For a start, there is no such thing as a 'bogus' or 'illegal' asylum seeker, no more than there is a bogus or illegal mortgage seeker.
While the emoluments clause does not apply to payments to Deutsche Bank, there is a major potential conflict because the bank is facing a multibillion-dollar settlement with the Department of Justice over its illegal mortgage practices.
He also owes hundreds of millions in debt to Deutsche Bank, a private German bank that is currently in settlement talks with the Department of Justice over its illegal mortgage abuses.
Every year in the United States, criminals amass hundreds of billions of dollars in cash and goods from illegal activities — mortgage fraud, extortion, embezzlement, illegal gambling, bank fraud, public corruption, human trafficking, identity theft, securities violations, insurance fraud, intellectual property piracy and bankruptcy fraud — though it's impossible to gauge the total take precisely.
Besides the Madoff allegations and the Alabama corruption case, there were also allegedly illegal and/or improper mortgage filings by untrained "Burger King kids," one of the legal problems that has led Chase to set aside $2.3 billion for mortgage repurchases and litigation settlements.
(Her agreement with Caughern predated federal rules that took effect in January, making it illegal for most mortgage-relief firms to collect advance fees to negotiate modifications).
These corporations get to veto any law that would eat into their short-term profits, like a freeze on kicking Americans out of their homes while the banks' dodgy and probably illegal boom-time mortgages contracts are clarified, or a transition away from climate-destabilising oil and coal.
At the AG event, demonstrators accused banks of committing widespread fraud, citing a broad array of abuses: evicting people who had already paid off their mortgage, charging illegal fees and illegally inflating home appraisals, among others.
Still, authorities continue to field questions about why they are not bringing criminal charges against bank executives and others who may have engaged in illegal practices during the mortgage boom.
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My October 2010 letter discussed the new mortgage crisis (illegal foreclosures) as likely to have a serious impact on the banks.
