Unfortunately, this is a civil action and the most we can hope for are some SEC fines (which are ludicrously low). Too bad this isn't a criminal case, but at least it's some karmic return for the "Wyly Coyotes," who funded the Swift Boat attacks on John Kerry. (They also funded George W. Bush's attacks on John McCain in the 2000 Republican primaries.)

Oh, and by the way: The Manhattan district attorney's office referred this case to the SEC in 2005. Wonder what took them so long?

Samuel Wyly and Charles Wyly -- billionaire brothers in Texas who have spent millions funding political campaigns -- committed violations of federal securities laws and fraud by using offshore accounts to secretly trade the shares of public companies whose boards they sat on, reaping more than $550 million in profit, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission complaint filed Thursday.

The politically-active Wylys, who have been generous donors to Republican causes over the years, have faced questions in recent years -- including a Senate probe -- about whether they ran an extensive network of tax shelters.

"The cloak of secrecy has been lifted from the complex web of foreign structures used by the Wylys to evade the securities laws," said SEC deputy director of enforcement Lorin L. Reisner. "They used these structures to conceal hundreds of millions of dollars of gains in violation of the disclosure requirements for corporate insiders."

The SEC alleges that the brothers created an elaborate network of accounts and companies in the Isle of Man and the Cayman Islands that they used to trade more than $750 million in stock in four public companies they served as board members. The SEC charges that they also committed an insider trading violation concerning one of the companies, earning almost $32 million.

The Wyly's attorney and stockbroker were also charged.

They also own Michaels, the national arts and crafts chain. So we can blame them for scrapbooking, too!

So in a bit of attempted last-minute blackmail, AHIP pulls a suspicious-looking rabbit from their hat. They're worried about families' costs? All the more reason to approve a strong public option!

After months of collaboration on President Obama's attempt to overhaul the nation's health-care system, the insurance industry plans to strike out against the effort on Monday with a report warning that the typical family premium in 2019 could cost $4,000 more than projected.

The critique, coming one day before a critical Senate committee vote on the legislation, sparked a sharp response from the Obama administration. It also signaled an end to the fragile detente between two central players in this year's health-care reform drama.

Industry officials said they intend to circulate the report prepared by PricewaterhouseCoopers on Capitol Hill and promote it in new advertisements. That could complicate Democratic hopes for action on the legislation this week.

Administration officials, who spent much of the spring and summer wooing the insurers, questioned the timing and authorship of the report, which was paid for by America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), an industry trade group.

"Those guys specialize in tax shelters," said Nancy-Ann DeParle, director of the White House Office of Health Reform. "Clearly this is not their area of expertise."

Yes, not only is it not their area of expertise, the brand carries with them a history of conflicts of interest and even fraud. As recently as 2007, PwC paid $225 million to settle a class-action lawsuit brought by shareholders of Tyco International Ltd. over a multibillion-dollar accounting fraud.

It seems to me that AHIP is very, very unhappy about the relatively minor changes in the Baucus bill that give the insurance industry slightly less of a stranglehold on the process via the insurance mandate. I mean, how dare we include a hardship exemption?

Now let's watch Democrats spend all day defending the crappy Baucus bill as if it were the tablets Moses brought down from the mountaintop.

And apparently phony, to boot! I don't know about you, but I'm feeling even better about writing AIG that blank check. Joe Cassano was the head of AIG's financial products division who insured all those bad CDOs - you know, the ones that helped trigger this global meltdown?

The Feds are closing in on a criminal fraud case against Joseph Cassano, reports ABC News, which tracked down the former AIG Financial Products czar wearing blue spandex and a sheepish expression outside his home in London. And before you wonder why a Brooklyn College educated swaps dealer with a name like Joe Cassano lives in London again, the answer is probably "taxes" -- and decimating taxes, it may not shock you to know, is fast emerging as the cornerstone of the AIG business model.

An ABC News investigation found that Cassano set up some dozens of separate companies, some off-shore, to handle the transactions, effectively keeping them off the books of AIG and out of sight of regulators in the U.S. and the United Kingdom.

Continue reading »

The Washington Note: Defense Secretary, Robert Gates, has told a number of senior national security officials -- current and former -- that he is shutting down (or at least significantly shrinking) the Rumsfeld-Cambone-Feith-Boykin intelligence operation.

TomDispatch: 11 ways to report on Gitmo without upsetting the Pentagon

Kevin Drum: The IRS is outsourcing its writing of tax rules to the very lawyers and accountants who create tax shelters and exploit loopholes for the superrich

Words of Power: A quarter century ago, Jimmy Carter warned of this grim period. His prophetic call was not heeded.

The Largest Minority: Another BUSHCO gag order on global warming

Democrats.com: A remarkable video of Rep. David Obey's explosion at super-polite Marine mom Tina Richards when she asked him about the Iraq War Supplemental

OFF THE BEATEN PATH: Corporate Crime Reporter...The Populist...ArchPundit...Zippidy Doo Da

Max Blumenthal has some great information about the front group that has bankrolled the Creepy Caravan tour to attack Cindy Sheehan. Here's a little about Sal Russo:

"If Kaloogian wants to fight corruption, he should get up, turn the light on, and take a look in his own slimy bed. After all, Move America Forward's "Chief Strategist," Sal Russo, who handled Bill Simon's hapless 2002 gubernatorial campaign, is knee-deep in unethical business dealings and scandals."

and this: "That's right. Move America Forward's Sal Russo ran tax shelters and bilked campaign donors out of $200,000. Oh, and then there's the little thing about Russo and Simon being in bed with a major drug trafficker, something they still can't explain" ...read on

Please read the entire post to get an idea about the people behind MAF, Mark Williams and all who are involved in the Creepy Caravan tour. I'll be working on more information about these characters in the coming days.