Tag Archives: BWU

The Whistleblowers’ Plan Offers Hillary the Perfect Opportunity

William K. Black
February 10, 2016     Bloomington, MN

I am writing as one of the four founding members of Bank Whistleblowers United.  We came together recently to create a detailed plan that could restore the rule of law to Wall Street and dramatically reduce the risk and damage of future financial crises.  We crafted it so that it could be implemented without any new legislation or regulation.  We offered our aid in the implementation process to any candidate who wins the election – and pointed out that President Obama could implement it immediately.  Our plan and approach virtually defines the word “pragmatic.”  It would also transform finance and begin to end its corrupt culture.

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Time to Jail the Bankers and Take Back Control over Money

Randy Wray and Bill Black appear on “Clearing the Fog.” You can listen to the podcast here. Bill, of the newly formed Bank Whistleblowers United, speaks about the plan they have outlined to instill the rule of law on Wall Street and end fraud with the hope of mitigating the effects of the next financial crisis. Randy, an expert in financial instability and macroeconomics, speaks about alternatives to the current financial system that would bring greater stability.

Sanders vs Clinton on Wall St Reform

NEP’s Bill Black and Roosevelt Institute Fellow Mike Konczal take on the policies of the two contenders for the Democratic nomination in this appearance of The Real News. Getting the message out about Bank Whistleblowers United! You can view here (includes transcript).

The Bank Whistleblowers United – Who are We, and Why are We Trying to Help Implement Real Banking Reform?

[revised – Michael Winston’s bio added]

At this time (January 29, 2016), we consist of four founding members:

Gary Aguirre
William Black
Richard Bowen
Michael Winston

Our bios are listed at the end of this post.  We share a number of common experiences.  They explain why we came together to try to implement real reform.  Continue reading

The Bank Whistleblowers United Campaign Funding Plan: Say “No” to Contributions from Financial Felons

In order to restore the rule of law, we ask every candidate for the nomination of their party for the presidency to pledge that they will not take contributions from any financial firm (or contributions above $250 from their officers) that the United States or its agencies have, after investigation, charged with committing the legal elements of fraud.  That list includes virtually all of the largest banks in the U.S. and Europe and Freddie and Fannie.  Indeed, most of these financial giants have admitted that they conducted massive frauds.

An Explanation of the Bank Whistleblowers United 60-Day Plan

  1. On Day One, the President directs each relevant federal financial agency to restore a superb criminal referral process, the criminal referral mandate, and criminal referral coordinators, at every federal financial agency. Local and state police forces rarely investigate sophisticated financial frauds.  That work is done overwhelmingly by roughly 2,000 FBI agents in the white-collar section.  That means that we have roughly two FBI agents per industry.  Those numbers mean that FBI agents don’t “walk a beat” – they only come when they receive a criminal referral alerting them to a likely fraud.  It also means that they cannot possibly have more than a few agents with expertise in the particular industry.  There is one other key fact to keep in mind – corporations don’t make criminal referrals against their own CEOs for obvious reasons, even though frauds led by CEOs cause by far the greatest harm of any form of fraud.

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Announcing Our Name Change to “Bank Whistleblowers United”

William K. Black
January 30, 2016    Bloomington, Minneapolis

Well, this is slightly embarrassing.  Gary Aguirre, Bill Black, Richard Bowen, and Michael Winston came together to form a pro bono effort by bank whistleblowers to restore the rule of law on Wall Street.  As a placeholder in the drafting process, I called us the “Bank Whistleblowers’ Group” and that name survived the drafting process and was announced yesterday by me on New Economic Perspectives (NEP).  Michael Winston deserves credit for suggesting that we call ourselves “Bank Whistleblowers United” – a name that everyone in our pro bono group prefers.  We’ve changed the documents posted yesterday on NEP that make public our initiatives to reflect our new name.  The “announcement” document I posted yesterday has been changed to reflect the new name and I used the opportunity to make a few edits as well.

Announcing the Bank Whistleblowers United Initial Initiatives

William K. Black
January 29, 2016     Bloomington, Minnesota
Revised January 30, 2016

I am writing to announce the formation of a new pro bono group and a policy initiative that we hope many of our readers will support and help publicize.  Gary Aguirre, Bill Black, Richard Bowen, and Michael Winston are the founding members of the Bank Whistleblowers United.  We are all from the general field of finance and we are all whistleblowers who are unemployable in finance and financial regulation because we spoke truth to power and committed the one unforgivable sin in finance and in Washington, D.C. – being repeatedly proved correct when the powerful are repeatedly proved wrong.

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