Former Federal Reserve Employee Avoids Prison, Gets Fine for Stealing NY Fed Doc

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Ex-employee of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York Jason Gross, exits the Manhattan U.S. District Courthouse in New York November 4, 2015.
Reuters/Brendan McDermid

Business | Wed Mar 16, 2016 11:17am EDT
Ex-New York Fed employee avoids prison for Goldman Sachs leaks
NEW YORK | By Nate Raymond
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-goldman-sachs-fed-crime-idUSKCN0WI24Q

"A former Federal Reserve Bank of New York employee was spared prison on
   Wednesday, disappointing prosecutors who said his leaking of
   confidential documents to a friend at Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N)
   justified time behind bars.
   
   Jason Gross, 37, was fined $2,000 by U.S. Magistrate Judge Gabriel
   Gorenstein in Manhattan and sentenced to a year of probation with 200
   hours of community service after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor
   charge of theft of government property.
   
   Prosecutors had sought six to 12 months in prison for Gross, who in
   November admitted to providing confidential information to Rohit
   Bansal, his former supervisor at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York
   who had left to work at Goldman Sachs.
   
   But while Gorenstein said Gross had abused the position of trust he had
   at the New York Fed, his conviction coupled with the loss of a career
   had already sent "a powerful message to others."
   
   The case highlighted the so-called revolving door on Wall Street, in
   which regulators take new jobs at the banks they formerly oversaw.
   
   The charges were announced after Goldman Sachs agreed in October to a
   related $50 million settlement with the New York Department of
   Financial Services.
   
   According to prosecutors and New York regulators, Bansal obtained
   numerous documents from Gross after joining Goldman Sachs in July 2014.
   
   Those documents included some pertaining to examinations of a bank that
   Goldman was advising about a potential transaction, regulators said.
   
   Bansal shared some of the documents with others at Goldman, regulators
   and prosecutors said, telling them in at least one instance, "Please
   don't distribute."
   
   In court, Bruce Barket, Gross's lawyer, said Gross in providing Bansal
   the documents thought he was doing a favor for a friend who had already
   seen them and even created some.
   
   "I don't think he thought much of it," Barket said.
   
   Goldman has said that after discovering Bansal obtained the
   confidential supervisory information, it notified regulators and fired
   him and a more senior employee who failed to take further action. The
   New York Fed also fired Gross.
   
   Bansal pleaded guilty in November to theft of government property. He
   is scheduled to be sentenced on Tuesday.
   
   The case is U.S. v. Gross, U.S. District Court, Southern District of
   New York, No. 15-cr-00766.
   
   (Reporting by Nate Raymond in New York; editing by Grant McCool)"


Former Fed Employee Avoids Jail, Gets $2,000 Fine For Stealing Fed Secrets On Behalf Of Goldman Sachs
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 03/16/2016 15:20 -0400
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-03-16/former-ny-fed-employee-avoids-jail-gets-2000-fine-stealing-fed-secrets-behalf-goldma

  "One of the biggest scandals at the end of 2014 was the dramatic
   confirmation courtesy of 48 hours of declassified tapes by former NY
   Fed staffer Carmen Segarra that not only Goldman Sachs controls the New
   York Fed (headed by former Goldman managing director Bill Dudley), but
   that disturbingly one of Goldman Sachs' then-employees, former NY Fed
   regulator, then 29-year old Rohit Bansal was routinely being provided
   with confidential NY Fed documents.
   
   As the NYT reported then, "from his desk in Lower Manhattan, a banker
   at Goldman Sachs thumbed through confidential documents — courtesy of a
   source inside the United States government. The banker came to Goldman
   through the so-called revolving door, the symbolic portal that connects
   financial regulators to Wall Street. He joined in July after spending
   seven years as a regulator at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the
   government's front line in overseeing the financial industry. He
   received the confidential information, lawyers briefed on the matter
   suspect, from a former colleague who was still working at the New York
   Fed."
   
   The "colleague", and source of the stolen information, was another NY
   Fed employee, Jason Gross, whose official role was "bank examiner"
   ("bank leaker" would have been more appropriate).
   
   
   
   Prior to joining the Fed, had had worked as a private CPA for two and a
   half years, and prior to that at Deutsche Bank for 4 years as a
   controller according to his LinkedIn profile we captured at the time.
   
   
   
   And while both Bansal and Gross lost their jobs, we very much doubted
   any material consequence would befall the two conspirators for engaging
   in activity which would have led to lenghty prison fines for any other
   "mere mortal." Back in November 2014, we concluded our post on this
   story as follows:
   
      Will anything change? Of course not. After all it is Goldman that
      runs the United States of America. Expect this latest scandal to be
      swept under the rug within days.
   
   The scandal was indeed swept under the rug virtually overnight and
   there was just one loose end: what would be the fate of Mr. Gross who
   was "sharing" top secret Fed information with Goldman Sachs,
   specifically would he end up in prison.
   
   We now have the answer.
   
   As Reuters reports, Jason Gross was the latest former banker to make a
   mockery of the US judicial system when he was spared prison on
   Wednesday, "disappointing prosecutors who said his leaking of
   confidential documents to a friend at Goldman Sachs Group justified
   time behind bars."
   
   Instead Gross, 37, was fined $2,000 by U.S. Magistrate Judge Gabriel
   Gorenstein in Manhattan and sentenced to a year of probation with 200
   hours of community service after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor
   charge of theft of government property.
   
   Prosecutors had sought six to 12 months in prison for Gross, who in
   November admitted to providing confidential information to Rohit
   Bansal, his former supervisor at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York
   who had left to work at Goldman Sachs.
   
   According to Judge Gorenstein getting away with just a fine and some
   community service had already sent "a powerful message to others."
   
   The message for those unaware, is that go ahead and steal Fed data and
   share with whatever bank you want, and if you are caught not only will
   you not go to prison and may a token fee, but once absolved of all
   evil, that same bank will most likely hire you to "compensate" you for
   your troubles.
   
   In court, Bruce Barket, Gross's lawyer, said Gross in providing Bansal
   the documents thought he was doing a favor for a friend who had already
   seen them and even created some. "I don't think he thought much of it,"
   Barket said. Or perhaps he thought just enough of it, hoping that he
   too would land a lucrative career at Goldman in exchange for his crime.
   
   Goldman has said that after discovering Bansal obtained the
   confidential supervisory information, it notified regulators and fired
   him and a more senior employee who failed to take further action. The
   New York Fed also fired Gross.
   
   As for the other co-conspirator, Bansal, who also pleaded guilty in
   November to theft of government property, he is scheduled to be
   sentenced on Tuesday. We expect he too will avoid prison time. "


Former Goldman Employee Avoids Prison, Gets $5,000 Fine For Stealing Secret NY Fed Documents
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 03/22/2016 17:47 -0400
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-03-22/former-goldman-employee-avoids-prison-gets-5000-fine-stealing-secret-ny-fed-document

  "One week ago we were stunned to learn, and report, that as part of the
   "sentencing" of former NY Fed employee Jason Gross who had admitted to
   stealing confidential Federal Reserve information and passing it on to
   his former boss Rohit Bansal, then employed at Goldman Sachs, in hopes
   of generating goodwill and a comfortable post-Fed job at 200 West, he
   somehow managed to avoid any jail time and instead was slapped with a
   draconian penalty: a $2,000 fine.... oh and some community service.
   
   
   Jason Gross
   
   The sentencing judge, U.S. Magistrate Judge Gabriel Gorenstein,
   explained his ludicrous decision by saying his treatment of Gross sent
   "a powerful message to others." Right - a message that if you steal
   from the Fed and hand over the information to a potential future
   employer, you will never go to prison but instead will pay a token fine
   and dig some trenches. And that's if you get caught.
   
   While we were disgusted with the lack of justice for Gross, we knew we
   would be even more disgusted once his co-conspirator, former NY Fed and
   Goldman employee, Rohit Bansal, was sentenced earlier today. We said
   that "as for Bansal, who also pleaded guilty in November to theft of
   government property, he is scheduled to be sentenced on Tuesday. We
   expect he too will avoid prison time."
   
   This, too, turned out to be 100% correct.
   
   As we predicted one week ago, and as Bloomberg reported moments ago,
   Rohit Bansal avoided prison time, and instead was sentenced to two
   years' probation after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor. U.S. District
   Judge Gabriel Gorenstein at a sentencing hearing in Manhattan also
   ordered Bansal to perform 300 hours of community service and pay a
   $5,000 fine.
   
      Rohit Bansal, who prosecutors said should get as long as a year in
      prison, pleaded guilty last year to obtaining about 35 documents on
      about 20 occasions from his friend Jason Gross, who was employed at
      the New York Fed, according to a settlement last year between New
      York-based Goldman Sachs and the New York Department of Financial
      Services.
   
   How did both former NY Fed employees avoid spending even one day in
   prison between them? "Bansal asked that he be sentenced to no prison
   saying he'd made "significant" efforts to make up for his misconduct by
   agreeing to help regulators and the government when first approached by
   authorities. He also said he continued to cooperate with the Board of
   Governors of the Federal Reserve system in its related independent
   investigation."
   
   So... he settled, just as his NY Fed leaker Jason Gross did, and the
   outcome was... no prison time for both of them! Just how is this
   considered equitable justice, or a quid-pro-quo by the US government is
   not clear, because ultimately the only "punishment" for both of them
   was some pocket change and hanging out in the open air, planting trees.
   
   As a reminder, Bansal worked at Goldman Sachs from July 2014 until
   October 2014 where he provided advice on regulatory issues to bank
   clients, including banks supervised by the New York Fed. Prior to
   joining Goldman, Bansal worked at the Fed from about August 2007 to
   March 2014.
   
   As for Goldman, it itself agreed to pay a $50 million fine and accepted
   a three-year ban on some advisory work in New York as part of a
   settlement with the state regulator. The bank admitted it failed to
   properly supervise the employee. What it really admitted to was knowing
   full well it was receiving stolen NY Fed information and thus enriching
   itself illegally. Which, for the biggest hedge fund incubator of
   central bankers is nothing new.
   
   As is nothing new the final tally of corrupt, criminal bankers who are
   going to prison as a result of this grotesque crime: zero."

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William C. Dudley, president of the New York Fed, says, "I don't think anyone should question our motives."Credit Richard Drew/Associated Press
Investment Banking | Legal/Regulatory   
New Scrutiny of Goldman's Ties to the New York Fed After a Leak
By Jessica Silver-Greenberg , Ben Protess and Peter Eavis November 19, 2014 9:10 pm
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/11/19/rising-scrutiny-as-banks-hire-from-the-fed/?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=1
218 comments

   From his desk in Lower Manhattan, a banker at Goldman Sachs thumbed
   through confidential documents — courtesy of a source inside the United
   States government.
   
   The banker came to Goldman through the so-called revolving door, the
   symbolic portal that connects financial regulators to Wall Street. He
   joined in July after spending seven years as a regulator at the Federal
   Reserve Bank of New York, the government's front line in overseeing the
   financial industry. He received the confidential information, lawyers
   briefed on the matter suspect, from a former colleague who was still
   working at the New York Fed.
   
   The previously unreported leak, recounted in interviews with the
   lawyers briefed on the matter who spoke anonymously because the episode
   is not public, illustrates the blurred lines between Wall Street and
   the government — and the potential conflicts of interest that can
   result. When Goldman hired the former New York Fed regulator, who is
   29, it assigned him to advise the same type of banks that he once
   policed. And the banker obtained confidential information, along with
   several publicly available facts, in the course of assignments from his
   bosses at Goldman, the lawyers said.
   
   The information provided Goldman a window into the New York Fed's
   private insights, the lawyers said, including details about at least
   one of Goldman's clients, a midsize bank regulated by the Fed. Although
   it is unclear how Goldman bankers used the information, if at all, the
   confidential details could have helped them advise the client.
   
   
   Carmen Segarra is a plaintiff in a lawsuit that claims that the Federal
   Reserve fired her after she taped conversations suggesting that the Fed
   went soft on Goldman Sachs.Credit Earl Wilson/The New York Times
   
   The emergence of the leak comes as questions mount about a perceived
   coziness between the New York Fed and Wall Street banks — Goldman in
   particular. Revelations from a former New York Fed employee, Carmen
   Segarra, recently stoked that debate. Ms. Segarra released taped
   conversations suggesting that her supervisors went soft on Goldman,
   specifically over a deal that one regulator called "legal, but shady."
   Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio, a senior Democrat on the Senate Banking
   Committee, plans to hold a hearing on Friday about Ms. Segarra's
   accusations.
   
   On the same day in September that ProPublica and the radio program
   "This American Life" released excerpts from Ms. Segarra's tapes,
   Goldman stopped the unrelated leak of confidential New York Fed
   records. Although it is unclear whether the Goldman banker or the New
   York Fed employee knew that sharing such information was inappropriate
   — and federal rules are somewhat vague about what records are
   confidential — Goldman promptly fired the banker. The bank also fired
   one of his supervisors, saying he should have caught the leak. The New
   York Fed then fired the employee it suspected of sharing the
   information.
   
   
   
   In response to the revelations, a spokesman for Goldman issued a
   statement to The New York Times saying that it was "reviewing our
   policies regarding any hiring from governmental institutions to ensure
   that they are appropriately effective and robust." The spokesman,
   Michael DuVally, noted that "upon discovering that a new junior
   employee had obtained confidential supervisory information from his
   former employer, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, we immediately
   began an investigation and notified the appropriate regulators,
   including the Federal Reserve." He added that Goldman has "zero
   tolerance for improper handling of confidential information."
   
   Similarly, the New York Fed said in a statement that it has "zero
   tolerance" for employees who do not safeguard confidential information.
   The statement added that "we have detailed rules and controls
   protecting confidential information" and require employees to receive
   training on handling the information. But the statement acknowledged:
   "We also know that we are not perfect, that information today is more
   difficult to safeguard, and we are resolute to learn from our
   experiences."
   
   Soon after Goldman detected the leak, the bank and the Fed alerted
   authorities, which opened preliminary investigations, according to the
   lawyers briefed on the matter. The F.B.I., along with the United States
   attorney's office in Manhattan, the Federal Deposit Insurance
   Corporation and New York State's banking regulator, Benjamin M. Lawsky,
   are examining the release of records and whether it amounted to a
   crime. The investigations are at an early stage and there is no
   indication that the three men will face charges. It is unclear whether
   more senior individuals at Goldman or the New York Fed knew about the
   sharing of the information before it was stopped.
   
   Still, the story behind their firings brings to life some of the worst
   fears about the revolving door.
   
   The job hopping has long fostered a culture of coziness that, even
   without direct evidence of impropriety, generated a public perception
   that regulators and bankers form unholy alliances. But the new accounts
   of a regulator and a banker actually sharing confidential documents —
   violating a cardinal rule of the regulatory world — suggest that those
   impressions may no longer be purely hypothetical.
   
   The leak strikes at the heart of questions about the ability of the New
   York Fed — the public's eyes and ears on Wall Street — to maintain its
   independence from the banks it regulates. It also comes as a popular
   image of Goldman as a bank that puts profit above all has begun to fade.
   
   Goldman, perhaps more than any other Wall Street bank, appears to be
   entwined with the New York Fed. While the firm and the Fed bristle at
   suggestions of coziness, they do swap the occasional employee. The New
   York Fed's president, William C. Dudley, was once Goldman's chief
   economist.
   
   With the spotlight trained on the New York Fed, Mr. Dudley has come to
   the defense of his organization. Mr. Dudley said last month that "I
   don't think anyone should question our motives or what we are
   attempting to accomplish."
   
   Under Mr. Dudley, the New York Fed has adopted a sharper tone about
   Wall Street misdeeds. In a speech last month, Mr. Dudley lamented "the
   culture problem" on Wall Street.
   
   But the recent leak of confidential records underscores the stubborn
   challenges facing the New York Fed. To become less deferential to
   banks, it must overcome patterns that are decades in the making.
   
   Mr. Dudley commissioned an independent report to examine the New York
   Fed's culture. And in response to the findings, he has said that he
   adopted a number of changes, including having more senior examiners
   engage with top bank executives.
   
   Goldman carried out its own image overhaul. Recently, the bank has also
   avoided most of the legal woes that have stung its rivals. At the same
   time, like its rivals, Goldman has sought out former regulators to help
   the bank and its clients navigate new regulations.
   
   Rohit Bansal, the 29-year-old former New York Fed regulator, was one
   such hire. At the time he left the Fed, Mr. Bansal was the "central
   point of contact" for certain banks.
   
   Seizing upon Mr. Bansal's expertise, Goldman assigned him to the part
   of the investment bank that advises other financial institutions based
   in the United States. That assignment presented Mr. Bansal with an
   ethical quandary: He might have to advise some of the same banks he
   once regulated.
   
   Before starting at Goldman, Mr. Bansal sought to clarify whether New
   York Fed policy prevented him from helping those banks, according to a
   person briefed on the matter. Initially, he presented Goldman with a
   notice from the New York Fed, which indicated that he might have to
   steer clear of certain assignments for one client, the midsize bank in
   New York. (While the person briefed on the matter provided the name of
   the bank, The Times decided to withhold the name because the bank was
   not aware of the leak at the time.)
   
   The New York Fed's guidance was apparently somewhat ambiguous. And Mr.
   Bansal later assured Goldman colleagues that he could work behind the
   scenes for that banking client, the person briefed on the matter said,
   so long as he did not interact with the bank's employees.
   
   Mr. Bansal's lawyer, Sean Casey at Kobre & Kim, declined to comment.
   
   Mr. Bansal was asked to help Goldman clients handle regulatory issues
   like the Fed's annual stress test, which measures how a bank might fare
   under dire economic circumstances. Goldman also advised the banks on
   potential mergers and other transactions.
   
   At the request of his bosses, Mr. Bansal gathered information about how
   regulators might view various issues facing Goldman's banking clients,
   the lawyers briefed on the matter said. Much of what Mr. Bansal
   learned, the lawyers said, was fair game.
   
   But in an email to his supervisor, Joseph Jiampietro, Mr. Bansal shared
   some potentially confidential supervisory information about a Goldman
   banking client. Mr. Jiampietro — a managing director at Goldman who was
   once a senior adviser to Sheila Bair, the former F.D.I.C. head — has
   since told colleagues he had no idea the information was subject to
   regulatory restrictions.
   
   "Mr. Jiampietro never knowingly or improperly reviewed or misused"
   confidential supervisory information, his lawyer, Adam Ford, said in a
   statement. "He should not have been terminated. Any compliance failings
   regarding Mr. Bansal had nothing to do with Mr. Jiampietro."
   
   It was not until the morning of Sept. 26 that Goldman executives
   objected to some of Mr. Bansal's information, the lawyers briefed on
   the matter said. During a conference call with Mr. Jiampietro and two
   higher-ranking Goldman executives, Mr. Bansal circulated an email with
   a spreadsheet attached. The email apparently set off alarms within
   Goldman. Within hours, the bank opened an internal investigation and
   alerted the New York Fed.
   
   Goldman determined that the spreadsheet contained confidential bank
   supervisory information. Federal and state rules classify certain
   records, including those generated during bank exams, as confidential.
   Unless the Federal Reserve provides special approval, it can be a
   federal crime to share them outside the Fed.
   
   But proving that someone "willfully" violated the rules, as is required
   for a criminal prosecution, could be difficult. The rules are vague and
   even contradictory about which documents must remain confidential — and
   when regulators are allowed to share them.
   
   Some of Mr. Bansal's information, the lawyers said, may have come from
   Jason Gross, who worked at the New York Fed at the time.
   
   Mr. Gross's lawyer, Bruce Barket, said, "We are cooperating with the
   federal investigation to the best we can."
   
   
   Secret Goldman Sachs Tapes Put Pressure on New York Fed
   By NATHANIEL POPPER and PETER EAVIS
   The Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which regulates Wall Street's
   largest banks, faces scrutiny from Congress after the release of an
   employee's secret recordings that suggest lax oversight.
   
   
   Suit Revives Goldman Conflict Issue
   By SUSANNE CRAIG and JESSICA SILVER-GREENBERG
   In a lawsuit, a former Federal Reserve Bank of New York worker raises
   questions about the success of Goldman Sachs in policing potential
   conflicts.
   
   Alain Delaquérière contributed reporting.
   
   A version of this article appears in print on 11/20/2014, on page A1 of
   the NewYork edition with the headline: Rising Scrutiny as Banks Hire
   From the Fed."

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Investment Banking | Legal/Regulatory   
Secret Goldman Sachs Tapes Put Pressure on New York Fed
By Nathaniel Popper and Peter Eavis October 2, 2014 9:48 pm  77 comments
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/10/02/secret-goldman-sachs-tapes-put-pressure-on-new-york-fed/?_r=0
   
  "Wall Street's top regulator is coming under new criticism for failing
   to adequately police the banks under its supervision, years after the
   financial crisis.

   
   Carmen Segarra, a bank examiner who was fired by the Fed.Credit Earl Wilson/The New York Times   

   Lawmakers are scrutinizing allegations that the Federal Reserve Bank of
   New York went easy on one of the most prominent banks under its watch,
   Goldman Sachs, despite concerns voiced by those inside the Fed that a
   deal Goldman was pursuing was "legal, but shady."
   
   Now committees in the Senate and House of Representatives are looking
   at whether to hold hearings or conduct more extensive investigations
   into the Fed's oversight of Goldman and other banks.
   
   The renewed interest in the Fed's role came after the release of secret
   recordings detailing interactions between employees of the New York Fed
   and Goldman, which were made public by the investigative news
   organization ProPublica and the radio program "This American Life."
   
   The former Fed employee, Carmen M. Segarra, who made the recordings had
   previously sued the New York Fed, arguing that she had been fired for
   being too hard on Goldman. While Ms. Segarra's suit was dismissed, the
   newly released recordings suggest that her supervisor at the New York
   Fed went easy on Goldman, even after saying he wanted "to put a big
   shot across their bow" on a deal in which Goldman was suspected of
   helping make Banco Santander look financially stronger than it was.
   
   
   William C. Dudley, president of the New York Fed, defended his agency's oversight. Credit Rob Kim/Getty Images
   
   The pressure on the New York Fed was apparent on Thursday when the head
   of the agency, William C. Dudley, came to the defense of his staff,
   unprompted, at the end of a speech at New York University.
   
   "We will continue striving to improve, but I don't think anyone should
   question our motives or what we are attempting to accomplish," Mr.
   Dudley said.
   
   Soon after the financial crisis, a report on the New York Fed's
   practices by a Columbia University professor, David Beim, found that
   the regulator needed to be "willing to stand up to banks and demand
   both information and action" and was "too risk-averse to respond
   quickly and flexibly to new challenges."
   
   Mr. Dudley, the current president of the New York Fed, said on Thursday
   that after he received the Beim report in 2009, the agency's bank
   supervision arm went through a "significant reorganization."
   
   But the conduct detailed in Ms. Segarra's recordings came later, in
   2012.
   
   This week, three Democratic members of the House Committee on Financial
   Services — Representatives Maxine Waters of California, Al Green of
   Texas and Keith Ellison of Minnesota — wrote a letter (copy at archive.org) to the
   committee's chairman calling for a hearing on "whether adequate changes
   in management and workplace culture have taken place" at the New York
   Fed.
   
   Senator Elizabeth Warren has called for a Senate Banking Committee
   hearing as well, and she said more scrutiny of the Fed was warranted.
   
   "The tapes reveal a basic cultural issue: The Fed can identify
   problems, but can't bring itself to make the banks fix those problems,"
   Ms. Warren said in a statement on Thursday. "We need congressional
   hearings to dig into what's gone wrong at the Fed, and we need to do it
   now because our whole economy is riding on the Fed's ability to
   supervise the biggest banks."
   
   
   
   The Senate Banking Committee is studying the issue and debating how it
   will proceed, according to a spokesman for the chairman of the
   committee, Tim Johnson.
   
   "Chairman Johnson supports ensuring that regulators are vigilant in
   providing strong, independent oversight of financial institutions," his
   spokesman said.
   
   The concern over financial regulators — who are within a patchwork of
   different agencies that oversee the big banks — being "captured" by, or
   becoming too sympathetic with, the banks they supervise has been a
   recurring topic since the financial crisis. Some regulators physically
   work inside the banks they supervise.
   
   But the New York Fed, one of 12 regional Federal Reserve banks, has
   always had unusually strong ties to Wall Street. It is in Lower
   Manhattan and has had Wall Street executives on its board, acting as
   advisers.
   
   Since the crisis, the New York Fed has taken on a much broader role in
   regulating Wall Street, after firms like Goldman Sachs and Morgan
   Stanley were turned into bank holding companies. The government allowed
   the banks to change their status during the crisis so that they could
   gain full access to Fed assistance and thus avoid collapse.
   
   Mr. Dudley was previously an economist at Goldman. Asked in an
   interview last year if that made it harder for him to be tough on the
   banks, he said, "I do not feel that I in any way hold any allegiance or
   loyalty to the financial industry whatsoever."
   
   Mr. Dudley has taken several steps to bolster the agency's regulation
   of the banks. The number of supervisors overseeing the largest banks
   has doubled in recent years. And Mr. Dudley said on Thursday that the
   agency did not let its regulators stay too long on one bank.
   
   Senior officials at the New York Fed say their oversight has played a
   central role in efforts to make big banks safer since the crisis. The
   Fed helps devise so-called stress tests that banks have to undergo each
   year. And it has led the overhaul of a vast short-term-debt market —
   called the tri-party repo market — that fell apart during the crisis
   and stoked the panic.
   
   Mr. Dudley surprised some on Wall Street with a speech last year that
   took aim at recent ethical lapses at banks, like the scandals involving
   the rigging of financial benchmarks. "There is evidence of deep-seated
   cultural and ethical failures at many large financial institutions," he
   said.
   
   Goldman has faced particularly close scrutiny from regulators for the
   way it has handled conflicts of interest that exist between the bank
   and its customers. The Securities and Exchange Commission accused the
   bank soon after the crisis of selling financial products to customers
   while at the same time placing bets against the same products.
   
   Goldman conducted an internal investigation of its policies, which
   resulted in a 63-page report on ways the bank could reform its
   practices. But a year after the report came out, a judge chastised the
   company for advising a company in negotiations with another company
   that Goldman partly owned. What's more, a Goldman employee involved in
   the deal did not disclose that he owned a large stake in one of the
   companies.
   
   Ms. Segarra, the New York Fed regulator who ended up being fired,
   complained that Goldman did not have a clear enough policy on conflicts
   of interest.
   
   On the day that the ProPublica article came out, Goldman announced
   changes to its conflict-of-interest policy that barred investment
   bankers from holding stock in individual companies, among other things.
   
   A spokesman for Goldman said the timing of the changes was not related
   to the ProPublica piece.
   
   The company said in a statement that it "has long had a comprehensive
   approach for addressing potential conflicts."
   
   
   Suit Revives Goldman Conflict Issue
   By SUSANNE CRAIG and JESSICA SILVER-GREENBERG
   In a lawsuit, a former Federal Reserve Bank of New York worker raises
   questions about the success of Goldman Sachs in policing potential
   conflicts.   
   
   A version of this article appears in print on 10/03/2014, on page B1 of
   the NewYork edition with the headline: Secret Tapes Put Pressure on the
   Fed."

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BUSINESS
Fired Goldman banker fished for inside info over steak dinner
By Kevin Dugan October 28, 2015 | 2:00pm
http://nypost.com/2015/10/28/fired-goldman-banker-fished-for-inside-info-over-steak-dinner/


Photo: Reuters

  "Even by investment bank standards, that was an expensive steak dinner.
   
   Goldman Sachs is paying $50 million to settle accusations that an
   ex-banker took confidential documents from the Federal Reserve Bank of
   New York — and then pumped a former regulatory worker for more
   information at Peter Lugers steakhouse.
   
   The settlement announced Wednesday between Goldman and the state
   Department of Financial Services, led by acting superintendent Anthony
   Albanese, is only the first government action stemming from the leak of
   confidential documents.
   
   Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara's office is also expected to file
   criminal charges against the former Goldman employee, Rohit Bansal, and
   his government counterpart next week.
   
   Bansal, who used to work at the New York Fed, and a former co-worker
   for the regulator, Jason Gross, are expected to plead guilty as early
   as next week.
   
   The information swiped from the New York Fed, the DFS, the Federal
   Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. involved 35 documents
   tied to the regulatory exams of one of Goldman's clients.
   
   Even after stealing the documents, Bansal pressed Gross for more
   information about an upcoming exam at Gross' birthday party on Sept. 23
   at Peter Lugers in Brooklyn.
   
   Bansal emailed his supervisor, Joseph Jiampietro, that the managers of
   the unnamed Goldman client should "keep their cool, not get defensive
   and not say too much unless the regulators have a blatant fact wrong,"
   according to the DFS consent order with the bank.
   
   The examination "will go off better for them in the long run. Believe
   it or not the regulator's [sic] look for reaction and level of mgmt
   respectiveness [sic] during these exit meetings," he wrote after the
   steak dinner.
   
   Goldman fired Bansal and Jiampietro after the leak was discovered last
   year.
   
   "We have zero tolerance for improper handling of confidential
   information," Goldman spokesman Michael DuVally said. "We have reviewed
   our policies regarding hiring from governmental institutions and have
   implemented changes to make them appropriately robust."
   
   FILED UNDER GOLDMAN SACHS , LLOYD BLANKFEIN , NEW YORK FEDERAL RESERVE ,
   PETER LUGER , STEAKHOUSES
   
   READ NEXT AIG should break up to avoid 'too-big-to-fail' label: Icah...  "

[rmstock]

[rmstock]

536: The Secret Recordings of Carmen Segarra
Sep 26, 2014

audio m4a : http://crashrecovery.org/daily/26.09.2016/The%20Secret%20Recordings%20of%20Carmen%20Segarra-536.m4a
MD5(The Secret Recordings of Carmen Segarra-536.m4a)= 995420851f8c55d9afac4552f1953706
SHA1(The Secret Recordings of Carmen Segarra-536.m4a)= bd5bf414beb90971f59e538f31b84907bbb2f055
SIZE(The Secret Recordings of Carmen Segarra-536.m4a)= 34441788 (33M)

audio mp3 : http://crashrecovery.org/daily/26.09.2016/The%20Secret%20Recordings%20of%20Carmen%20Segarra-536.mp3
MD5(The Secret Recordings of Carmen Segarra-536.mp3)= 5b1beab72045f682f0aa5a88a8630293
SHA1(The Secret Recordings of Carmen Segarra-536.mp3)= d07c8592f1018c2559550bcb877ec0707b30cbc7
SIZE(The Secret Recordings of Carmen Segarra-536.mp3)= 89882521 (86M)