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WikiLeaks Has the Goods on Bank of America, So Bank of America Helps to Try and Shut It Down
STEPHEN PIZZO FOR BUZZFLASH
You know, some days the news writes this column itself. This is one of days. Bank of America announced yesterday that it would stop processing transactions related to WikiLeaks. Why? Well, of course, because BofA doesn't want to be part of illegal activity, that's why. Well, unless they're getting a cut, that is. In the case at hand, they are not only not getting a cut, but are about to be cut and by WikiLeaks itself. Accounting to numerous knowledgable sources, WikiLeaks is sitting on a pile of BofA internal documents showing the bank may have been the biggest banking racketeering enterprise since BCCI.
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange revealed that his whistleblower website intends to publish a trove of secret documents exposing the corruption of a major American bank. "At the moment, for example, we are sitting on 5GB from Bank of America, one of the executive's hard drives," Assange told the technology site Computer World in an article published on October 9, 2009.
Now, I'm not saying that BofA's decision to try to starve WikiLeaks of cash to prevent them from being able to make those documents public. I mean, that would cynical. But, from what is already known about BofA's part in the mortgage scams that played a key role in throwing the US economy into a near-depression, well, one could be cynical about the bank's motives.
Then there is the issue of states suing Bank of America for mortgage fraud. According to the New York Times:
In withering complaints filed in state courts in both states, the attorneys general accused Bank of America of assuring customers that they would not be foreclosed upon while they were seeking loan modifications, only to proceed with foreclosures anyway; of falsely telling customers that they must be in default to obtain a modification; of promising that the modifications would be made permanent if they completed a trial period, only to renege on the deal; and of conjuring up bogus reasons for denying modifications.
"Bank of America's callous disregard for providing timely, correct information to people in their time of need is truly egregious," Catherine Cortez Masto, the attorney general of Nevada said in a statement.
Just as a side note, this behavior by BofA stands in stark contrast to the what the bank's founder, Amadeo Giannini, did during the last Great Depression when homeowners fell behind in the mortgage payments. Giannini told them to pay what they could and to at least make the interest portion of their payment. That move alone saved the homes of tens of thousands of San Franciscans, including my immigrant grand parents.
Todays leaders at the bank turned Giannini's actions on its head. Instead of helping home owners, BofA pocketed $37 billion of the $45 billion in federal bailout funds then led delinquent borrows straight to the slaughterhouse.
What we have here, when you take in the whole landscape, is Bank of America and the US Justice Dept. on the same side. Both want WikiLeaks shut down and shut up -- and both for the same reason -- WikiLeaks is giving average folk a rare peek into exactly what these two giants are up to.
And now that we've seen some of their documents, we can see why they want WikiLeaks out of business, and out of mind.
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