meisel) Schur, didn’t have children. Nephew Bentley Bremer of Saginaw Township, said he hadn’t seen his uncle in years.

Bremer’s wife, Genevieve, said her husband didn’t visit his uncle due to a “family feud” that developed several decades ago.

Bentley Bremer said he doesn’t blame the city of Bay City for Marvin Schur’s demise.

Gerald Walworth, 77, of Virginia, another nephew of Schur, described his late uncle as “a loner, other than his marriage to Marian.”

Marvin Schur, a Saginaw native and retired pattern-maker for Baker-Perkins Co. in Saginaw, saw combat in World War II in the South Pacific, according to Gerald Walworth.

Marvin Schur spent six years at war, relatives said.

“He went through some hard times in the armed services,” William Walworth said.

Schur’s death angered Art Schupback of the Bay County Veterans Council.

“I have a nice little sign in my office that says ‘Protecting Those Who Are Protecting Us,’” Schupback said. “What happened to that philosophy?”

See more in Community News, Courts and Cops, MLive – News, MLive.com – Home Page – News

from the WORLD SOCIALIST WEB SITE:

Michigan man, 93, freezes to death after city cuts off electricity

By Tom Eley and Jerry White

28 January 2009

Schur’s homeBay City home where Marvin E. Schur froze to death

On January 17, the frozen body of 93-year-old Marvin E. Schur was found by neighbors at his home in Bay City, Michigan, several days after the municipal power company had restricted his access to electricity due to outstanding bills. The death has provoked outrage among residents in this working class city of 36,000, located where the Saginaw River flows into Lake Huron, about 100 miles north of Detroit.

On January 13, the city ordered the installation of a device known as a “limiter” that restricts the amount of electricity a household can use. Between the time the limiter was placed and January 17, a bitter Arctic cold front settled over Michigan, with overnight temperatures in the Bay City area reaching minus 10 degrees below zero (Fahrenheit). It is not clear when Schur died, but an obituary from the local newspaper placed the death on January 15.

Robert Belleman, Bay City’s city manager, said that Schur had accrued over $1,000 in unpaid electricity bills over the preceding months. No effort was made to visit Schur prior to the suspension.

Neighbors became alarmed when they noticed that Schur’s windows had become covered with ice. When neighbors found Schur’s body, temperatures in his house were below freezing, and water in his sink was frozen. The oven door was propped open, which suggests that Schur made a futile attempt to heat his home using the appliance.

Kanu Virani, a medical examiner who performed the autopsy, said that Schur died of hypothermia, which she described as a “slow, painful death.” “He was wearing a double layer of clothes, trying to stay warm,” Virani said.

Schur had no children and was a widower, but a neighbor named Jim, a retired city worker, told the World Socialist Web Site that he was well liked, frequently waving to passersby from his picture window that faces east onto Chilson Street, the working class residential lane where he had lived for years.

Marvin Schur, or “Mutts” as he was known, was a retired worker, having labored as a pattern cutter for years at Baker-Perkins, a Saginaw factory that makes specialized machinery for the food industry. He was born April 30, 1915, and was a life-long resident of the area, serving as a medic with the US Army during WW II.

limiterThe “limiter” placed on Shur’s electric meter

The “limiter” is a punitive device designed to compel homeowners to pay their bills. It is equipped with a switch-like circuit breaker that completely shuts off the power supply should the household surpass the established voltage level. This is what happened to Schur.

City officials say homeowners can go outside and reset the devices to allow limited electricity to flow again. But they acknowledged that there was no personal contact with Schur to instruct him how to reset the device. Neighbors also noted that Schur was hard of hearing and suffered from some form of dementia.

Nevertheless, if after 10 days a household has still not paid its electricity bills, Bay City cuts off the electric supply completely.

The city’s electric department director, Phil Newston, told the Bay City Times that the city currently has 60 to 70 limiters installed across the city, about three times the number in use last year, and that the city sends out about 50 shutoff notices per week. He attributed the increase to the economic crisis.

“It’s been terrible. We’ve seen it for over a year now,” he said. “We actually have almost two full-time people just dedicated to going around and turning people on and off and putting on limiters. It’s just really bad.”

The municipal power company has been steadily raising rates due to the increasing cost of procuring electricity from the major suppliers in Michigan. Last summer, electricity rates were raised by 9 percent. These rate increases present serious challenges to low-income families, families with children, the unemployed and retired workers such as Schur, who live on a fixed income.

On Monday evening, the Bay City Commission met, just as news of the freezing death of Schur had made national news, for a previously scheduled meeting to vote on another electricity rate increase, this one of 3 percent. “But what voters wanted to talk about was how a 93-year-old man froze to death in his home after the city limited his electric use,” the Bay City Times reported. The new increase was nonetheless approved, by a vote of five to three.

“We’ve gotten very creative in the ways we purchase power, but it’s a very complicated market and it’s an expensive market,” Mayor Charles Brunner said. “We have to pass the costs on.”

The costs are passed on to a population that can ill afford them. Like much of Michigan, the economy of Bay City is tied to the auto industry. At its peak General Motors’ Bay City Powertrain employed 4,500 people. As late as 2006 it had 1,000 workers. It now employs 300-400 workers. GM’s nearby Saginaw Metal Castings plant had 1,700 hourly workers as recently as 2004. It employs around 800 workers today.

Local residents expressed outrage over the death. Michelle, a local worker who lives several blocks north of Schur’s residence on Chilson Street, said that everyone she knew was angry over the death. She became tearful as she described residents’ reaction. “Everyone is outraged. Everyone is calling each other. I thought there was some sort of law against power shutoffs in the winter,” she said. “I guess I was wrong. It makes me think of my 87-year-old grandmother, and what would happen to her.”

“Our heating bill is outrageous. I have small children, and we spend between $400 and $500 to heat our home.”

The town has declined, she said. “My Dad worked for Dow Chemical,” which is located in nearby Midland. “We weren’t rich, but weren’t concerned about losing our utilities either. It’s a tight-knit community.”

Those visiting web articles covering the death have left comments, including hundreds of messages on a discussion thread after a Bay City Times article. One reader wrote, “I can’t believe people and businesses these days. To let a 93-year-old freeze to death because of a bill. I don’t care how big the bill is. A man is dead because of money…”

A former resident of Bay City wrote, “I am so happy I no longer live there. At my age, I would fear for my life… Remember, folks, you may be old some day—if your city fathers don’t kill you first.”

Dee Mitrowski, of Moriarty, New Mexico wrote, “Bay City’s old motto: ‘A beautiful view … of life.’ Bay City’s new motto: ‘We value every life … according to your utility bill.’

Local officials have reacted with callousness. The electricity commissioner and the mayor attempted to pin the blame on Schur. “I’m certain if there had been some communication we could have solved this without the tragedy that occurred,” Newston said.

“It’s just unfortunate that this gentleman didn’t reach out,” Mayor Charles Brunner said. “We would have been there. We would have pointed him in the right direction or put him on some sort of payment plan.” Brunner is among the Michigan mayors who lobbied Congress for a bailout of the auto industry, and was recently in attendance at the inauguration of President Barack Obama, who in his inaugural address said American people were to blame for the economic crisis because they had failed “to make hard choices.”

For his part, City Manager Robert Belleman has provoked particular outrage among residents by suggesting that Schur’s neighbors bear responsibility for failing to look after the elderly man.

Rick LuszekRick Luszek, retired utility worker

Rick Luszek, a retired utility worker who lives in the neighborhood said, “This is absurd. Shutting somebody’s electricity off in the dead of winter is criminal. These politicians sit at their desks pushing pencils and say we’re going to cut off electricity today. How can the city manager claim that the neighbors had a civic responsibility to look after this man? What about the city’s civic responsibility to look after him? I say damn Belleman for blaming the neighbors for this man’s death.”

Local residents are right to be outraged by the political leadership of their city and state, which is dominated from the local level up by the Democratic Party. Politicians of both parties have overseen the ruination of Michigan. In moments like the freezing death of Schur, they can scarcely conceal their contempt for the working class people they nominally represent.

But the freezing death of Schur is not strictly a local issue. What killed Schur is not just the indifference of local officials, but the form of social organization—capitalism—that places the profit drive of the financial aristocracy above basic human needs.