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Anonymous Leaks Internal Bank of America Emails

euphemistic writes "Reportedly the information Wikileaks was set to disclose about a particular bank back from December, 'a massive batch of internal Bank of America emails' has been leaked. While the site hosting it seems to currently be down due to the obviously gigantic amount of traffic interested in this leak, the leak is said to pertain to the Bank of America's improper foreclosure on homes. 'The report came from a former employee with Balboa Insurance — a risk management and insurance firm. The employee reportedly corresponded with Bank of America employees and was told to falsify loan numbers on documents to force Bank of America to foreclose on homeowners.'"

34 of 535 comments (clear)

  1. Well, now we know why by elrous0 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I guess this explains why Bank of America's law firm was so willing to buy into HBgary and other's bullshit about being able to take down Anoynymous and Wikileaks.

    --
    SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
    1. Re:Well, now we know why by afxgrin · · Score: 4, Informative

      And why they bought every single domain name using "Sucks" and "Blows" that involves Bank of America and all their executive management.

    2. Re:Well, now we know why by emagery · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I would agree if he were releasing info that endangered ongoing operations (troop movements, missile deployment sites, etc, in the midst of a battle and to the enemy), but when he's whistleblowing on the criminal actions of his superiors, he must be protected. Every agency at EVERY level must be routinely audited for corrupting, and with 54% of our taxpayer money going to feed this military machine in a time of nation crippling deficits, they deserve scrutiny most of all.

    3. Re:Well, now we know why by zill · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The only sane way to decide whether Manning deserves protection as a whistle-blower is a fair trial.

      I really don't see how he can get that anymore.

  2. And... by MikeDirnt69 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    .. nothing will happen.

    --
    Am I eval()? - http://www.monst3r.com.br
    1. Re:And... by ObsessiveMathsFreak · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Amen. The two words that will characterise this period of history will be "corruption" and "unaccountability". Western management has turned impunity--legal, financial, and personal--into a science.

      --
      May the Maths Be with you!
    2. Re:And... by heptapod · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Of course nothing will happen. These leaked Bank of America emails were released during the Japanese earthquake/tsunami/nuclear crisis. GREAT FUCKING JOB THERE, CHIEF!!! It shows they're a bunch of amateurs who know nothing about timing so this reaches the broadest audience. Slashdot, reddit, and the rest will get up in arms but the people who need to know, i.e. mom & pop and that mythical linux using grandma, won't have it show up as a blip on their radar because of their reliance upon mainstream media to feed them.

    3. Re:And... by Joreallean · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Although the money helps this isn't about money... It's about the fact that these "people" are doing actions of an individual under the name of a corporation. The difference in your example between your corporation vs commoner is that one is an individual. The government can certainly throw the book at a corporation, but what happens? It either gets a bad reputation and loses the market for a while or they just dissolve it and start something new under a new name. There is no personal responsibility for any of the actions of a corporation and therefore there is absolutely no accountability for their actions. As long as we continue to treat a corporation as the "person" responsible for its actions and not the actual people in charge will they be able to do whatever they want with little to no consequences. These people have just learn to shield their own malfeasance under the guise of a legal corporation. I'm by no means saying that all corporations are like this, but at some point it seems they stop caring about the work they are doing and start caring about the state of the company.

    4. Re:And... by DrStrange66 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Bank of America is too big to fail and is therefore too big to go after.

    5. Re:And... by s4m7 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      "Corporations have neither bodies to be punished, nor souls to be condemned, they therefore do as they like." - Edward Thurlow, often attributed to Andrew Jackson

      --
      This comment is fully compliant with RFC 527.
    6. Re:And... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The US doesn't have a democracy. It has a plutocracy. These huge financial firms used captured regulators, insiders, and like-minded ideologues to create an environment in which, once again, the rich could further enrich themselves upon the backs of the middle and lower-class. While, as you say, this has always been the case, at least to some degree, the last three decades have seen a massive concentration of wealth and power in a select elite. The recent banking fiasco is simply the pinnacle of that trend, resulting in massive unemployment and loss of homes, pensions, and what little other wealth the non-rich have while the rich continue to get richer and richer, while absorbing none of the consequences of their actions.

      But, I think to future historians, the most baffling thing of all will be how so many of the middle and lower class cheered on deregulation, defended the rich, decried attempts to correct this wealth and power imbalance as "class warfare", thus actively working against their own self-interests.

    7. Re:And... by moj0joj0 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      There is no personal responsibility for any of the actions of a corporation and therefore there is absolutely no accountability for their actions.

      Corporations may not be individuals, but they are run by a board of directors that is ultimately responsible for the actions of the company. If individual wrongdoers within the corporate 'body' are not handed over to the authorities, then the board would be held responsible. If this were the case, you'd see a lot less evil in the business world. If generals are held responsible for the actions of their troops during wartime, then surely we can hold the leadership of a corporation responsible for the actions of the corporation. Maybe not, but it makes me feel better to think so.

    8. Re:And... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Or it shows that Bank of America PR staffers know exactly how to contain a potential disaster. By releasing their own information as Anonymous during a time where it is guaranteed to be buried under far more pressing news stories.

    9. Re:And... by mhelander · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I've heard it claimed it is because just like we all think we are better than average drivers, everyone in the US think they're one day going to become rich.

  3. I will be closing my BOA account.... by Mazzie · · Score: 5, Insightful

    and switching to a more reputable corporate behemoth like... hrmm... like... uhhh... doh!

    --
    Having a bookmark to Google does not make you an expert on everything.
    1. Re:I will be closing my BOA account.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Switch to a local credit union. That is, by far, your best alternative.

    2. Re:I will be closing my BOA account.... by countertrolling · · Score: 5, Funny

      I deposit my money into Sealy Posturepedic...

      --
      For justice, we must go to Don Corleone
    3. Re:I will be closing my BOA account.... by Captain+Hook · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I have actually looked into doing that, well I looked into setting up a Building Society here in the UK (Our equivalent of a Credit Union) but according to the Building Society Association, it needs a minimum of £1M backing with 10 members agreeing on a business plan which can take 2 years to get approval from the FSA. The last Building Society to be setup was in the 1980s.

      In some ways I think it's good that it takes a lot of effort and regulation to setup a Building Society but in a post Bankers are scum world, it does kind of feel like it's just there to stop new players entering a market which competes against banks and their huge profit margins.

      I wonder if there will be some new Building Societies started up in the future given the hatred of bankers or whether the market has now been so well sewed up and no small BS's could ever be started again.

      --
      These comments are my personal opinions and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the other voices in my head.
    4. Re:I will be closing my BOA account.... by Foofoobar · · Score: 4, Interesting

      yep have to admit when all the mortgage things happened, the credit unions remained unscathed. My wife and I asked our credit union about that and they said they don't report to a board but only report to their members so they are not under alot of pressure to make giant risky investments; they are only their for their members. And while other banks were being taken over left and right, you didn't see hardly any credit unions being taken over.

      --
      This is my sig. There are many like it but this one is mine.
    5. Re:I will be closing my BOA account.... by dkleinsc · · Score: 4, Informative

      Also, if credit unions aren't an option for you (which depending on your laws they may not be), at least look for a locally owned bank. They have in general been behaving much better towards their customers and depositors than the big guys.

      --
      I am officially gone from /. Long live http://www.soylentnews.com/
    6. Re:I will be closing my BOA account.... by trollertron3000 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You basically nailed why so many corporations are suffering from corruption from within - they are beholden to board members more than their customers. They don't even care about the fundamentals of business anymore. They're too busy inventing new ways to fuck each other.

      --
      Tiger Blooded Bi-Winning Machine
    7. Re:I will be closing my BOA account.... by Billly+Gates · · Score: 5, Interesting

      At business school I learned something within the first 20 minutes of finance 101. The most important lesson in the class which was repeated on the final was what is a company's goal?

      If you said to make money you are wrong. The goal of a corporation is to raise its stock price, not make money. A third of the course dealt with how to trick investors by creating magical ratios of liquidity (assets that can turn to cash very fast) to make wall street happy and raise the share price. To top it off we studied how going into debt was a great thing as it gave you profit leverage. Holding off paying your suppliers was good too as you can invest the money while you drag your feet.

      The rest of the course dealt with a privately held and small companies. Now their goals was to make money as well as have an excellent credit rating and low debt to make sure adequate lines of credit were available in case of an emergency and to plan ahead conservatively without going bankrupt. 2 different worlds.

      Private companies are the way to go. They simply make rational decisions and play by the rules. The big boys don't and love risk. If the average CEO job is short you can guarantee yourself you wont be held accountable either for short term gains that cost the company later. WOW

  4. leaked? by Black+Parrot · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Reportedly the information Wikileaks was set to disclose about a particular bank back from December, "a massive batch of internal Bank of America emails" has been leaked.

    Is this saying that Wikileaks' information was leaked by a third party?

    As for bank foreclosure fraud, we've known for a year or more that banks have been doing that. A common case is that all the shady asset-juggling left things in a state that no one knows who actually has the rights to it, so the evictions are rushed through without proper legal scrutiny, or even on the basis of forged documents.

    --
    Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
  5. Russia? by WindBourne · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Wikileaks is sitting on all sorts of good stuff about Russia. Why does Assange not release that?

    --
    I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
  6. No one investigating, no one going to jail by RichMan · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The governement administration was pretty quick to hand them money to keep going and the oversight seems to be uninterested in putting people in jail.
    If you pickpocket a $100 store item expect to go to jail. If you force thousands into bankruptcy and put several nations into financial stress you will have no problem collecting your yearly bonus pay.

    It seems to me we need a crack down on white collar crime.

    Stop jailing people for grams of pot and start jailing people for ((( some smart saying I can't think of that means investment people who steal money))).

  7. Re:Doesn't matter anymore by elrous0 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    In their defense, they have invested a LOT of money in buying off Congress. It's only fair they get a return on that investment. That's the free market at work.

    --
    SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
  8. Incompetence Conspiracy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    As someone who has worked for a big bank, I can assure you that while there are pockets of AMAZINGLY retarded people that commit blatant fraud, it is mostly just a large group of MOSTLY retarded people committing fraud and not really recognizing that's what they're doing.

    I worked hand in hand with the foreclosure group and I think I can summarize what's really been happening:

    1) Overwhelming Workload + Incompetent Staff = Mistakes
    a) Leads to massive spike in hiring through temporary agencies and the introduction of a much larger group of incompetent people into the process.
    2) Convoluted, counterproductive processes + people who can't use excel spreadsheets = Mistakes
    a) See 1a
    3) Incentive Structure - This one's a bit harder but most banks use production based incentive structures to pay employees beyond their base pay. The more work you do, the more money you make. If it's easier to get rid of a "file" (troubled loan) by tossing it to the foreclosure group and having it roll through that process than it is to help someone save their house, guess what happens. If it takes you an hour to successfully help someone (which it doesn't, it takes days or weeks) or 10 minutes to move their file to foreclosure and therefore out of your stack, and you get paid based on how many files you move out of your stack, guess where all your files go.
    4) Banks DONT LIKE TO RESCIND SALES. It costs them money.

    To me, this is all SUPER old news. I watched this happen in real time for years and the news was always WAY behind on what was happening and WHY. It's not as simple as "banks are greedy and committing fraud/crime." That's certainly a part of it, but not nearly half of it. Realistically it's "There's too much work to do and the people doing it truly don't understand what they're doing"

    It's way easier to recognize what's really happening when you look at how things are done at the bottom. Listening to CEOs and PR reps is a waste of time, they have no idea what's really going on underneath them.

    The problems we have always faced are the result of incompetence, period. More to the point the problem is people.

  9. Tinfoil hat time... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I can't help but wonder who's really behind this leak. It smells a LOT like a false flag operation.

    Bank of America has known for months that they're the next major Wikileaks target. Now all of a sudden the material pops up "from Anonymous", in the middle of the Japan earthquake, a HUGE news story - and over the weekend. I tried viewing the site all morning and have been getting 503 errors. If you wanted to bury an inevitable major embarrassment to your company, I think this is how you do it. Wikileaks, for all their faults, would never release this while there were so many other major developing stories.

  10. The U.S. government is EXTREMELY corrupt. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Your comment about "this period of history" draws attention away from the fact that the U.S. government is EXTREMELY corrupt. Few in government are on the side of the people. Most of the really powerful in the U.S. government are helping the corrupters.

    For example, see the Rolling Stone article about Goldman Sachs, The Great American Bubble Machine

    The documentary movie Inside Job was nominated for an Oscar. It's an excellent movie about the extreme corruption. NOTHING has been done.

  11. Who wants torrents? Come and get 'em! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Sorry to reply off-topic, but I want to post this as high up as possible:

    http://www.mediafire.com/?9gig97gio0g3b7b

    Here is the torrent file. BoA seems to be sockpuppet-rushing TPB to mark the torrents as fake.

  12. Sorry but that is not what he did by Sycraft-fu · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Provided that he indeed was the source of the leaked material, and it seems likely he was, this is NOT whistle blowing. That would be releasing a specific set of documents relevant to what you are blowing the whistle on. He released everything he got his hands on. Please note some of it is shit like what US diplomats think of foreign leaders. That is nothing that is of any public interest, nor in the slightest illegal/immoral/etc.

    Now regardless, he broke the law. Please remember military law is a little different from civilian law. Regardless it is illegal to disseminate classified information you are given access to.

    In a case of legit whistle blowing, then perhaps that is a mitigating circumstance (though the UCMJ doesn't really seem to provide an exception, perhaps it should but it doesn't) but in this case no. It was a leak of whatever he could get, without regard for value or harm. That really removes any moral high ground argument.

  13. Ummm... Sorry... by Sycraft-fu · · Score: 4, Informative

    But I find him no more, and perhaps less, a credible source than the banks. That site is written by Karl Denninger, who is a Tea Partier and Glenn Beck fan. Ok fine, but that does not speak to someone who is very balanced on the issues. That is a hardcore "Gold standard is the ONLY standard," kind of individual and not someone who has a good understanding of the complexities of finance and a balanced view (the phrase "bleeding heart liberals" is a favourite).

    1. Re:Ummm... Sorry... by metlin · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I visited his site, and the first entry was on guns, comparing Obama to Hitler, while his site is titled, "Commentary on The Capital Markets". Very relevant and erudite, indeed. And of course, the content and quality of his site went downhill from there.

      Here is the problem, and the irony, of such sites (as I see it).

      Ever since the crash, you've all these "experts" who have a tenuous grasp at best of fundamental finance or economics, and yet who are perfectly comfortable spewing forth rubbish on the topic. It's no different from the dotcom boom -- everyone pretended to know a little something about technology, and was perfectly happy to spew forth rubbish, without really knowing anything substantial at all.

      Just read his junk on the state of the debt, and you realize that the man only talks about the market at a broad, superficial level, peppered with hackneyed hockey-mom aphorisms, without ever touching any of the fundamental drivers. Furthermore, I really wish somebody would give this guy a crash course in fundamental statistics on cross-correlation and causation.

      The problem is that armed with half-baked knowledge and strong opinions, these guys are perfectly happy telling the world what's wrong, but offering nothing more than platitudes in fixing the problems without collapsing the economic structure we've built thus far.

      Heck, what are the guy's qualifications? He has a Wikipedia entry that states that he is a "stock trader" and a CEO, but how much capital did he trade in? Unless it's hundreds of millions or more, he knows nothing about "capital markets" -- he is just a small fish in the pond. And what was he the "CEO" of? What are his educational qualifications?

      The irony of such guys pushing forth their opinions is pretty much the same as creationists pushing their "agenda" to stop teaching evolution.

      If you must, read someone like Nassim Nicholas Taleb -- his books The Black Swan or Fooled by Randomness offer a lot more on why we fucked up, than some crazy right wing rhetoric by a chipmunk with half-a-brain (no insults to any chipmunks, of course -- they are perfectly adorable creatures).

  14. Re:Yes, there will be reporocussions. by ALeavitt · · Score: 4, Funny

    hoi paloi

    People are stupid.

    This is the most delicious kind of irony.

    --
    This sig has been stolen. Return it to its original user for a reward.