4/13/10

VULTURE FUNDS, RACKETEERING OF THE BANKING INDUSTRY, AND MY PROBLEMS WITH WELLS FARGO

From Greg Palast:

Singer is a speculator, the predator-in-chief of the flock of financiers, collectively known as "vultures," who buy up the right to collect on old loans made to the world's poorest nations. Vultures use law suits, political muscle, and in some cases, bribery, to get nations like Congo and Liberia to pay these hedge funds up to 100 times what the vulture originally paid for the debt.



As you can imagine, vultures don't have lots of friends; and those they have they must purchase.


The vultures had been looking for some morally challenged congressperson to front a bill to help them crank billions from the budgets of Third World nations. The law that could make demi-billionaire Singer a billionaire is called, "The Judgment Evading Foreign States Accountability Act" (H.R. 2493).


In effect, the bill says that if Argentina (and other Third World nations) don't pay Mr. Singer and his vulture buddies the billions they demand, then the US government will act as Singer's enforcement arm, hanging out Argentina to dry, cutting off trade between our countries.


Now, as Mr. Singer became Mr. Checkbook to the Republican Party in New York, you'd assume that his make-me-richer bill would be sponsored by some right-wing GOP troglodyte. Wrong: the rent-boy, the chief sponsor of Singer's bill, was, to our amazement, the "liberal" Democrat Eric Massa.



RICO or Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act was originally for prosecuting crimes committed by those in the Mafia. I would argue that the banking industry in the country is a type of government sanctioned Mafia. Racketeering can be charged if they have committed two of 35 crimes, like extortion or usury. The thing is they used their power and money to get the laws changed so they could not be found guilty of any crimes. If anyone else is caught racketeering they go to prison. This is another example of our two tier justice system. What really makes me sick is when people go on TV or write a discussion saying it isn’t the fault of the people running these companies because it is their job to do this. They knew what they were doing was wrong, why else would they be paying of legislators to change the laws to their favor? That is like saying it isn’t a burglar’s fault they are breaking into your house because it’s his job.

I am engaged in an ongoing battle with Wells Fargo a very corrupt corporation that has the worst customer service I have ever seen. They completely ignore my requests to straighten out problems, they will not give out the phone number for the headquarters, and mail is never responded to. When I go to the branch they lie and say the manager is not there. I have learned to always go during the busiest part of the day and talk very loud on my cell phone recounting my whole story in the waiting area, including being put on hold, transferred around, lied to, and hung up on by customer service(1-800). Otherwise they just tell me to call the 1-800 number which of course I already have done multiple times to no avail. Some manger will suddenly appear as if by magic to meet with me. It works every time. Now, why do I have to resort to such a tactic? Because they ignore, discount, and rip off their customers.

I can’t even get my account with these “gangsters” closed. On multiple occasions I have gone down there over the last few months and been promised they would close it. This is after months of investigations about unauthorized deductions from my account. I found out they were giving new debit card numbers to companies, yet they persist in lying that they do not. There is no way a new card which I never used could have been obtained other than from Wells Fargo. They had reversed some unauthorized charges during an investigation. I had to wait until they were done to close the account. They reversed a charge that I had told them was authorized. Why they did this I do not know. In the meantime I paid the business for that charge. I went in and asked Wells Fargo to close my account, they put a regular monthly charge on that account THAT DAY overdrawing it, then recharged me for that reversed charge I had paid, overdrawing the account even more. Now Wells Fargo calls me everyday as much as six times with harassing phone calls. Why do they do this? Because they are gangsters sanctioned by our government from the highest levels. I shall soon be appearing at the nearby Wells Fargo to voice my outrage once again. The management always makes out like the employees at the branch are also victims of Wells Fargo. They say the company does not communicate with them, forcing them to call the 1-800 number just like the customers to make inquiries. It is an extremely dysfunctional system of compartmentalization. I feel like I am being held hostage by Wells Fargo.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am getting ready to close my account over there and move my money to my local bank. Fingers crossed they actually let me close it! Good luck to you in your endeavor to rid yourself of Wells Fargo.

flying fish said...

Your battle with Wells Fargo sounds familiar. I had a checking account with them and suddenly got a platinum card in the mail. I didn't have the minimum balance for that card so I got charged, then when I closed the account in person, I got charged an overdraft that day. I was persistent and called the local bank manager until I got satisfaction...it took a while. Dumped them as my bank as fast as I could.

Celia Harrison said...

I know someone here in AK who has the worst story of all. On the same day he wrote a check at a grocery store in AK someone wrote a check to buy an expensive car on his account in Florida. The bank never notified him of this red flag event. The same person then contacted Wells Fargo and took out a loan against his home in his name. It was all around $250,000 and he has been paying on all of this for a long time. Never think the bank is on the side of their customer. He had a heart attack and now works two jobs.