Citigroup Avoided Paying $11.5 Billion In Taxes Thanks To Tax Shelters

In 2008, Citigroup was an ailing financial giant on the verge of collapse, an event only averted, most economists agree, by a huge emergency infusion of taxpayer money.

Yet when it came time to share the spoils of its return to good fortune with the U.S. government, the bank was not so generous. Over the next four years, Citigroup aggressively moved to make use of shelters in order to shield its earnings from U.S. taxation, doubling the amount of money it held offshore, according to a new report by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, a nonprofit that advocates for corporate tax reform.

Citigroup is hardly alone in shifting profits to places like the Cayman Islands as a way to lower a tax bill. According to the report, 82 of the top 100 largest publicly traded companies as measured…

Bank clears out home mistaken for a foreclosure

What happens when a bank cleans out the wrong property, mistaking a person’s home for a new foreclosure?

This is the scenario that a woman in McArthur, Ohio, found herself in when First National Bank in Wellston mistook her property for a foreclosure across the street, ABC reports.

The bank cleared out her belongings and then asked for receipts, so the bank could reimburse the homeowner.

ABC News has more on the story:  

Katie Barnett, 36, a nurse, said her family had left for about two weeks last month and returned to find the locks on their home had changed and many of their belongings had been taken.

“We called the cops and they said they thought it was a squatter,” she said.

Two dressers and clothing for her five children were taken, as well as items from outside their home…

Guy Walks Into Citigroup Branch, Loses $40,000

If the senators are going to persuade Congress to bring back Glass-Steagall, they should show examples of real, sympathetic people. This brings me to the story of Philip L. Ramatlhware, an immigrant from Botswana who went to a Citigroup Inc. (C) branch in downtown Philadelphia one day five years ago to open a regular bank account.

He was 48 years old at the time and disabled, after being hurt in an accident as a passenger on a Greyhound bus. His English wasn’t good, he had no college education and his last job had been at a fast-food kiosk at the Philadelphia airport. In April 2008, he received $225,000 in a settlement for his injuries, part of which went to pay legal fees. He was holding the settlement check when he walked into the branch.

Arbitration Claim

Immediately he was referred to a…

Denver foreclosure attorney forced to answer AG’s subpoena for billing records

With a handful of foreclosure lawyers listening intently from the back of the courtroom, a Denver District Court judge Thursday ordered one of their colleagues to comply with a state investigation into their billing practices — after denying efforts to close the case from the public.

Judge Edward Bronfin said lawyer Robert Hopp Jr. must gather the paperwork subpoenaed by Attorney General John Suthers’ office in its investigation of lawyers specializing in foreclosures and provide it within 60 days.

Before that, Bronfin denied Hopp’s request to keep the case from the public, saying the investigation had an “overriding public interest” that superseded Hopp’s privacy rights.

Hopp had complied somewhat with attorney general subpoenas issued months ago but has held back some of the most critical documents investigators said they need to determine whether the lawyer was padding his bills…

NBC Censors Video of Elizabeth Warren Taking CNBC to the Woodshed

Last last week, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) delivered a masterful defense of her proposed update to the bank-regulating Glass-Steagall Act on CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” effectively shutting down co-anchor Brian Sullivan’s claim that government can’t do anything to rein in financial risk.

A clip of the interview went viral earlier this week after it was posted on Sen. Warren’s official YouTube account, amassing some 700,000 views in a matter of days.

And that’s when NBC Universal decided to have it removed.

Here’s a transcript of Sen. Warren’s remarks, courtesy of AmericaBlog:

ELIZABETH WARREN: From 1797 to 1933, the American banking system crashed about every 15 years. In 1933, we put good reforms in place, for which Glass-Steagall was the centerpiece, and from 1933 to the early 1980s, that’s a 50 year period, we didn’t have any…