Barney Frank’s Newest Banking Reform: Illegal Poker and a Ponzi Scheme

Townhall.com ^ | September 24, 2011 | John Ransom

[Kaslin]

With Barney Frank it’s hard to tell where his old reforms start and his newest reforms begin.

They all look the same.

Frank has long been an advocate of legalized prostitution and online gambling in order that they both can be "regulated" by the government. And by regulated, he means, squeezed.  

Gee. What could go wrong with a scheme where the federal government regulates prositution and gambling? In the Democrats' minds, nothing.   

Before you know it, Obama will be giving out stimulus dollars for federal jobs training programs in the prositution and gambling industries to schools run by big donors. 

Let's put the word s-e-r-v-i-c-e back into SEIU and save/create some more "green" jobs. Think of the potential. Hurray for reform! And when I say reform, I mean graft.    

As a three-decade veteran of congress Frank knows that you don't have to wait for something to be legal before you start peddling influence. And when I say peddling influence, I mean peddling influence.      

Already Frank has been taking money from offshore gaming company Full Tilt Poker (FTP) that the Justice Department now says is just a Ponzi scheme. Full Tilt’s Howard Lederer, Rafael Furst and Chris Ferguson are being charged by the DoJ with defrauding online poker players and diverting money to the accounts of board members at FTP.

The Democrat "reformer" from Massachusetts and a thirty-year veteran in Congress, reportedly took $18,600 from Full Tilt.  

From the Boston Herald:

Sheila Krumholz of the Washington-based Center for Responsive Politics said, “There’s certainly the potential for conflict of interest here, and this is an illegal industry.”

She noted Frank was the top recipient of campaign cash from the Poker Players Alliance Political Action Committee, which received hefty contributions from the three accused men, in the past two election cycles. “He’s clearly on their radar screen as someone they need to befriend.”

“Rep. Frank may be taking contributions from backers of an ‘illegal industry,’ but he’s not alone,” Krumholz said. “Other such industries — casinos, liquor and gun manufacturers — also play the Washington influence game, but this one is still illegal. And Frank’s donors associated with Full Tilt Poker’s alleged Ponzi scheme certainly doesn’t help matters.”

Frank, the man who wrote the so-called bank reform legislation; the man who pimped for Fannie Mae and Feddie Mac on Capitol Hill, took money from a company that not only operated illegally in the United States, allegedly, but that also apparently committed criminal fraud against US citizens by being nothing more than a Ponzi scheme meant to enrich members of the board of directors according to government attorneys.   

Wait. It sounds an awful lot like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, actually, on second thought. No one knows more about that kind of scam than Frank does. That's probably why FTP hired him.    

So far the Obama administration has been silent as to whether the company now qualifies for federal loan guarantees. I’m sure a major Obama donor will turn up in this mess at some point.    

“I want to control it as a business,” said Frank recently “to keep it respectable. I don't want it near schools -- I don't want it sold to children!”  

Oh wait. Nope. That’s a line from Joseph Zaluchi, a crime syndicate boss in the movie the Godfather. Hard to keep those two straight anymore.     

Frank apparently doesn’t care that online gambling is still illegal in this country. But the Justice Department does. While enforcing the law that makes online gambling illegal in the US, the Justice Department came across evidence of the scheme.   

“Full Tilt was not a legitimate poker company,” said the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Preet Bharara, “but a global Ponzi scheme. As a result of our enforcement actions this alleged self-dealing scheme came to light. Not only did the firm orchestrate a massive fraud against the U.S. banking system, as previously alleged, Full Tilt also cheated and abused its own players to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars. As described, Full Tilt insiders lined their own pockets with funds picked from the pockets of their most loyal customers while blithely lying to both players and the public alike about the safety and security of the money deposited with the company.”

According to the Wall Street Journal “[B]etween April 2007 and April 2011, various owners and directors of Full Tilt collected $444 million dollars from the company for themselves, the government alleges.”

But Frank dismissed the scandal with an ironic reference to the mortgage scandals at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac according to the Boston Herald: “The US attorneys haven’t done enough about mortgage fraud,” said the congressman who might be, more than any other legislator, responsible for the collapse of the housing market in the US. “They should be spending less time on full houses and more time on empty houses.”

This is the best that the voters from southern Mass. can do?

If so, coming soon: More Frank-sponsored reform. 

[knarf]

Huey ‘Kingfish” Long comes to mind

[fatnotlazy]

Why is this crook still in office? In fact, why isn’t he i+n jail?68

[knarf]

For the same reason all the crooks in politics are untouched ... we the people are afraid to just shoot the bastards and let the cards fall where they may.

[layman]

Frank has long been an advocate of legalized prostitution

Especially gay prostitution run out of his own apartment.

[LomanBill]

==================================================================

During the House Financial Services Full Committee Hearing on "Recent Events in the Credit and Mortgage Markets and Possible Implications for U.S. Consumers and the Global Economy",  Chairman Barney Frank left the hearing in order to attend a meeting in support of legislation that would force American employers to hire homosexuals.   That says a lot about Barney's priorities.

 

Barney "Fife" Frank.

Financial Services Watchdog

 

This watchdog only has one tooth.

Barney's boyfriend makes him keep it in his pocket

==================================================================

[Dubya-M-DeesWent2SyriaStupid!]

How has Barney and Dodd escaped jail time or a forced resignation is beyond me.Waters was busted doing a pay to play.THEY ARE ALL GUILTY accept for the tea party candidates.VOTE THEM ALL OUT.(Including the corrupt republicans shown on gov gone wild and RINO’s.Term limits and a massive cut in these kings and queens staffers!

[Vaduz]

Indeed Frank is the democrats latest Huey P. Long.

[CaptainAmiigaf]

“THIS” crook and all the others are still in office because their “morality”, “Character”, “ethics” and “honesty” basically matches those of the people they represent. There is a tendency to vote for the one most like yourself. That tendency holds true for more than merely race, religion or ethnicity. Too bad, isn’t it.

[ronnie raygun]

Dodd Frank and Clinton are responsible for the mortgage mess and the criminals stand on the sidelines and look innocent. They can send Bernie Madoff to jail but we allow these criminals a free pass. why?

[Mr. Peabody]

Plus Barney Frank has no teeth.

[ml/nj]

the Justice Department now says is just a Ponzi scheme

Yeah. Let's hear it for the Justice Department.

ML/NJ