CRYPTO: It may have been fraud, but savers did NOT diversify

Sunday, November 17, 2024

https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/life-savings-of-an-entire-small-town-recovered-from-the-depths-of-a-cryto-scam-by-fbi/

Life Savings of an Entire Small Town Recovered from the Depths of Cryto-Scam, Thanks to FBI
By Andy Corbley – Nov 7, 2024

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A Wichita courtroom rang out with sobs and cheers when over two dozen people learned that their life savings had been recovered after being lost by a local bank.

Over $8 million in children’s university funds, retirement accounts, funds for eldercare, and bequeathments to children and grandchildren were returned after the FBI located and seized a cryptocurrency wallet linked to an account in the Cayman Islands.

The bank’s founder Shan Hanes, claims he had unintentionally lost it all by investing in a sophisticated cryptocurrency scam, though he ultimately lost his defense and received 24 years in prison for defrauding depositors and investors.

In August, Heartland Tri-State Bank was put into receivership by federal regulators after being drained of cash. The FDIC paid out $47 million to everyday depositors and other investors, but the rural, community-owned bank had 30 shareholders who had carefully planned long-term accounts that were not insured.

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While I am happy that the insured depositors were made whole, they should have diversified their deposits.

One lady had 250k$ in one IRA account.  That far exceeds the risk she should be taking.  Four partial roll over accounts of 50k$ each would have mitigated her losses.  She was lucky to get it back.  Yeah, it makes for more paperwork, but look at the alternative,

There are accounts available with private insurance up to ¼ million last time I looked.

In short, having large sums of money requires you to take a modicum of care.

Don’t trust anyone.  (Even me!)  Verify!  Lawyers and accountants may seem expensive, but are cheap in the long run.

YMMV but I know what I do and preach.  

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GOVEROTRAGEOUS: Is the FDIC outlived its usefulness and far exceeded that 205k$ limit

Saturday, May 20, 2023

https://wallstreetonparade.com/2023/05/fdic-seizure-of-foreign-deposits-at-svb-opens-pandoras-box-at-jpmorgan-chase-and-citi-which-hold-a-combined-1-trillion-in-foreign-deposits-with-no-fdic-insurance/

FDIC Seizure of Foreign Deposits at SVB Opens Pandora’s Box at JPMorgan Chase and Citi – Which Hold a Combined $1 Trillion in Foreign Deposits with No FDIC Insurance
By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: May 15, 2023 ~

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If you have been following the banking crisis, you have likely read at least a dozen times that on March 12 federal banking regulators, with the consent of the U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, invoked the “systemic risk exception” in order to protect both insured and uninsured depositors at the two banks that failed in March – Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank.

That’s why there were gasps of shock on Saturday evening at around 5:30 p.m. when the Wall Street Journal (paywall) published the stunning news that depositors in the Cayman Islands’ branch of Silicon Valley Bank had their deposits seized by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), which they are unlikely to ever see again.

As Wall Street On Parade has previously reported, under statute, the FDIC cannot insure deposits held on foreign soil by U.S. banks. What it can do, however, is to sell those deposits to the bank that acquires the collapsed bank. In the case of Silicon Valley Bank, the acquiring bank was First Citizens Bancshares which, apparently, declined to purchase the foreign deposits in the secrecy jurisdiction of the Cayman Islands, a jurisdiction most notable recently for housing Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto house of frauds.

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It’s hard to imagine any Gooferment policy, program, or agency that doesn’t far outlive its usefulness.

In this case, foreign depositors get screwed.

Soon it will be US depositors.  Time to unwind all the Government Sponsored Entities  — FDIC, FHA, FHLB, Fannie, Freddie, and Sallie.

Before it’s too late!

If it isn’t already.

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