Citibank: Vulnerable to Embezzlement?

Norma Talley-Maccow, age 47, of Gaithersburg, pleaded guilty to embezzlement by a bank employee.

The guilty plea was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J Rosenstein; and Special Agent in Charge Richard A McFeely of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

According to her plea agreement, Talley-Maccow was the assistant branch manager for the Montgomery Village branch of Citibank in Gaithersburg. Pursuant to a nationwide Citibank audit on March 23, 2010, the cash count audit for the Montgomery Village branch revealed that the teller cash box assigned to Talley-Maccow was short by $30,782.28. Bank investigators interviewed Talley-Maccow and she admitted that she had embezzled funds from the branch using her teller cash box. Talley-Maccow further stated that she logged into the bank’s computer system as a teller, processed electronic transactions and then made offsetting electronic deposits into her own personal Citibank bank account.

The Montgomery Village branch’s general ledger revealed that from January 12, 2009 until March 22, 2010, Talley-Maccow transferred relatively small amounts of money several times a month, ranging from $20 to $600, to either her personal Citibank bank account or to a Citibank bank account of one of her family members.

On one occasion she transferred $1,500 to her personal Citibank bank account. She also fraudulently transferred funds from the ledger to make payments to her corporate credit card account, which included charges for personal expenses. The total amount she embezzled was $54,251.28.

Talley-Maccow faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison. United States District Judge J Frederick Motz scheduled her sentencing for February 3 , 2012 at 10:00 AM.

Citibank: Closed Down By Protestors!

October 20th, 2011- A group of forty protesters marched to Citibank, a subsidiary of Citigroup, at 14th and G Streets NW in Washington, DC, this morning to protest the announcement of the seventh consecutive quarter of massive profits while the economy continues to collapse.

The protesters succeeded in shutting the bank down.

Six protesters, including a video team remained inside the building, protesting the tax avoidance by Citibank through off-shore tax havens, continued foreclosures, choking the economy by not making loans, usury credit card rates, low pay of bank tellers while exorbitant pay for executives.

Police were  called to the scene.

Leah Bolger, an October2011.org organizer who is a vice president of Vets for Peace said:

"Citibank needs to be held accountable for its role in collapsing the economy and profiting from that collapse. As the largest recipient of bail out dollars, Citibank owes the American people and needs to stop foreclosures now, re-make mortgages so they are consistent with true housing values and stop avoiding taxes.

"This is a slap in the face to the average American who earns miniscule interest rates on the money they have in Citigroup banks, are unable to obtain loans and mortgages, and are being forced to pay all sorts of fees and charges just to access their own money,: said Kevin Zeese of October2011.org. "The sweetheart settlement with the SEC announced today is an insult. Citigroup profits $1 billion from selling fraudulent derivatives and gets fined $285 million."

Here is a list of complaints against Citibank:

• Citigroup has paid ZERO corporate taxes for the last four years.
• Citigroup has 427 subsidiaries in foreign tax havens to hide their profits.
• Citigroup was the LARGEST recipient of federal bailout money-- $476 billion.
• CEO John Havens receives $9.5 million annually, while paying their tellers $12.65 an hour.
• Citigroup just posted a 3rd quarter net profit of $3.8 billion, a 74% increase over last year.

Citigroup To Pay $285 Million Fine!

Citigroup has agreed to pay $285 million to settle civil fraud charges that it misled buyers of a complex mortgage investment just as the housing market was starting to collapse.

The Securities and Exchange Commission said Wednesday that the big Wall Street bank bet against the investment in 2007 and made $160 million in fees and profits. Investors lost millions.

Citigroup neither admitted nor denied the SEC's allegations in the settlement.

"We are pleased to put this matter behind us and are focused on contributing to the economic recovery, serving our clients and growing responsibly," Citigroup said in a statement.

The penalty is the biggest involving a Wall Street firm accused of misleading investors before the financial crisis since Goldman Sachs & Co. paid $550 million to settle similar charges last year. JPMorgan Chase & Co. resolved similar charges in June and paid $153.6 million.

All the cases have involved complex investments called collateralized debt obligations. Those are securities that are backed by pools of other assets, such as mortgages.

Citigroup's payment includes the fees and profit it earned, plus $30 million in interest and a $95 million penalty. The money will be returned to the investors, the SEC said.

In the July-September quarter, Citigroup earned $3.8 billion. CEO Vikram Pandit this year was awarded a multi-year bonus package that could be worth nearly $23.4 million if performance goals are met.

At the height of the financial crisis in 2008, regulators worried that Citigroup was on the brink of failure. It received $45 billion as part of the $700 billion government bailout.

In the civil lawsuit filed Wednesday, the SEC said Citigroup traders discussed in late 2006 the possibility of buying financial instruments to essentially bet on the failure of the mortgage assets being assembled in the deal.

Rating agencies downgraded most of the investments that Citigroup had bundled together just as many troubled homeowners stopped paying their mortgages in late 2007. That pushed the investment into default and cost its buyers' — hedge funds and investment managers — several hundred million dollars in losses.

Among the biggest losers were Ambac, a bond insurer, and BNP Paribas, a European bank. Ambac had sold Citigroup protection against losses on the investment, allowing Citigroup to bet against it.

Hedge funds had asked Citigroup to sell them investments that would decline if the housing market crashed. Citigroup did so, and wanted to get in on the action, the SEC said.

Citigroup bet that the investments would fail, but never told investors it had done so, SEC enforcement chief Robert Khuzami said in a conference call.

"Key facts regarding how the structure was put together were not made available to (investors), and they suffered losses as a result," he said.

Even though Citigroup designed the investment to fail, it told investors it had been designed by an independent manager, the SEC said. Citigroup's marketing materials said the investments were picked by Credit Suisse. In an email about the deal, one Citigroup banker asked another not to tell Credit Suisse that it was designed for Citigroup to profit.

Credit Suisse "agreed to the terms even though they don't get to pick the assets," the email said, according to the SEC's complaint.

Credit Suisse also reached a settlement with the SEC. Two divisions of the bank agreed to pay a $1.25 million civil fine. It will also return $1 million in fees and pay $250,000 in interest. They didn't admit or deny the charges.

Credit Suisse declined to comment on the settlement.

The SEC also filed charges against Brian Stoker, a Citigroup employee it said was mainly responsible for putting together the deal. Stoker will contest the charges, according to a statement released by his lawyer.