Tuesday, April 18, 2006

Citigroup's Sanford Weill Got Away Smiling

Sanford Weill of Citigroup retires today. The media photos show him with a big smile. Not coincidentally Citigroup reported its 1st quarter earnings also. They were over $ 5.64 billion. Whatever one thinks of Sandy's business culture and record, he knew how to make money. Citigroup needs only 2 such quarterly earnings to pay for the many, many fines and lawsuit judgements that they have had in recent years. But the app $ 10 billion in legal judgements are mere tokens to pay for the enormous profits that the financial giant takes in. A partial list of scams of Weill's Citigroup include: Enron,WorldCom, Adelphia, Dynegy and Global Crossing.

Foreign governments have also noticed the rapacious antics of Weill's Citigroup. This partial list includes major illegal financial schemes in China, Britain, Japan and Argentina.

Also Citigroup was recently fined over $ 285 million by the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Reserve for " predatory lending" to poor people who were buying homes. No one is too big or too small for Sandy's Citigroup to put the touch on. The sum total of greed and larceny at Citigroup rivals the infamous Halliburton.

Poor Martha Stewart. She must wonder. "What did I do so bad? Look at Weill's Citigroup and what he got away with."

Sandy says he's going to play more golf in his retirement. But it won't be the same. An honest game of golf hasn't the challenge or thrill of pulling off some deal . But golfers can be caught in rough lies also. Sandy will come out smiling.

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