The Patriots

by Jack Davis

Citibank is being attacked for its recent actions to limit sales of legal firearms by critics who note that the massive bank was willing to do business with Iran a few years ago until it was fined by the Treasury Department.

“Citibank…they preemptively buckled under the pressure by refusing to cooperate with businesses that legally sell certain #firearms…Meanwhile, the Treasury Department found that same company, @Citibank, violated sanctions and did business with, wait for it…Iran!” NRATV tweeted, quoting spokesperson Dana Loesch.

"Citibank…they preemptively buckled under the pressure by refusing to cooperate with businesses that legally sell certain #firearms…Meanwhile, the Treasury Department found that same company, @Citibank, violated sanctions and did business with, wait for it…Iran!” –@DLoesch pic.twitter.com/4twtL2YPnj

— NRATV (@NRATV) March 26, 2018

Last week, Citibank said that it would no longer do business with legal firearms stores unless they agree to the bank’s most recent demands.

“Under this new policy, we will require new retail sector clients or partners to adhere to these best practices: (1) they don’t sell firearms to someone who hasn’t passed a background check, (2) they restrict the sale of firearms for individuals under 21 years of age, and (3) they don’t sell bump stocks or high-capacity magazines,” wrote Ed Skylar, executive vice president of global public affairs, on the bank’s blog.

by Allen Williams

Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) is a huge conglomerate featuring global asset management which  “is the asset management division of Royal Bank of Canada” located  in Canada,  the United States, Europe, Asia-Pacific,  Middle East and Africa, Latin American and the Caribbean.   Your investments work hard to build the globalist vision of a new order.

”RBC is the 12th largest bank in the world based on market capitalization and the fifth largest in North America.”  Barron’s notes that RBC Wealth Management is looking to Grow having actively recruited a significant number of high profile investment managers over the last 8 years.

But all is not well in the RBC golden world of investment as RBC is charged with Negligence and Elder Abuse   If you have a few bucks to invest and you’re of retirement age then beware because the wealth management brokerages are going to milk you. What do you mean by that remark you might ask?   Well, older people are prime targets for abuse by investment firms because the money is there and ripe for the taking and seniors tend to be overly trusting.

RBC User Agreement, Section 7C:

"IN ADDITION TO AND WITHOUT LIMITING THE FOREGOING, RBC CM SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY HARM CAUSED BY THE TRANSMISSION, THROUGH THE PROGRAM, OF A COMPUTER VIRUS OR OTHER COMPUTER CODE OR PROGRAMMING DEVICE THAT MIGHT BE USED TO ACCESS, MODIFY, DELETE, DAMAGE, CORRUPT, DEACTIVATE, DISABLE, DISRUPT OR OTHERWISE IMPEDE IN ANY MANNER THE AVAILABILITY OF THE INFORMATION OR ANY OF YOUR SOFTWARE, HARDWARE, DATA OR PROPERTY."

This statement also removes liability from the transfer of erroneous information from ‘typos’ and other such glitches which may cost you money.  

RBC Capital Markets, LLC
60 South 6th Street
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55402
Attention: Client Support Services, Mail Stop P12
Phone: 1-800-933-9946 (Weekdays 8:00am-10:00pm ET and Saturdays 10:00am-6:00pm ET)

The White law Group reports: “According to The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, an all-public FINRA arbitration panel has awarded $212,000 to the estate of a former RBC Wealth Management client who had charged the firm with negligence and elder abuse.

"The attorneys of the client, the late Hazel Kitzman, charged that RBC Wealth Management engaged in the unauthorized sale of shares in the client’s account and in the unauthorized transfer of funds from an account at another firm. The attorneys requested compensatory damages of at least $1.5 million, treble  punitive damages and reimbursement of all legal costs, all of which the FINRA panel denied.”

Remember that ‘unauthorized RBC broker activity’ because we’ll see that again shortly. Think this is just sour grapes or a few disgruntled clients? Well, take a look at a host of other complaints as RBC Wealth Management Reviews compiles complaints summed  up nicely by ‘RK’ back  in January of this year with ”..Money sucking leeches. No fiduciary responsibility. Will suck you dry with fees.”

RBC Wealth Management meets that assessment.

Then there’s just the run of the mill abuse like a $140 yearly ‘account’ fee for not buying anything.  Remember interest rates are barely 3% and inflation is currently at 2.1%.  As a big or small investor you pay for not buying the financial investments a brokerage offers, even if you lose return on that investment.    The forced purchase of unwanted goods or services from corporations has become a global hallmark.  This policy causes older investors with smaller portfolios to purchase less desirable investments to keep their accounts from being pillaged by excessive and ruthless fees.

If you’re an elderly or a new retiree investor expect to be milked if you don’t know the ropes.  And, even if you do, the financial industry is structured such that there are no real penalties for fund mismanagement or cheating a client because the account holder must agree upfront to binding arbitration as a condition of getting an account   

Outside a court of law the odds swing dramatically in favor of the brokerage, so do not count on FINRA for any real relief.  The centralized global banking system is designed to extract wealth from the general populace virtually at will simply by changing the prime rate.   Fees for any alleged services are just icing on the cake.

The recent HSBC LIBOR rate fixing scandal illustrates just how easily the banks can cheat people and the Federal Reserve System has demonstrated how well its QE releases can rob the nations’ citizens of their purchasing power. 

These financial conglomerates own the various individual governments around the world and 20 trillion in debt buys a lot of favors.  Then there’s the annual revisions to Brokerage fee policies which can occur after you’ve committed significant resources to the firm.  Remember, whomever controls the money limits your options and ultimately controls you

Be sure and read the fine print in the RBC periodic account updates so you’re not surprised by the latest excursion into your back pocket.

Controlling the investor market is the key to successful brokerages because interest rates are rock bottom low in the public sector.  And, it’s risky for individuals to play the stock market or derivatives in today’s environment.  So offering investments priced slightly above what’s available at the trough guarantees a pool of people with above average financial strength. 

Managing RBC  Investments

Managing a brokerage account at RBC will tax your time as much as if you were actually a broker yourself,  from watching for mistakes in tabulated interest to your accounts to  buying financial instruments that you didn’t want  just to satisfy an order.  Here’s an example of what can happen, even if you watch, from last December as I purchased a financial instrument from BOFI federal through the brokerage:  “I did not authorize a purchase beyond the BOFI investment.  If an additional $2000 worth of BOFI was not available, you should have called me to ask if I wanted to buy something else offering the same terms.  Obviously, you didn't think it was worth asking me what I wanted to do with my own money.”

The RBC Broker’s reason for the snafu? Why a ‘typo’, what else? Note that elderly investors don’t have the time to make up losses from bad deals that their brokerage might recommend like zero coupon J.P. Morgan chase securities which can pay zero interest for months until the consumer price index increases.  

If you have more than one brokerage account, then you must be prepared to buy something within the specified time frame for each account.  If you don’t buy regularly in a calendar year then you pay an ‘inactivity fee’ under the following conditions.

First, investment maturity doesn’t count. If you have an existing security and it matures then you get no credit  for reinvesting that principal with that brokerage.  

Interest from other investments that pay into your brokerage account isn’t activity either, ‘activity’ is only new purchases that lead to the broker making a profit from your account.  So, why keep it there?  Because it will cost you another fee to close the account anywhere from $90.00 upwards. 

Pursuant to the RBC  ‘user agreement’, I bought another financial  instrument in January 2018 with an end of the month settlement date to avoid the penalty ‘for not investing’.  Sounds like the Obamacare penalty, doesn’t it?

I received the RBC purchase confirmation in the mail.  But at the end of January the capital was still in my investment account so the purchase was in doubt as my agreement with the broker stipulated the money was to be transferred after the 26^th of the month. I had to call the broker to discover that they had bought the instrument with their own money. Why?  This is highly irregular. I’ve never had securities bought on credit before without my knowledge and so this experience was of some concern given the wording of their user agreement:  “..until payment is made by you, securities purchases by you or held by us for your account will be or may be hypothecated comingled with securities for other clients. If payment or delivery is not made by the settlement date, we reserve the right without further notice to charge interest on the amount due shown on the face hereof..”

And despite what the brokerage may tell you, there is a good chance that an interest charge will appear on the next statement. Also, guess who will be keeping the interest on the investment until the funds are transferred? So, if you can buy something on credit without client approval, why not double my order as well and hold me liable?

Even RBC’s instrument purchase confirmations are full of additional clauses that work against the account holder.  And there’s no recourse provision in these clauses for RBC negligence when a buy order isn’t executed because the user agreement requires client agreement to binding arbitration instead of a court of law or you don’t get the account.  So to find out what additional fees may have been dumped on you in a given transaction, you must request an explanation in writing or you get nothing: “.this transaction may have incurred other fees..a complete breakdown of fees associated with the transaction  will be provided on your written request..”

In December,of this year I transferred my account to another broker using the RBC system. RBC like many large banks earns its money by gouging clients with outrageous fees as the loan industry is no where near as lucrative. And fees aren't subject to the same scrutiny as loan interest.

I was charged a $125 fee for transferring my holdings to another financial adviser even though the funds remain at RBC. Then I was charged an additional $45.79 for electronic transfer of my records to the other adviser within the same bank.  As RK aptly noted, they are 'money sucking leaches..'

UPDATE 3/6/2019

I immediately sent off a letter of protest to Warren Bischoff, the RBC Complex Director taking issue with the transfer charge on my investments moving within the same bank to another broker. After several weeks of non response from RBC, I wrote a letter of complaint in January of 2019 to both the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and Comptroller of the Currency (as the latter regulates all foreign banks) to protest this outrageous fee. Shortly after getting my letter off to the regulating agencies, RBC reversed the fee.

After I had contacted FINRA, in early March of 2019 $325 dollars was refunded to my new brokerage account. To date I have not heard from Comptroller of the Currency as apparently this case did not fall under their jurisdiction.

If you’re looking for a place to invest, look well beyond RBC‘s client satisfaction hokum.

By Robert Gehl      

The media’s going nuts that Hillary Clinton took three big paychecks for three speeches at Goldman Sachs. At $225,000 a pops that’s pretty good scratch – but it’s just the tip of the iceberg.
 
She’s been very, very busy, raking in millions in a three-year stretch since she left her post as the Secretary of State. Her defense?  It varies from “It’s what they offered me” to the hilarious, “I happen to think we need more conversations about what’s going on in the world.”

Pricey “conversations” indeed.

Here’s a list of the 92 “conversations” that Clinton has had in just the past three years. The total: $21.7 million.

Robert Gehl is a college professor in Phoenix, Arizona. He has over 15 years journalism experience, including two Associated Press awards. He lives in Glendale with his wife and two young children.

by Clinton Kirby

Wells Fargo's "How-to fraud mortgage  manual" suggests this "Too Big To Fail" bank may be going down.  Here's the link to download the actual Wells Fargo  'how-to create mortgage fraud' manual.

So, once again, the "conspiracy theory" that banks manufacture/massage/manipulate the documents they need-but don't have-in the foreclosure context has proven to be fact.  Indeed, the whistleblower that went to Naked Capitalism regarding Wells Fargo a year ago was not just, whistling Dixie, as it turns out. Wells Fargo indeed doctors/manufactures documents, and according to a lawsuit in New York, they actually have a manual on how to do it!  Naked Capitalism quotes a New York Post article about the lawsuit:

 "In a filing in New York's Southern District in White Plains for
 a local homeowner in bankruptcy, attorney Linda Tirelli described
 a 150-page Wells Fargo Foreclosure Attorney Procedures Manual
 created November 9, 2011 and updated February 24, 2012. According to
 court papers, the Manual details 'a procedure for processing
 [mortgage] notes without endorsements and obtaining endorsements
 and allonges.'"

If Wells Fargo does it, you can rest assured that the other big banks do it-after all, they have to compete! Check out this quote that gets right to the heart of the kind of thinking that causes this copycat, groupthink fraud from an article entitled "Fiduciary Duty to Cheat? Stock Market Super-Star Jim Chanos Reveals the Perverse New Mindset of Financial Fraudsters"

"Because if now, as the senior member of a bank, or the board of a
bank, I know that there are no criminal penalties for breaking the
rules, don't I have a fiduciary responsibility to my shareholders
to actually play fast and loose? Because if I get caught, that's
just the cost of doing business?" 

Yep. All the banks are doing it, not just Wells Fargo. We just don't have the other banks' manuals - yet.