Oops…Wall Street Investment Firms Fined $1.4 Billion

<a href="https://solomonsuccess.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/scam-jepoirrer.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-400" src="https://solomonsuccess.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/scam-jepoirrer-150x150.jpg" alt="SolomonSuccess.com" width="150" height="150" /></a>Granted, the above mentioned financial fiasco occurred in 2003 but how quickly we forget the misdeeds and chicanery of a healthy handful of Wall Street's finest investment firms. It's been more than seven years since the following firms got busted across the chops for the hefty fine, which represented only a fraction of the amount they likely swindled from the pockets of the average American who had the audacity to trust the “system.”

Granted, the above mentioned financial fiasco occurred in 2003 but how quickly we forget the misdeeds and chicanery of a healthy handful of Wall Street”s finest investment firms. It”s been more than seven years since the following firms got busted across the chops for the hefty fine, which represented only a fraction of the amount they likely swindled from the pockets of the average American who had the audacity to trust the “system.”

Salomon Smith Barney
Merrill Lynch
Credit Suisse First Boston
Morgan Stanley
Goldman Sachs
J.P. Morgan Chase
Bear Stearns
Lehman Brothers
US Bancorp Piper Jaffrey
UBS Paine Webber

Why dig out this list of miscreants now and parade them around? Our point is to help remind you that the lessons of history should never be forgotten. This whole sorry episode should have been a lesson to the public, a peek behind the curtain for a glimpse at how Big Investment operates. If you think a little thing like a $1.4 billion fine levied back then intrinsically changed the way Wall Street does business today, you would be best online casino wrong. They simply had to become a little bit sneakier.

Even more interesting to ponder are the terms of the settlement agreement. In return for paying the slap on the wrist fine and implementing a few business reforms, no investment firm or individual employed by such admitted to having misrepresented information to the public, even though there was ample evidence that stocks being touted to the public were simultaneously disparaged in internal emails.

The lesson to take away from today”s reflection is that Wall Street cannot, should not, must not be trusted with your money. Ever. You should always be a direct investor and maintain complete control over your assets. Fail to heed that warning and you could end up one of the millions of stock investors swindled and never even know it. But if not stocks, what? What”s left to invest in? Precious metals like gold are a better choice but still not the best. For our money, and we”ve made a lot of it by following our own advice, income property investing enjoys remarkable advantages in regards to return on investment.

But the best news of all is it”s much harder to cheat on a real estate deal than a stock deal.

The Solomon Success Team

Flickr / jepoirrer

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