FBI Sting Nets 48 Arrests on Wall Street

Yahoo News via Reuters ^ | 11/18/03 | By Hugh Bronstein and Greg Cresci

[Wolfstar]

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Federal Bureau of Investigation agents arrested 48 Wall Street foreign exchange brokers on Tuesday in what appeared to be a sting operation targeting several well-known firms.

FBI officers swarmed on Two World Financial Center late on Tuesday afternoon and led out men in business suits, taking them away in vans and cars. Some of the men covered their heads with overcoats while others bowed their heads to hide from television cameras and photographers.

FBI agents began arresting brokers at the tony office building in downtown Manhattan shortly after 3 p.m. and for about two hours led out handcuffed people dressed in business attire.

"It's currency fraud, securities fraud," said one agent at the scene of the arrests. "It's been a long investigation. The arrests have been ongoing today."

The FBI sources said the Wall Street traders will be charged with swindling retail investors of an undisclosed amount of cash over the past year. One source said those arrested would be charged with money laundering and fraud.

NBC reported the defendants scammed retail investors into thinking they were buying multimillion-dollar foreign exchange trades when it is not possible for those types of investors to participate in such deals.

A Reuters reporter on the 36th floor of Two World Financial Center witnessed FBI agents removing about 10 boxes from one company's office.

A spokesman for the FBI declined comment but said the agency will hold a briefing on Wednesday. A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney and the Treasury Department also declined comment.

Among those arrested were three brokers at the inter-dealer brokerage ICAP (IAP.L), which operates at a different location, according to another source.

The unexpected operation came at a time when America's financial markets have been hit by scandal after scandal. Corporate wrongdoing by companies like Enron, which went bankrupt in 2001, sparked a massive accounting scandal that rocked investor confidence and unearthed irregularities at other companies.

Since then Wall Street equity research companies have been targeted by prosecutors for inflating stocks during the Internet boom of the late 1990s. More recently the mutual fund industry has been investigated on charges of price gouging.

Until Tuesday the foreign exchange market, which boasts top companies, millionaires and banks as their primary clients, has remained untouched by scandal.

The names of other companies involved remained unclear, but sources told Reuters at least four companies were targeted. Sources said none of the companies targeted were household names outside of the securities industry but are well known and regarded in the Wall Street community.

[TaxRelief]

The louder, more frequent helicopter traffic was probably the sounds of fleeing executives. LOL!

[Grampa Dave]

Thanks for finding this and posting it.

Any bets that some of Soro's thugs are involved here?

Putin seizes one of Soro's phoney Freedom offices, and now our FBI does this.

[Grampa Dave]

"Oh please let this be directly linked to George Soros..."

Yes, my friend, let it be linked to Soros!

Put him in prison with Martha as his cell mate. That would be hell on earth, having to look at her and listen to her every day.

[Grampa Dave]

I think Soros's golden goose was plucked and got ready for the oven when Putin and GW got together this fall.

Lets hope the connections are wide, clear and looks like an interstate to Soros.

[Grampa Dave]

"More recently the mutual fund industry has been investigated on charges of price gouging."

This is just another example of why we need a conservative market group monitoring and reporting what is happening in the markets, good or bad.

[onyx]

Oooooooooh, I hope you're right. Makes sense.

[Grampa Dave]

There may be nothing.

However, most of the investigations and resignations in the current Mutual Fund mess have been due to Hedge Fund traders being allowed to do trades after hours, that the rest of us can't.

Soros is the Evil Daddy Warbucks when it comes to hedge fund trading to do his evil.

One can only hope that something will be very clear and very criminal with a clear path to one of his organizations.

[onyx]

He's a snake --- if the feds can't bring him down, we can sure try to expose him to the voting public. :)

[DarthVader]

George (Gorge) Soros cut off at the knees. He is going to get a rough lesson on what hardball is all about.

[Grampa Dave]

First we have to wake up the conservatives who go "Bah, who cares about Soros!"

Then, we have to get a majority of the moderates upset enough about him to vote for GW and our senators and congress people running in 2004. That will soundly defeat the party of Soros in 2004.

I'm really encouraged now, to see how many Freepers are awake, aware and ready to hammer Soros. A few months ago, when any us posted anything about Soros, it was ignored or laughed at. Now the wakeup call for conservatives has been sounded.

[Liz]

"Oh please let this be directly linked to George Soros..." ....... Yes, my friend, let it be linked to Soros!

Nothing, but nothing, shouts Soros as much as currency fraud. This guy worked his currency scams all over the globe.

All the feds need to do is connect the dots.

[onyx]

A few months ago, ONE of ours got banned.

[txhurl]

Serious question - have any of you NYCers noticed a shortage of Muslims on the streets lately?

[eleni121]

Soros connection? That's the first thing I thought when I heard---hope there is.

In any case, it took another Republican (after TR) to clean up the the corporate world's messes.

[onyx]

Nothing, but nothing, shouts Soros as much as currency fraud. This guy worked his currency scams all over the globe.

All the feds need to do is connect the dots.

---

PRECISELY. The map is right in front of them.

[Wolfstar]

...we have to get them at the source.

You get it, I get it, most FReepers get it. But the Dems/Left either don't get it or don't care (or both). Either way, we will be in grave danger here on the streets of the good old USA if any of the current crop of Dem presidential wannabes actually gets elected anytime over at least the next decade.

[Wolfstar]

Thanks for finding this and posting it.

You are most welcome. The Yahoo News site is an excellent source for the daytime cubically bound to obtain up-to-the-minute news.

[Grampa Dave]

Yahoo's newest search machine both the regular and advanced is really good.

My only problem with Yahoo is how they hide the fact that Reuters does many of their hit pieces on our military and GW. At first it appears to be Yahoo news. After you keep looking in the references, you often find the dirty tracks of Reuters.

[Senator Pardek]

LOL - the mystery continues... ;)