News services report that Special Counsel Robert Mueller is now investigating Democratic lobbyist Tony Podesta for possible failure to register as a foreign agent. (See https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/mueller-now-investigating-democratic-lobbyist-tony-podesta-n812776.) This isn't good news for Donald Trump.
Democrats might be embarrassed or concerned by this new development, because Tony Podesta is the older brother of John Podesta, the manager of Hillary Clinton's recent presidential campaign. But it's also bad news for President Trump and other Republicans caught up in Mueller's investigation. By including a Democrat within his purview, Mueller undermines any contention that he is politically biased and demonstrates his neutrality. That strengthens his credibility, whether he eventually seeks charges against Republicans, Democrats or both. Republicans feeling any satisfaction from the news of Mueller's investigation of Tony Podesta need to rethink things.
Thursday, October 26, 2017
Tuesday, October 10, 2017
Pizza With Panache: A Tale of Crime on Wall Street
Rated 5 Stars on Amazon
Once upon a time, I was a lawyer at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, doing stock market investigations. I'm still recovering. As one of the twelve steps, I wrote Pizza With Panache, a fast-paced, satirical novel of crime on Wall Street. Deceits swirl around duplicity as the rich try to get richer without doing any honest work. Fred Farquhar, a successful pizza franchise owner, doesn't think he's getting rich fast enough. He enlists Adam, a Wall Street analyst, to feed him inside information, which Fred uses to trade stocks in a secret foreign bank account. Greed abounds as Fred's foreign banker, Enrico, and Adam's buddy, Alain, join in the illicit insider trading.
These scoundrels garner filthy lucre so fast they attract the attention of law enforcement. Nick Papadakis, an SEC enforcement lawyer, is fed up with his job. He made the mistake of doing good work, and now is rewarded with more work: the investigation and the responsibility to train Ethan, a new guy. The last thing Nick wants is a high-pressure investigation where he needs to train a new guy. But the thievery is so appalling, Nick gets interested and investigates aggressively. He is obstructed by slippery defense lawyers and harassed by scheming supervisors hoping to steal the credit for his success. He desperately hopes to escape his job.
If you've ever wondered what a government stock market investigation looks and feels like from the inside, read Pizza With Panache. If you’ve ever thought that Wall Street is crooked, big law firms are ruthless sweatshops, bureaucrats poison the government, no good deed goes unpunished, and the only solution is to escape your job, this is the book for you. It's available at:
Apple:
Pizza With Panache by Leo Wang
|
Amazon:
Barnes and Noble:
Smashwords: Pizza With Panache, an Ebook by Leo Wang
Monday, October 9, 2017
Freeze Your Credit and Make 'Em Change
Of all the massive hacks of recent years, the Equifax hack may be the worst. Some 145 million persons had their personal information stolen. Even though other hacks may involve larger numbers (the Yahoo hack may have victimized 3 billion--yes, billion--accounts), Equifax had the crown jewels: Social Security numbers, birth dates, home addresses and phone numbers, and some credit card account numbers and drivers license numbers. Bad guys can use this information to open phony credit card and other loan accounts in your name, steal your tax refund, grab your Social Security check and get prescription drugs in your name (which could interfere with your ability to get medications and maybe even implicate you in police investigations).
What to do? The best thing is to freeze your credit accounts. These freezes, called security freezes, prevent new creditors and other persons from getting access to your credit information unless you specifically authorize it. It doesn't stop existing creditors and their collection agents, or the government from getting access. But it puts a substantial barrier in the way of fraudsters. It's not perfect--the bad guys might still try to use your stolen personal information to snare your tax refund or your Social Security benefits, or snag some opiods in your name. But a credit freeze is a lot better than the alternatives. Forget about credit monitoring and fraud alerts--they aren't great protection. And a credit lock isn't as good as a credit freeze. Credit freezes give you legal protection under state law, while a credit lock is just a contract with the credit reporting agency that may be difficult to enforce. Credit locks may also cost you more in fees (which is one reason the credit reporting agencies might want to sell you a credit lock).
Credit freezes can be a little inconvenient, because you have to lift them any time you want to apply for credit. But that is a lot less bother than the aggravation of cleaning up your credit after the bad guys have impersonated you (a process that can take months or years).
One more reason to freeze your credit is to make the idiots (the ones that got hacked) change things. The credit reporting agencies and banks and other lenders don't like freezes. They interfere with business and revenue flow. The credit reporting agencies and lenders have a harder time making money if a lot of people freeze their accounts. And that is the point. The current system using Social Security numbers as universal identification numbers has just been blown up by the Equifax hack. For all practical purposes, you have to assume that your Social Security number is publicly available. You have no privacy any more. You're not safe, and your finances are not safe. The SSN system of personal identification is now completely kaput.
Make 'em change. Freeze your credit and take profit opportunities away from the credit reporting agencies, and the banks and other lenders. Faced with a business downturn, these massive institutions will lead the way to change. With the potential loss of who knows how many millions of dollars of profit, they will implement posthaste new and improved systems of personal identification. Either that, or their senior executives' stock options will belly flop. And that they won't allow. So freeze your credit. It might be the best thing you can do right now for your financial privacy.
What to do? The best thing is to freeze your credit accounts. These freezes, called security freezes, prevent new creditors and other persons from getting access to your credit information unless you specifically authorize it. It doesn't stop existing creditors and their collection agents, or the government from getting access. But it puts a substantial barrier in the way of fraudsters. It's not perfect--the bad guys might still try to use your stolen personal information to snare your tax refund or your Social Security benefits, or snag some opiods in your name. But a credit freeze is a lot better than the alternatives. Forget about credit monitoring and fraud alerts--they aren't great protection. And a credit lock isn't as good as a credit freeze. Credit freezes give you legal protection under state law, while a credit lock is just a contract with the credit reporting agency that may be difficult to enforce. Credit locks may also cost you more in fees (which is one reason the credit reporting agencies might want to sell you a credit lock).
Credit freezes can be a little inconvenient, because you have to lift them any time you want to apply for credit. But that is a lot less bother than the aggravation of cleaning up your credit after the bad guys have impersonated you (a process that can take months or years).
One more reason to freeze your credit is to make the idiots (the ones that got hacked) change things. The credit reporting agencies and banks and other lenders don't like freezes. They interfere with business and revenue flow. The credit reporting agencies and lenders have a harder time making money if a lot of people freeze their accounts. And that is the point. The current system using Social Security numbers as universal identification numbers has just been blown up by the Equifax hack. For all practical purposes, you have to assume that your Social Security number is publicly available. You have no privacy any more. You're not safe, and your finances are not safe. The SSN system of personal identification is now completely kaput.
Make 'em change. Freeze your credit and take profit opportunities away from the credit reporting agencies, and the banks and other lenders. Faced with a business downturn, these massive institutions will lead the way to change. With the potential loss of who knows how many millions of dollars of profit, they will implement posthaste new and improved systems of personal identification. Either that, or their senior executives' stock options will belly flop. And that they won't allow. So freeze your credit. It might be the best thing you can do right now for your financial privacy.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
