"Suicides" and "accidents" - The official RI thread

Moderators: Elvis, DrVolin, Jeff

Re: "Suicides" and "accidents" - The official RI thread

Postby semper occultus » Wed May 21, 2014 5:57 pm

JP Morgan executive who jumped from bank's roof 'obsessed with couple's suicide pact'

Gabriel Magee plunged 500 feet from the firm's Canary Wharf roof after writing “Trying to jump off building. Hate life.”

Former girlfriend Lucy Pinches told the inquest that Mr Magee, who had applied for UK citizenship, had a “darker side” and that his break up with her last year had left him “traumatised”.

Photo: NATIONAL NEWS

By Keith Perry
4:10PM BST 20 May 2014

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/10844192/JP-Morgan-executive-who-jumped-from-banks-roof-obsessed-with-couples-suicide-pact.html

A brilliant IT executive at JP Morgan who plunged 500 feet to his death from the top of the bank’s Canary Wharf headquarters developed an obsession with the concept of parallel universes and the suicide pact of two US students based on the theory, an inquest heard.

American Gabriel Magee, 39, fell from the roof shortly after 8am on January 28 in front of other financial workers.

An inquest at Poplar Coroner’s Court in London, heard that investigators had studied his computer and found a number of documents, with one reading: “Trying to jump off building.” Another read: “Hate life.”

Former girlfriend Lucy Pinches told the inquest that Mr Magee, who had applied for UK citizenship, had a “darker side” and that his break up with her last year had left him “traumatised”. She said: “He was lovely... but he had a darker side. He would want to sit in a room with the curtains drawn, sometimes he didn’t want to socialise. It was very difficult.”

She added that Mr Magee was had an obsession with the concept of parallel universes and a suicide pact of two US students based on the theory

"There was a story of a double suicide in the States where two students had killed themselves," she said.

"It was to do with quantum physics and suicide, the two students were linked up to lethal injections which were operated by lottery numbers.

"So the only universe they would wake up in would be the one they both won the lottery in.

"I don't understand that properly but that was something Gabe thought about a lot and had the mental capacity to think about it a lot, with the equations and the physics."

The couple had split up in late 2012 after an on-off four-year relationship, which began to break down after his behaviour became more and more unusual.

She continued: "He was a very unique person, he was incredibly intelligent, he had a brilliant mind, he was very kind and affectionate, he was creative, he had a sense of adventure, he liked trying new things.

"But he did have a darker side to him that I found was always there.

"I always felt he suffered from some kind of depression and at various stages it was worse, some times it was better, but he had a darkness that was linked to his creativity."

JP Morgan investigator Jonathan Shatford suggested that Mr Magee had been on a reconnaissance mission to the roof. He said CCTV images had revealed him surveying the 32nd floor on several occasions.

He told the inquest: “We know that at 13.03 on November 25 he went to the 32nd floor and tried to swipe. He was trying and then returned to the ninth floor... He had no business reason to be there. He returned in the evening ... his card did not work.”

Describing how he eventually got out onto the roof, Mr Shatford said he had gone to the 32nd floor, scaled a steel step ladder and climbed through a hatch.

Mr Magee was a vice-president in CIB Technology and had been with the US banking firm for 10 years. His partner, Veronica Strande told the inquest that they had been talking about their future plans on the weekend before he died. The lawyer said: “We talked about the future, friends, family... There was no problem. He was lovely with a dry sense of humour and loved music.”

Ms Strande said the IT expert had never indicated any sign of depression or suicidal thoughts but revealed he had been seeing a therapist. She added that “he was in a happier place after a split” with a former partner and now looked forward to a future with her.

The inquest heard that Mr Magee’s body was discovered by IT contractor Timothy Watson who looked out of a window on the ninth floor and saw the executive lying in a pool of blood.


Veronica Strande (NATIONAL NEWS)

Mr Magee’s father Bill, a former US Air Force commander who had been based in the UK and sister, Gabriela, travelled from their home in New Mexico to attend the inquest.

Mr Magee’s boss Andrew Harding said: “He was difficult to get to know but was a humble, kind person with a dry sense of humour. During 2013, his project did not do too well. In early 2013 he said he was having some issues.

“He thought his work was suffering. At one point he said he was grieving, I thought he had suffered a bereavement. I intervened because a project was not going well. He was given flexible working to help him deal with his personal issues. He was very grateful and seemed much happier.”

A JP Morgan spokesman said: "Our heartfelt condolences go out to Gabriel’s family and friends. We are focused on supporting our colleagues and those close to him on this very difficult day."

Returning a verdict of suicide, Senior coroner Mary Hassell said: "I am wholly satisfied that Gabriel jumped. If someone is determined they will find a way to meet their death."

The coroner said he had been on the roof for hours before plunging to his death. She suggested that he had fooled those around him into thinking he was okay while he was in fact deeply troubled.

Speaking after the inquest, Mr Magee's father Bill said: "My son was an honest cherished decent man. He had a sweetheart and was looking forward to life.

"Gabriel our son was crushed in that fall, as were the hearts of his brother and sisters and mother."

He added: "He could have fallen, we do not know."

User avatar
semper occultus
 
Posts: 2974
Joined: Wed Feb 08, 2006 2:01 pm
Location: London,England
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: "Suicides" and "accidents" - The official RI thread

Postby 82_28 » Sun Jun 01, 2014 11:04 am

Philly newspaper owner among dead in private plane crash

(CNN) -- A private plane crash late Saturday in Massachusetts killed all seven people aboard, according to Hanscom Field airport, where the plane had taken off.

Among the dead was Lewis Katz, co-owner of The Philadelphia Inquirer, the Philadelphia Daily News and philly.com, those news agencies reported Sunday. He was 72.

"Katz made his fortune investing in the Kinney Parking empire and the Yankees Entertainment and Sports Network in New York. He once owned the NBA's New Jersey Nets and the NHL's New Jersey Devils and is a major donor to Temple University, his alma mater," philly.com reported.

The crash came just a few days after Katz and H.F. "Gerry" Lenfest won control of the parent company that owns those news agencies with an $88 million bid at an auction, the Philadelphia Business Journal reported.

The names of the other victims have not been released.

The plane apparently caught fire, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. Purported photos of the crash on social media showed flames and smoke.

Fire department rescuers responded to the scene of the crash early Sunday.

The Gulfstream IV jet was taking off from Hanscom Air Force Base when it ran into a wooded area. Airport operations were shut down.

Hanscom Field is a joint military and civilian facility located approximately 20 miles outside of Boston. It's used regularly by corporations for travel and also as a secondary airport to Boston's Logan International Airport, according to Hanscom's website.

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the crash.


http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/01/us/massac ... ?hpt=hp_t2

Then I ran across this from a little earlier in the year. It's the story of Katz' (Katz's?) quarrels.

http://www.phillymag.com/articles/fight ... ewspapers/

There does seem to be some markers in that story for a routine flight that suddenly crashes with a regional media mogul with apparent enemies. It's a rather long read. Just thought I would bring it up here. . .
There is no me. There is no you. There is all. There is no you. There is no me. And that is all. A profound acceptance of an enormous pageantry. A haunting certainty that the unifying principle of this universe is love. -- Propagandhi
User avatar
82_28
 
Posts: 11194
Joined: Fri Nov 30, 2007 4:34 am
Location: North of Queen Anne
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: "Suicides" and "accidents" - The official RI thread

Postby cptmarginal » Sun Jun 01, 2014 2:18 pm

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/05/21/ ... blogs&_r=0

Stephen Hertz, Corporate Lawyer, Dies at 55
By WILLIAM ALDEN
May 21, 2014 2:18 pm

Stephen R. Hertz, a top lawyer in mergers and acquisitions as well as private equity buyouts, died on Friday in Manhattan. He was 55.

In an apparent suicide, Mr. Hertz jumped from his Upper West Side apartment, a police department spokeswoman said.

Mr. Hertz, as a partner at the prominent white-shoe law firm Debevoise & Plimpton, advised clients including Landstar System, a transportation services provider, and Cambrex, a life sciences company, on a range of corporate matters. He also represented private equity firms including Stone Point Capital and HarbourVest Partners.

He wrote on trends in the private equity world, with his byline appearing frequently in Debevoise’s private equity newsletter. In an article written last year with a number of colleagues, Mr. Hertz addressed the examinations of private equity firms being conducted by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

He also may have helped Debevoise gain a measure of cultural stardom. According to abovethelaw.com, Mr. Hertz was a friend of Aaron Sorkin, the creator of the TV show “The West Wing,” which occasionally featured the law firm.

“We are shocked and deeply saddened by the passing of our partner and friend Steve Hertz,” a Debevoise spokesman said in a statement. “Steve was an exceptionally warm and caring person, extraordinarily dedicated to our clients, and generous to his colleagues. He will be profoundly missed.”

Stephen Richard Hertz was born on April 18, 1959, in Manhattan. He received his bachelor’s degree from Middlebury College in 1982 and his law degree from the University of Chicago in 1985, joining Debevoise that year. He became a partner of the firm in 2000.

Mr. Hertz is survived by his wife, Debra Condren, a psychologist and author, and a son from a previous marriage, Jake.
cptmarginal
 
Posts: 2741
Joined: Tue Apr 10, 2007 8:32 pm
Location: Gordita Beach
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: "Suicides" and "accidents" - The official RI thread

Postby cptmarginal » Sun Jun 01, 2014 2:34 pm

He wrote on trends in the private equity world, with his byline appearing frequently in Debevoise’s private equity newsletter. In an article written last year with a number of colleagues, Mr. Hertz addressed the examinations of private equity firms being conducted by the Securities and Exchange Commission.


Regarding Debevoise and Plimpton:

viewtopic.php?p=490402#p490402

I was shocked when I heard that Mary Jo White, a former U.S. Attorney and a partner for the white-shoe Wall Street defense firm Debevoise and Plimpton, had been named the new head of the SEC.

I thought to myself: Couldn't they have found someone who wasn't a key figure in one of the most notorious scandals to hit the SEC in the past two decades? And couldn't they have found someone who isn't a perfect symbol of the revolving-door culture under which regulators go soft on suspected Wall Street criminals, knowing they have million-dollar jobs waiting for them at hotshot defense firms as long as they play nice with the banks while still in office?

I'll leave it to others to chronicle the other highlights and lowlights of Mary Jo White's career, and focus only on the one incident I know very well: her role in the squelching of then-SEC investigator Gary Aguirre's investigation into an insider trading incident involving future Morgan Stanley CEO John Mack. While representing Morgan Stanley at Debevoise and Plimpton, White played a key role in this inexcusable episode.


viewtopic.php?p=395442#p395442

Around the same time, the Justice Department also considered setting up a financial fraud task force specifically to scrutinize the mortgage industry. Such task forces had been crucial to winning cases against Enron executives and those who looted savings and loans in the early 1990s.

Michael B. Mukasey, a former federal judge in New York who had been the head of the Justice Department less than a year when Bear Stearns fell, discussed the matter with deputies, three people briefed on the talks said. He decided against a task force and announced his decision in June 2008.

Last year, officials of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission interviewed Mr. Mukasey. Asked if he was aware of requests for more resources to be dedicated to mortgage fraud, Mr. Mukasey said he did not recall internal requests.

A spokesman for Mr. Mukasey, who is now at the law firm Debevoise & Plimpton in New York, said he would not comment beyond his F.C.I.C. testimony. He had no knowledge of the F.B.I. memo, his spokesman added.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debevoise_%26_Plimpton

Some of Debevoise's clients include: AIG, American Airlines, American Express, AXA, BNP Paribas, The Carlyle Group, Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, The Coca-Cola Company, CNN, Delta Air Lines, Deutsche Bank, Gap, Goldman Sachs, Hasbro, International Paper, JPMorgan Chase, Kelso & Company, MetLife, National Football League, National Hockey League, NBC, The New York Times Company, Providence Equity Partners, Prudential Financial, Polyus Gold, Siemens, Shell Oil Company, Sony Corp., Universal Music Group, Verizon, Yahoo!.

...

Represented American Airlines after the September 11 terrorist attacks


Deutsche Bank & JPMorgan...
cptmarginal
 
Posts: 2741
Joined: Tue Apr 10, 2007 8:32 pm
Location: Gordita Beach
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: "Suicides" and "accidents" - The official RI thread

Postby cptmarginal » Sun Jun 01, 2014 2:53 pm

Also named in the dubious but mostly-accurate "CIA 500" list.

See also:

http://jfk.hood.edu/Collection/Weisberg ... %20033.pdf

Business Leaders Are Tied to CIA's Covert Operations
By Richard Harwood, Washington Post Staff Writer - 2/18/67

There was mounting evidence yesterday that leaders of the American business establishment have been deeply involved in the covert operations of the Central Intelligence Agency in the United States.

In Dallas, Texas, a charitable foundation intimately associated with the Republic National Bank and other major companies, apparently has served as a conduit for at least $580,700 in CIA funds since 1958. One of the foundation trustees is Federal Judge Sahar T. Hughes, who administered the oath of office to President Lyndon Johnson following the assassination of President Kennedy.

In Houston, another foundation closely identified with the Texas business community, has apparently passed on $655,000 in CIA funds since 1858. The foundation's attorney and one of its trustees is Leon Jaworski, a friend of President Johnson who has been rumored from time to time to be in line for appointment as Attorney General of the United States.

Officer of Council

In New York, Eli Whitney Debevoise, a distinguished lawyer who served as Deputy U.S. High Commissioner in Germany from 1952 to 1953, was identified as the principal officer of the American Council for the International Commission of Jurists which has received, under another name, $655,000 from known CIA front groups. One of Debevoise's law partners is Francis T. P. Plimpton, an intimate of Adlai Stevenson and a former U.S. Delegate to the United Nations.


The father of George Plimpton:

Salon: The Paris Review, the Cold War and the CIA

I point all of this out simply because it is interesting to me; I continually add to a list in my bookmarks of law firms that are close to one or another "Magic Circle," or are otherwise worth looking at.
cptmarginal
 
Posts: 2741
Joined: Tue Apr 10, 2007 8:32 pm
Location: Gordita Beach
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: "Suicides" and "accidents" - The official RI thread

Postby Luther Blissett » Sun Jun 01, 2014 3:10 pm

Came here to post about Katz, who's been in the local news a LOT lately.
The Rich and the Corporate remain in their hundred-year fever visions of Bolsheviks taking their stuff - JackRiddler
User avatar
Luther Blissett
 
Posts: 4990
Joined: Fri Jan 02, 2009 1:31 pm
Location: Philadelphia
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: "Suicides" and "accidents" - The official RI thread

Postby Nordic » Sun Jun 01, 2014 9:49 pm

Regarding Katz:


In the business deal that led to control of the Inquirer last week, Katz and Lenfest said they were committed to in-depth journalism and returning the newspaper to its former glory, said the newspaper's editor Bill Marimow. The newspaper's circulation and revenue have fallen for years.


He wants to finance real in-depth journalism and suddenly he's dead?

That's a bit of a red flag for me.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nati ... s/9829405/
"He who wounds the ecosphere literally wounds God" -- Philip K. Dick
Nordic
 
Posts: 14230
Joined: Fri Nov 10, 2006 3:36 am
Location: California USA
Blog: View Blog (6)

Re: "Suicides" and "accidents" - The official RI thread

Postby Zombie Glenn Beck » Sat Jun 28, 2014 4:25 am

http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politic ... ad-n142736

A Mississippi tea party leader who was facing charges in connection with photos taken of Sen. Thad Cochran’s bedridden wife was found dead Friday after an apparent suicide, police told local media.

Mark Mayfield was found in his garage with a gunshot wound, according to Mississippi news station WLBT. He was a well known lawyer and vice chairman of the Mississippi Tea Party.

Mayfield was one of three men accused of working with a blogger to post photos of Cochran’s ailing wife in her nursing home on the internet.

On Tuesday, Cochran won a bitter fought primary against state Sen. Chris McDaniel.
barracuda wrote:The path from RI moderator to True Blood fangirl to Jehovah's Witness seems pretty straightforward to me. Perhaps even inevitable.
User avatar
Zombie Glenn Beck
 
Posts: 244
Joined: Fri Jan 24, 2014 2:55 pm
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: "Suicides" and "accidents" - The official RI thread

Postby AhabsOtherLeg » Sun Jun 29, 2014 11:25 pm

Honestly can't remember if I've posted this before, but it's an interesting old documentary about the murder of Hilda Murrell, a prominent anti-nuclear activist and rose-grower, who was opposing the expansion of the Sizewell B Pressurised Water Reactor in Suffolk. Old news, but still of import.

It's presented by John Stalker, former Depurt Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police, who was forced out of his job amid much controversy after his investigation into the Royal Ulster Constabulary's "shoot-to-kill" policy in Northern Ireland.

He and his colleague come to the conclusion, throughout the docu, that Hilda was probably not murdered by agents of the security services, or freelancers working on behalf of the state or nuclear industry, but the actual evidence presented up to that point leaves you wondering how exactly they came to that conclusion.

....Ach, sorry. It's been removed. Probably just by the uploader, nothing sinister. Sorry again. It's an interesting case anyway - sort of like Britain's answer to Karen Silkwood - so here's an article about it instead by a notable lawyer (Queen's Counsel, no less).

http://www.theguardian.com/law/2012/mar ... da-murrell
"The universe is 40 billion light years across and every inch of it would kill you if you went there. That is the position of the universe with regard to human life."
User avatar
AhabsOtherLeg
 
Posts: 3285
Joined: Sun Dec 30, 2007 8:43 pm
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: "Suicides" and "accidents" - The official RI thread

Postby conniption » Sun Jul 06, 2014 7:37 am

wallstreetonparade

Profiteering on Banker Deaths: Regulator Says Public Has No Right to Details

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens
June 30, 2014


A man with a long history of keeping big bank secrets safe from the public’s prying eyes has denied the appeal filed by Wall Street On Parade to obtain specifics about the worker deaths upon which JPMorgan Chase pockets the life insurance money each year.

According to its financial filings, as of December 31, 2013, JPMorgan held $17.9 billion in Bank-Owned Life Insurance (BOLI) assets, a dark corner of the insurance market that allows banks to take out life insurance policies on their workers, secretly pocket the death benefits, and receive generous tax perks subsidized by the U.S. taxpayer. According to experts, JPMorgan could potentially hold upwards of $179 billion of life insurance in force on its current and former workers, based on the size of its BOLI assets.

The man who denied Wall Street On Parade’s appeal is Daniel P. Stipano, who told us by letter on June 20, 2014 that he had 450 pages of responsive material but it was not going to be released to us or the public. (See OCC Response to Appeal from Wall Street On Parade Re JPMorgan Banker Death Bets.)

Stipano is, by title, the Deputy Chief Counsel of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the U.S. regulator of national banks, including those that were at the center of the 2008 financial collapse, mortgage and foreclosure frauds, and which continue to violate the nation’s laws with regularity. According to Stipano’s current bio, he also functions as the supervisor of the OCC’s Enforcement and Compliance, Litigation, Community and Consumer Law, and Administrative and Internal Law Divisions. That’s a lot of hats for one man to wear at a regulator of serially malfeasant mega banks.

Stipano also appears to be the decider-in-chief when it comes to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to the OCC. He also functions as a key decision maker when it comes to denying documents to U.S. Senators to allow them to perform their oversight duties. (One would certainly think that a Federal regulator would establish an independent office to handle FOIA and Congressional information requests.)

Stipano is the man who played an outsized hand in the scandalous structure of the “Independent Foreclosure Review,” where the major Wall Street banks who had illegally foreclosed on families were allowed to hire their favorite, deeply conflicted consultants to review the foreclosure files for wrongdoing, set the terms of the consulting contracts and pay out $2 billion to the consultants before homeowners had received a dime — and a year had been wasted on bogus reviews.

The end result of that hubris, as Senator Elizabeth Warren revealed last year, was that the actual banks engaged in the illegal foreclosure activities, not the so-called Independent Foreclosure Review consultants, were allowed by the OCC to tally up and classify their own wrongdoing.

One of the “independent” consultants that the OCC rubber-stamped for hire by the banks was Promontory Financial Group. As Wall Street On Parade reported in April of last year:

“In the engagement letter dated September 6, 2011 between Bank of America and Promontory Financial Group, the ‘independent’ consultant it hired to conduct its foreclosure investigation, Promontory attested to regulators that: ‘Promontory does not have an ongoing relationship with BAC [Bank of America], nor does it act in any advocacy capacity on its behalf.’

“The veracity of that statement is severely undercut by public records. While it was denying any ongoing relationship to regulators, Promontory actually had a large scale re-branding and turnaround contract with Bank of America that had been in place since May of 2011, four months prior to its engagement letter to conduct a government investigation into the bank’s foreclosure abuses.”

There were two other interesting facts about Promontory: Stipano’s two former bosses were employed there: Eugene Ludwig, former head of the OCC and Julie Williams, former Chief Counsel at the OCC. Of the estimated $2 billion paid out to the “independent” consultants, Promontory received $928 million.

On April 11, 2013, Senator Elizabeth Warren had this to say to Stipano and a representative from the Federal Reserve at a Senate hearing on the Independent Foreclosure Review:

“Over the last few months, Congressman Elijah Cummings and I have requested documents from your agencies regarding the basic data and the processes of the Independent Foreclosure Review. We made 14 specific requests to you in January, and despite multiple letters back and forth and multiple meetings, you have provided only one full response, three partial or minimal responses, and no response to nine of our requests. You have provided little specific information on what the review actually found, such as the number of improper foreclosures, the amount and number of inflated fees, or the extent of abusive practices by each of the mortgage servicers.”

During the course of the hearing, Senator Warren became so frustrated with Stipano’s insistence that illegal activities of banks, if ferreted out by bank examiners, was subject to “privilege,” that she blurted out: “So unless someone throws a rock through the window with this information tied to it, you will not release it, is that what you are saying?”

Wall Street On Parade received the same fundamentally flawed logic in Stipano’s letter of June 20, 2014. Stipano writes:

“The OCC has no responsive records pertaining to the number of employees insured by JPMC under BOLI policies, the face amount of the policies, the rank of employees who are insured, or the number of deceased who have generated death benefits under the policies. The OCC does have documents provided by the bank to OCC examiners during examinations that are responsive to the aspects of your request dealing with revenues and peer data…As previously stated, all of this responsive information is properly exempt pursuant to FOIA exemptions 4 and 8.”

The absurdity of Stipano’s position rests in this paragraph:

“All of the information you requested was either provided by JPMC to the OCC or created by the OCC in the course of its examination of JPMC. Therefore, all of the responsive information is related to the OCC’s examination of JPMC and examination reports prepared by the OCC, and it is exempt from disclosure under the FOIA pursuant to Exemption 8. The application of Exemption 8 to the responsive materials promotes “frank cooperation” between JPMC and the OCC…”

Simple translation: JPMorgan Chase can be trusted to engage in “frank cooperation” with its regulators as long as the bank and the regulator keep the public in the dark about the details of corruption festering inside the bank.

Putting aside for the moment the public’s right to know if the same too-big-to-manage banks that ushered in the worst economic crash since the Great Depression in 2008 are gaming the system again, there is simply no basis at all to believe that JPMorgan Chase engages in “frank cooperation” with its U.S. regulators, regardless of how much is secreted away for them.

As Stipano well knows or should know, on October 28, 2008, JPMorgan turned in Bernie Madoff for potentially running a fraud, citing numerous alarm bells and calling his returns too good to be true. It filed its “Suspicious Activity Report” not with U.S. regulators but with the United Kingdom’s Serious Organized Crime Agency – leaving its U.S. regulators in the dark until Madoff confessed.

On March 15, 2013, when the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations released its report on how JPMorgan Chase had gambled and lost over $6 billion in depositor funds by making high-risk investments in exotic derivatives, the report specifically addressed how JPMorgan had kept the OCC in the dark and how the OCC had been blindsided:

“JPMorgan Chase dodged OCC oversight of its Synthetic Credit Portfolio [SCP] by not alerting the OCC to the nature and extent of the portfolio; failing to inform the OCC when the SCP grew tenfold in 2011 and tripled in 2012; omitting SCP specific data from routine reports sent to the OCC; omitting mention of the SCP’s growing size, complexity, risk profile, and losses; responding to OCC information requests with blanket assurances and unhelpful aggregate portfolio data; and initially denying portfolio valuation problems.

“The OCC failed to investigate CIO trading activity that triggered multiple, sustained risk limit breaches; tolerated bank reports that omitted portfolio-specific performance data from the CIO; failed to notice when some monthly CIO reports stopped arriving; failed to question a new VaR [Value at Risk] model that dramatically lowered the SCP’s risk profile; and initially accepted blanket assurances by the bank that concerns about the SCP were unfounded.”

Given this recent history between the OCC and JPMorgan Chase, the press has every right to demand and receive answers when we observe a vast, dark industry with ghoulish overtones going unregulated.

In our May 12, 2014 appeal to the OCC, we pointed out the following:

“Since December of 2013, JPMorgan Chase has experienced five unusual deaths among current workers in their 30s and one unusual death of a 28-year old former worker whose brother currently works for JPMorgan and was cited by name in the U.S. Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations’ report of JPMorgan’s London Whale trading debacle…

“Three of the six JPMorgan-related deaths cited in the article referenced above were allegedly from leaps from buildings in London, Hong Kong and Manhattan, respectively. None of JPMorgan’s peer banks — such as Citigroup, Morgan Stanley or Goldman Sachs – have publicly reported any suicides in the past six months as far as I’m aware. A 12-month review of public death notices among Citigroup employees revealed no cluster of deaths of young men in their 30s. (JPMorgan is reported to have 260,000 employees versus Citigroup’s reported 251,000.)…

“Why young men in their 30s are dying at JPMorgan but not at its peer banks is a matter of critical public health and safety concern. It is against public policy to keep the records secret. As the Chief Medical Examiner of Connecticut (where one of the deaths occurred) states on its web site: ‘Medicolegal investigations also protect the public health: by diagnosing previously unsuspected contagious disease; by identifying hazardous environmental conditions in the workplace, in the home, and elsewhere; by identifying trends such as changes in numbers of homicides, traffic fatalities, and drug and alcohol related deaths; and by identifying new types and forms of drugs appearing in the state, or existing drugs/substances becoming new subjects of abuse.’

“Additionally, research into this matter has revealed that just four of Wall Street’s largest banks hold a total of $68.1 billion in Bank-Own Life Insurance assets. Using a legal expert’s estimate that there is frequently a 10-to-1 ratio between assets and life insurance in force, this could potentially translate into these four banks holding $681 billion in life insurance policies on their workers – policies which pay the corporation the death benefit income tax free.”

Wall Street On Parade previously filed a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request with the New York State Insurance Department. Amazingly, it responded that it “does not have any of the records” for JPMorgan’s BOLI policies, a company headquartered in its state with tens of billions of life insurance policies on its workers. (See NYS Department of Financial Services/NYS Insurance Dept Response to Freedom of Information Law Request by Wall Street On Parade Seeking Information on Life Insurance Held by JPMorgan on Employees Lives.)

Perhaps New York State regulators do not even know this type of bank life insurance exists. In New York, nothing is really “official” until it appears in the Old Gray Lady. The New York Times made BOLI official just recently, on June 23, 2014, with an article by David Gelles.

Two days after Gelles’ article, Teresa Tritch continued the topic on the New York Times editorial page editor’s blog, writing: “It’s not illegal, but it’s dubious in the extreme.” Tritch goes on to state that “At the very least, there needs to be better disclosure” since it is the public that is subsidizing the generous tax breaks on the policies. (Both the death benefit as well as the cash buildup in the policies are received tax free to the corporation. If the policy were to be cashed in prior to the death of the insured, back taxes on the gains would have to be paid.)

If the OCC has no records pertaining to the number of employees insured by JPMorgan under BOLI policies; has no idea as to the face amount of the policies or the rank of employees who are insured, then it cannot possibly know if JPMorgan is complying with the 2006 law that limits this insurance to just the highest-paid 35 percent of employees. If the OCC does not know “the number of deceased who have generated death benefits under the policies,” it could not possibly spot a pattern of suspicious deaths. (Given its obfuscation with the Senate during the Independent Foreclosure Review matter, is there any reason to believe it would bring troublesome findings to the attention of Congress under any circumstances?)

If the OCC is in the dark about much of this insurance and the key insurance regulator in New York State is as well, who exactly is regulating this vast dark area of tax-subsidized death profiteering?

We suspect Wall Street’s powerful lobbyists have imposed this dark curtain because BOLI is exempt from the Volcker Rule – these insurance assets can, and are, remaining under bank control and invested in high-risk instruments as proprietary bets for the house – essentially repealing the Volcker Rule and potentially laying the foundation for the next Wall Street blow up.

The OCC says that it does have documents provided by JPMorgan “that are responsive” to the revenues JPMorgan receives from BOLI policies,” but it says those are privileged as well. This is akin to telling the public, whose pensions and 401(k) mutual funds are holding millions of shares of JPMorgan Chase stock, that it’s none of your business how JPMorgan Chase generates its revenues. According to OCC thinking, shareholders are not entitled to know to what extent the business model of this mega global behemoth is built around providing prudent consumer and business loans or is built around tax dodges and longevity bets on the lives of its workers.

Given the financial crash of 2008, the Bernie Madoff decades long Ponzi scheme, the decidedly not “independent” Independent Foreclosure Review, and the London Whale debacle, regulators have not earned the right to tell the public “just trust us.”

Related articles:

Banking Deaths: Why JPMorgan Stands Out

Suspicious Deaths of Bankers Are Now Classified as “Trade Secrets” by Federal Regulator

Swiss Insurers and JPMorgan Have More Than “Suicides” in Common

JPMorgan Vice President’s Death in London Shines a Light on the Bank’s Close Ties to the CIA

Suspicious Death of JPMorgan Vice President, Gabriel Magee, Under Investigation in London

As Bank Deaths Continue to Shock, Documents Reveal JPMorgan Has Been Patenting Death Derivatives
conniption
 
Posts: 2480
Joined: Sun Nov 11, 2012 10:01 pm
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: "Suicides" and "accidents" - The official RI thread

Postby 82_28 » Sat Jul 12, 2014 9:48 pm

Marion Zioncheck was assassinated and the reason I haven't brought this up sooner is that I couldn't find my research due to my old laptop getting "assassinated".

I still have no access. Anyhow, this must be brought up.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marion_Zioncheck

In my research I discovered that his "suicide" coincided with a major right wing convention. I've spoken to the SPD about this and one guy is actually interested. But it is totally an assassination. Sure, happened in the 30's. But if you delete the Internet and go with the Seattle Times as being where you got your info way back then, it was clear to me that it was not a suicide. He also was taken "care of". I will see if I can find my research. In fact, me and Twyla went down there together. I even went to his nephew's store to enquire about this. It remains "hush hush".

His death, all told, was surrounded by a right wing convention. You gotta go a week out and a week up around this kind of shit. He was an enemy of the right. Aaaand just decided to throw himself out a window during a city wide right-wing convention. Sure.
There is no me. There is no you. There is all. There is no you. There is no me. And that is all. A profound acceptance of an enormous pageantry. A haunting certainty that the unifying principle of this universe is love. -- Propagandhi
User avatar
82_28
 
Posts: 11194
Joined: Fri Nov 30, 2007 4:34 am
Location: North of Queen Anne
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: "Suicides" and "accidents" - The official RI thread

Postby cptmarginal » Wed Aug 20, 2014 1:38 am

ISGP came back - no more need for the Wayback Machine as of now :)

https://wikispooks.com/ISGP/death_list/ ... h_list.htm

400 potential government assassinations: Plane crashes, suicides, murders and cases of "erotic asphyxiation" that need additional investigation

Author: Joël van der Reijden | Original: October 12, 2013 | Last update: July 29, 2014


Looking curiously at some of the other new material there as well:

World history in timelines: The basics of human history every person should know
Art Bell and Coast to Coast AM: Cult of national security trolls
cptmarginal
 
Posts: 2741
Joined: Tue Apr 10, 2007 8:32 pm
Location: Gordita Beach
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: "Suicides" and "accidents" - The official RI thread

Postby seemslikeadream » Wed Aug 20, 2014 8:23 pm

Head of Guatemalan Military Dies in Chopper Crash
GUATEMALA CITY — Aug 20, 2014, 5:32 PM ET
Associated Press
The head of the Guatemalan military's joint chiefs of staff died in a helicopter crash Wednesday near the border with Mexico.

Interior Secretary Mauricio Lopez said Gen. Rudy Ortiz was killed along with four other military officers when the helicopter went down in a mountainous area of the western province of Huehuetenango.

Lopez identified one of the other victims as Gen. Braulio Mayen, commander of the army's 5th Brigade.

Ortiz, 51, and the others were flying in a Bell 206 helicopter to the village of Ixquisis, where the two generals were going to check on troops, Lopez said.

"They couldn't land in Ixquisis and instead decided to go to the military base in Las Palmas and in that trajectory the helicopter crashed," Lopez said.

The accident happened in a wooded area that is difficult to reach, he said.

The helicopter belonged to Guatemala's the air force and was in good condition, Lopez said.

Huehuetenango is along drug trafficking routes where Mexican and Guatemalan drug cartels are active. Lopez declined to comment on whether foul play was suspected. He said he wouldn't speculate on a cause for the crash and would wait for a report on the investigation.

Ortiz was a 32-year veteran of the army who was in charge of all military operations as well as the army's national and international relations. He planned to retire next year.

President Otto Perez Molina, a retired general, sent his condolences to Ortiz's family on his Twitter account, calling Ortiz's loss "a tragic death."
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
User avatar
seemslikeadream
 
Posts: 32090
Joined: Wed Apr 27, 2005 11:28 pm
Location: into the black
Blog: View Blog (83)

Re: "Suicides" and "accidents" - The official RI thread

Postby Nordic » Wed Aug 20, 2014 8:52 pm

I put this in the thread about the Pope but it belongs here as well:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-28853002

Pope's Relatives Die in Road Accident

And suddenly he's in support of "humanitarian bombings" in Iraq.
"He who wounds the ecosphere literally wounds God" -- Philip K. Dick
Nordic
 
Posts: 14230
Joined: Fri Nov 10, 2006 3:36 am
Location: California USA
Blog: View Blog (6)

Re: "Suicides" and "accidents" - The official RI thread

Postby stefano » Wed Oct 22, 2014 6:26 am

Bumping per a suggestion of Perelandra's to bring in the death of Christophe de Margerie.

So, goodbye then, Christophe de Margerie. Big man in the French military-industrial complex, and comes from old money. Outspoken supporter of good relations between Russia and Western Europe, which can't have been to the liking of the Atlanticists (let's call them). His main worry is falling oil prices when he visits Russia, the top oil-producing country in the world. May have been delegated to bring up the subject of the Mistral-class helicopter carrier that France is holding back from delivering to Russia because of the unpleasantness in the Ukraine. Dies in a freak accident.

Total oil CEO Christophe de Margerie killed in Moscow plane crash

Head of oil giant and three crew died when private jet hit snowplough during takeoff, say Russian sources

theguardian.com, Tuesday 21 October 2014 06.28 BST

The chief executive of the French oil company Total, Christophe de Margerie, was killed when a private jet collided with a snow plough at Moscow’s Vnukovo international airport on Monday night.

Image

“Tonight a plane crashed when it collided with a snow-clearing machine,” said airport spokeswoman Elena Krylova. “Three crew members and a passenger died. I can confirm that the passenger was Total’s head De Margerie.”

The oil company said in a statement: “Total confirms with deep regret and great sadness that chairman and CEO Christophe de Margerie died just after 10pm (Paris time) on October 20 in a private plane crash at Vnukovo airport in Moscow, following a collision with a snow removal machine.”

The collision occurred just before midnight as the Dassault Falcon business jet attempted to take off bound for Paris.

De Margerie, 63, was on a list of attendees at a Russian government meeting on foreign investment in Gorki, near Moscow, on Monday. Hours before his death he had met the Russian prime minister, Dmitry Medvedev, at his country residence outside Moscow to discuss foreign investment in Russia, the Vedomosti business daily reported.

The Vnukovo airport said in a statement that the Falcon Dassault business aviation jet crashed as it prepared to take off for Paris with one passenger and three crew on board. “During run-up at 11.57pm there was a collision with the airport’s snow plough. As a result of the crash the passenger and all the crew members died.”

The airport said that visibility was at 350 metres at the time of the accident. Moscow saw its first snowfall of the winter on Monday. A fire broke out after the crash and was extinguished by airport firefighters.

Moscow transport investigators said they had opened a criminal probe into breaches of aviation safety rules causing multiple deaths through negligence. French authorities would be invited to take part. The plane’s black boxes had been removed for examination.

The airport was closed temporarily to clear up the scene of the accident but resumed normal operations at 1.30am.

With his distinctive bushy moustache and outspoken manner he was one of the most recognisable figures among the world’s top oil executives.

De Margerie, a graduate of the Ecole Superieure de Commerce in Paris, became chief executive officer of Total in February 2007, taking on the additional role of chairman in May 2010, after previously running its exploration and production division.

De Margerie said in July that he should be judged based on new projects launched under his watch, such as a string of African fields, and that Total would seek a successor from within the company rather than an outsider. Philippe Boisseau, head of Total’s new energy division, and Patrick Pouyanne, who was tasked with reducing the group’s exposure to unprofitable European refining sectors, have long been seen as potential heirs.

A staunch defender of Russia and its energy policies amid the conflict in Ukraine, De Margerie told Reuters in a July interview that Europe should stop thinking about cutting its dependence on Russian gas and focus instead on making those deliveries safer.

He said tensions between the west and Russia were pushing Moscow closer to China, as illustrated by a $400bn deal to supply Beijing with gas that was clinched in May.

“Are we going to build a new Berlin Wall?” he said. “Russia is a partner and we shouldn’t waste time protecting ourselves from a neighbour … What we are looking to do is not to be too dependent on any country, no matter which. Not from Russia, which has saved us on numerous occasions.”


Total is one of the major oil companies most exposed to Russia, where its output will double to represent more than a tenth of its global portfolio by 2020.

Total is one of the top foreign investors in Russia but its future there grew cloudy after the 17 July downing of a Malaysian passenger airliner over Ukrainian territory held by pro-Russian rebels. The disaster worsened the oil-rich country’s relations with the west and raised the threat of deeper sanctions.

Total said in September that sanctions would not stop it working on the Yamal project, a $27bn joint venture investment to tap vast natural gas reserves in north-west Siberia that aims to double Russia’s stake in the fast-growing market for liquefied natural gas.

De Margerie said then that Europe could not live without Russian gas, adding that there was no reason to do so
.

Total is the fourth largest by market value of the western world’s top oil companies behind Exxon, Royal Dutch Shell and Chevron. Russia accounted for about 9% of Total’s oil and gas output in 2013.

The oil company had forecast in April that Russia would become its biggest source of oil and gas by 2020 due to its partnership with the Russian energy company Novatek and the Yamal project.

Total SA is France’s second-biggest listed company with a market value of €102bn.

Like other big oil companies Total has been under pressure from shareholders to cut costs and raise dividends as rising costs in the industry and weaker oil prices squeeze profitability.

De Margerie was the son of diplomats and business leaders, and the grandson of Pierre Taittinger, founder of Taittinger champagne and the luxury goods dynasty.

“His death is a big loss for the global oil/gas industry,” said Gordon Kwan, head of Asia-Pacific oil and gas research at the financial company Nomura.


zangtang » Tue Oct 21, 2014 11:03 am wrote:those that were recently discussing ploughing* thru 'the prize' no doubt thinking of
semi-similarities to 'unsolved' mysterious death of Enrico Mattei, ceo ENI,
one man post-war Italian reconstruction superstar,1962


* absolutely no pun intended, strangely the most appropriate word, someone commented the book was 'hard work!'


Mattei's death is indeed a very interesting one:

According to a draft judicial report leaked to the newspaper La Stampa [in 1997], there now seems to be definitive proof that Enrico Mattei, founding president of Italy's state energy giant Eni, was killed in 1962 by a bomb on board his private aircraft and not, as previously asserted, as a result of a simple accident.

The latest autopsy on Mr Mattei's body has, according to the report, shown "clear signs of multiple lesions caused by waves from an explosion". Investigators in the so-called Mattei Affair, which has obsessed Italy for years and was the subject of an award-winning film by Francesco Rosi in the 1970s, can now concentrate on the even more beguiling questions of who ordered the killing, and why.

Enrico Mattei was a troubling figure for many reasons. He single-handedly built up Italy's state-owned energy sector, to the fury of Italy's Cold War allies who wanted their private companies to be able to exploit the country's oil and natural gas reserves. He forged alliances with Middle Eastern clients of the Soviet Union, gazumped the multinational oil giants by offering better terms for distribution rights, and followed a rigorous price-fixing policy intended to keep petrol and fuel cheap for Italian consumers.

Moreover, Mr Mattei both worked the Italian political system to perfection and also considered himself above it; he once said that he used parties like taxis, "paying what it takes to get where I want to go". He also acted as a one-man ambassador for his country, in particular laying the groundwork for Italy's later policy of clientelistic diplomacy in the Middle East regardless of ethical or geopolitical considerations.

His enemies were legion. The US National Security Council described him as an irritation and an obstacle in a classified report from 1958. The French could not forgive him for doing business with the pro-independence movement in Algeria. Responsibility for his death has been laid at the door of everyone from the CIA, to the French extreme-nationalist group, the OAS, to the Sicilian Mafia.

A defence ministry report five months after his death, which was approved by the then minister Giulio Andreotti, concluded that the aircraft had exploded on the ground a few miles short of Milan's Linate airport, not in the air.

Later inquiries were shelved in 1966 and 1974. A journalist who dug into the affair, Mauro Di Mauro, ended up himself dying in mysterious circumstances. Finally, with the Cold War over, the Mafia informer Tommaso Buscetta announced three years ago that Mr Mattei had been killed by Cosa Nostra as a favour to its friends in the US business community. That statement triggered the latest inquiry, including the exhumation of Mr Mattei's corpse.
User avatar
stefano
 
Posts: 2672
Joined: Mon Apr 21, 2008 1:50 pm
Blog: View Blog (0)

PreviousNext

Return to L'Encyclopedie

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest