Tag: banks

Mortgage program for low-income funded 2nd homes for millionaires

The Department of Agriculture’s Section 502 loan programs help low-income families buy homes with mortgages that don’t require a down payment. But in 2013, an investigation by Reuters found dozens of millionaires took advantage to purchase vacation and rental homes.

Though the millionaires later repaid their loans, the program as a whole covered $500 million in losses from defaults in 2013, or $715 million in today’s money.

That’s according to the “Wastebook” reporting published by the late U.S. Senator Dr. Tom Coburn. For years, these reports shined a white-hot spotlight on federal frauds and taxpayer abuses.

Coburn, the legendary U.S. Senator from Oklahoma, earned the nickname “Dr. No” by stopping thousands of pork-barrel projects using the Senate rules. Projects that he couldn’t stop, Coburn included in his oversight reports.

Coburn’s Wastebook 2013 included 100 examples of outrageous spending worth nearly $30 billion, including the loans for millionaires.

Search all federal, state and local salaries and vendor spending with the world’s largest government spending database at OpenTheBooks.com.

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Federal Housing Bill Pulte Responds to Reports of Sharia Compliant Home Mortgages

Federal housing regulator Bill Pulte on Thursday responded to reports of Sharia-compliant mortgage loans purchased by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Pulte says Fannie and Freddie don’t give out sharia-compliant-loans.

Guidance Residential, a private Islamic home-financing company, publicly states that it brings Freddie Mac and, according to another passage on its website, Fannie Mae, into its transactions as investors.

The company describes its product as “Islamic co-ownership financing.” Instead of issuing a conventional interest-bearing mortgage, Guidance says it purchases a home alongside the buyer. The buyer then gradually acquires the company’s ownership share while paying for the use of the remaining share.

Guidance says the arrangement was constructed to satisfy Sharia principles prohibiting riba, or interest. It also claims that its Sharia board and 18 law firms developed a contract under which Freddie Mac can participate without purchasing conventional debt.

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Your Bank Data Could Become A Profit Center – And You’ll Pay the Price

A forthcoming federal rule on open banking may allow banks to charge new fees for access to consumer data, a move critics say would harm consumers and runs counter to other parts of President Donald Trump’s agenda.

Open banking allows consumers to authorize banks and other financial institutions to securely share their financial data electronically with third-party providers.

Why now?

The White House was reviewing the anticipated rule from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as of last week, according to reporting by Bloomberg Law. The rule would help shape the federal framework for open banking in the U.S., building on a broad provision contained within the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010.

Dodd-Frank was passed to enhance transparency and accountability and strengthen consumer protections in the financial industry after the economic crisis of 2008. The law is just under 850 pages long, and Section 1033 – which provides the legal basis for the open banking ecosystem that has evolved in the U.S. – was not one of its central provisions. Section 1033 is about one page long and it ensures that Americans have the legal right to access their own financial data upon request. Financial institutions must provide consumers’ financial data relevant to the sought-after financial product or service in “an electronic form usable by consumers.”

The law gives the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau broad authority to define and standardize this process, which is partly why affected industries have anticipated federal rulemaking on open banking for more than a decade.

The Biden administration issued the long-awaited rule in late 2024, which required banks to provide data directly to third parties authorized by consumers and prohibited banks from charging third parties fees for accessing the data, among other provisions. Banks pushed back, suing the bureau claiming it was exceeding the authority it was granted under Section 1033 and challenging those provisions in court.

Banks have said the rule would require them to build and maintain costly interfaces for third-party access while preventing them from being able to recoup those costs.

Last summer, JPMorgan Chase & Co. submitted proposed fees to data aggregators like Plaid for accessing Chase customers’ financial data.

The Trump administration has said the Biden administration’s rule was unlawful, “arbitrary and capricious” and began working on a rewrite of the rule last August. The lawsuit is essentially paused until the new rule is released, and the court ordered that enforcement of the Biden rule be stayed.

The Trump administration’s version reportedly includes a provision that would allow banks to charge volume-based fees to fintech companies to access consumer financial data, meaning banks could begin charging fintech companies once they make more than a certain number of requests for customer data.

Who pays the price?

News that the Trump administration’s rule would include a data-rationing provision prompted numerous objections from fintech companies and consumer advocacy groups, who argued that if banks didn’t pay for the data sharing, consumers ultimately will.

“Inevitably, if [the cost] is on the third party, it’s going to go back to the consumer,” said Todd Zywicki, a George Mason University law professor who formerly led a CFPB task force on federal consumer financial law and served in a leadership role at the Federal Trade Commission.

A third party is really a false choice, according to Zywicki, and between consumers and banks, he thinks banks are the much better option.

“The bank already has built-in incentives to collect the data, keep the data safely, use the data, and under law would already be required to share the data with consumers for them to be able to use it to shop for themselves,” Zywicki told The Center Square, “To then say, OK, now you have to also let Plaid access my data or Mint access my data, so they can go find me a better savings account than recommended to me or suggests this product instead of that product just strikes me as the only way to really make sense on this.”

The five largest banks in the U.S. reported a record-worthy second quarter. JPMorgan reported its highest quarterly profit in history, Goldman Sachs had its best second quarter ever, and Citigroup enjoyed its best quarter in a decade. Bank of America also posted strong results, while Wells Fargo beat Wall Street expectations. Collectively, they brought in $49 billion in profits.

Zywicki and other sources who spoke to The Center Square also maintained that banks have already done much of the work to build an open banking ecosystem and any costs they might incur to share data with more third parties would be relatively small.

“Banks already are collecting and holding information securely… They’ve already got to share the information for free with the consumer. It’s just a matter of whether a third party can get the information on behalf of the consumer,” Zywicki added.

But there’s another cost to consumers that could be even greater than any immediate impact on their wallets, advocates warn, and that’s the cost of continued fervent fintech innovation.

“We have already seen the nation’s biggest banks take advantage of regulatory ambiguity to impose fees and throttle access. Further uncertainty could stop the next great startup from forming and prevent consumers from accessing affordable financial products,” said Miranda Margowsky, head of communications for the Financial Technology Association.

Fintech innovation can do more than help consumers manage their finances. Startups like Carefull, a fintech company that analyzes customers’ financial activity for unusual patterns, can help detect warning signs of dementia or cognitive decline, potentially years before a clinical diagnosis.

“The goal here is to create a competitive framework where… small banks, for example, or fintech providers, or whoever can compete against the big banks that are currently holding the data,” Zywicki said. “It’s not really much of a fair playing field if banks can continue to use this information to market their [own] products.”

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Nation’s biggest bank warns of global food ‘crisis’ in 2027, citing bad weather and wars in Iran, Ukraine

Get ready for another round of sticker shock at your local grocery stores and food markets.

The nation’s largest bank has just put out a chilling report that confirms what I have been warning about since the first week of March: A global food shortage is coming, caused by war and bad weather, leading to widespread famine as we get into 2027.

In a report titled Food Security Is National Security: A Compounding Storm, a team led by London-based senior global economist Nora Szentivanyi warned that disruptions around the Strait of Hormuz and the emergence of a potentially historic El Niño could weaken crop yields, constrain agricultural production, and keep food inflation elevated through the first half of 2027.

While we in America, Canada and Europe can expect to pay higher food prices and may have to cut back elsewhere, other countries will be in worse shape. Think about the migration storm that will cause, as people in the Third World leave their countries and head for wealthier countries that have more food.

“Successive shocks since COVID have compounded, eroding food production capacity and keeping food price pressures elevated into 2027,” Szentivanyi said, warning that “this is not a short-lived shock; it has reduced the likelihood of near-term disinflation, and the food inflation cycle is likely to exert pressure through 1H27.”

JP Morgan Chase’s report on a looming food crisis rocked the internet as people posted on it across social media platforms today.

What this means is that a larger segment of the population is going to wake up and start stocking up. That means prices will go up even faster than they have been, as demand increases, and those prices will rise faster than they would have if the masses hadn’t been suddenly jolted into reality by an establishment institution like JP Morgan Chase and all the press coverage that entails.

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Freedom Convoy blacklist circulated to thousands of financial firms, records show

A federal blacklist containing personal information about Freedom Convoy supporters was circulated to potentially thousands of financial firms, according to new records uncovered by Blacklock’s Reporter.

Blacklock’s reports that regulators in Ontario distributed the information to between 1,000 and 2,000 brokerages and other firms, with no restrictions placed on further distribution.

The blacklist originated with the RCMP and included names, birth dates, telephone numbers and other personal information. Earlier parliamentary records showed it was distributed by unencrypted email to as many as 50 financial institutions, along with industry organizations and securities regulators.

The list was created after the Trudeau government invoked the Emergencies Act in February 2022. Authorities froze $7.8 million held in 437 bank and credit union accounts and cryptocurrency wallets associated with Freedom Convoy supporters.

The Federal Court of Appeal ruled in January that the government’s invocation of the Emergencies Act was unlawful.

Finance officials have also acknowledged the names on the blacklist were not verified.

“There was no verification,” then-assistant deputy finance minister Isabelle Jacques testified in 2023. “We didn’t do any follow-up.”

The revelations contrast with comments from then-finance minister Chrystia Freeland, who said in 2022 the RCMP had provided financial institutions with information on protest leaders, organizers and people whose trucks participated in blockades.

Blacklock’s previously reported parliamentary records showing the blacklist also went to Canadian operations of foreign financial institutions, including Bank of China, State Bank of India, BNP Paribas, Citibank, Habib Bank, ICICI Bank, Mizuho Financial Group and Wells Fargo.

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Trump Housing Director Bill Pulte Launches Probe into Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac’s SHARIA LAW Home Financing

President Trump’s federal housing director Bill Pulte says officials are examining claims that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac participate in home-financing arrangements marketed as compliant with Islamic law.

Pulte, who serves as both FHFA Director and chairman of the boards of the two government-sponsored mortgage giants, responded directly on X after White House correspondent Natalie Winters highlighted the issue.

Winters posted evidence that Fannie Mae maintains a specific loan code for “Musharaka Islamic Finance Mortgages” and that Freddie Mac explicitly recognizes financing “designed to comply with Islamic law.”

Pulte replied: “We are looking into this right now. Thanks for mentioning!”

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which together back nearly half of all U.S. residential mortgages and remain under federal conservatorship, have for years provided critical secondary-market liquidity to Sharia-compliant products. These are structured primarily as diminishing Musharaka (co-ownership) arrangements rather than traditional interest-bearing loans, because Islamic law forbids riba (interest).

Providers such as Guidance Residential have financed more than $10 billion for tens of thousands of families using these structures, with the GSEs stepping in as co-owners or investors to keep the pipeline flowing. The practice dates back to the early 2000s, when Fannie and Freddie first began purchasing Islamic mortgage products.

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Reality Bites: Socialist NYC Mayor Mamdani Turns To Capitalist Bankers For Help

After socialist New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani went after Citadel’s Ken Griffin, created a property database of wealthy homeowners that makes the list easily accessible to “Luigi-worshipping leftist thugs,” and endlessly bashed America and capitalism, all while his friend, Democratic Socialists of America’s unofficial spokesperson Hasan Piker, called on his followers to “kill capitalists in the streets” and other DSA members called for the destruction of America from within, the far-left NYC mayor, who is running into roadblocks, has called on capitalist bankers for help.

Piker in his own words: “KiII those motherf**kers and murder those motherf**kers in the streets. Let the streets soak in their f**king red capitalist blood.” 

Bloomberg reports that Mamdani is seeking top capitalist bankers for a new business advisory council as he attempts to mend relations with Wall Street after spewing dangerous rhetoric against the very people who make the city go ’round.

Those invited include former UBS Americas Chief Executive Officer Robert Wolf, former Lazard investment-banking chief Antonio Weiss, and Bank of America’s New York City President Jose Tavarez, according to people familiar with the discussions.

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CBS News Not Airing ‘60 Minutes’ Jeffrey Epstein Story Under Scrutiny

Senator Ron Wyden has questioned why a 60 Minutes interview with now-former correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi on Jeffrey Epstein’s banking practices never aired, adding it had been “suppressed.”

The Oregon Democrat raised the issue in a new Senate Finance Committee report, published on August 4, alleging Deutsche Bank failed to promptly disclose more than $250 million in suspicious Epstein-related transactions.

“It is disappointing that, instead of advancing new facts that would help bring accountability to the men who participated in Epstein’s trafficking operation, the report largely recycles allegations that have already been exhaustively examined by courts and the government,” a spokesperson for JPMorgan Chase told Newsweek.

Asked for comment, Wyden’s office pointed Newsweek to page 61 of the report, where it says his taped interview with Alfonsi was intended for a broader 60 Minutes segment on banks and Epstein, adding that it is unclear whether CBS News leadership will allow the broader segment to air following Alfonsi’s departure from the network.

CBS News says the segment simply was not ready before the show’s season ended.

Pushing back against any suggestion that the interview was buried, a spokesperson for the network said in a statement shared with Newsweek via email: “We air pieces when they are ready, and suggesting that an interview is being ‘suppressed’ for any reason is categorically false.”

According to Wyden’s report, “the investigation found significant evidence that JPMorgan Chase, Deutsche Bank, and Bank of America violated federal anti-money laundering laws by failing to screen and report Epstein’s suspicious financial transactions in a timely manner.”

A spokesperson for Bank of America told Newsweek: “We take our legal and regulatory obligations seriously and, as we have previously said, the bank did not facilitate wrongdoing.”

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Capital One Admits It Closed Over 300 Trump Organization Accounts After Internal AML Review — Bank Calls Political Debanking Claims ‘Misguided’

Capital One Financial disclosed in a late-Friday court filing that it closed more than 300 Trump Organization-affiliated bank accounts in 2021 — not because of politics, the bank insists, but following a “months-long” internal anti-money laundering review. The disclosure, reported by Reuters and confirmed by CNBC, marks the first time any financial institution has formally cited AML concerns in connection with the Trump family’s business empire.

The filing, submitted to federal court in Miami on August 1, 2026, is Capital One’s latest attempt to dismiss a lawsuit brought by the Trump Organization and Eric Trump in March 2025. The suit alleges that Capital One acted on “woke” political ideology and sought to capitalize on the anti-Trump sentiment that surged after the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot. Capital One’s lawyers called those allegations “misguided” and insisted that “the closures were the result of months of analysis and a careful review by Capital One’s AML team in accordance with bank policies and regulatory guidance.”

The bank was careful to add a crucial qualifier: it “never accused the Trump Organization of illegal money laundering.” Instead, Capital One argues its compliance team identified “transaction patterns” that fit the types of activity flagged under federal Bank Secrecy Act guidance — a distinction that may satisfy regulators but does little to quiet the political firestorm the case has ignited.

Conservative critics have long argued that the post-January 6 wave of corporate debanking — in which major financial institutions quietly closed accounts tied to figures on the political right — amounts to ideological discrimination dressed up in regulatory language. Capital One is hardly alone in the dock. In January 2026, the Trump Organization filed a separate $5 billion suit against JPMorgan Chase on identical grounds. Trump signed an executive order in August 2025 specifically banning discriminatory debanking, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has launched a review of nine major banks over the practice.

The Miami federal court has now dismissed two prior versions of the Trump-Capital One complaint, each time allowing an amended filing. The latest amended complaint, submitted in July 2026, claims the bank’s AML rationale is a post-hoc cover story, pointing to “cherry-picked” internal documents that the bank says, when read in full context, vindicate its compliance process. U.S. District Judge Roy Altman will now decide whether the Trump team has finally built a case strong enough to survive.

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The CCP Is Inside the Fed: Shocking New Evidence of Chinese Infiltration at America’s Central Bank

Most Americans have heard about Chinese spies targeting our military or hacking private companies. But there’s another front in this quiet war, one that’s gone largely unreported—and it may be the most dangerous of all: China’s long game to infiltrate and manipulate the United States Federal Reserve.

A 2022 Senate investigation offered a rare glimpse into this operation, but even that barely scratches the surface. What’s playing out behind closed doors isn’t just a few bureaucratic missteps or naïve collaborations—it’s a full-blown economic espionage campaign.

This is warfare without bullets.

The Fed: A Prime Target for Chinese Espionage

The Federal Reserve is the engine of the U.S. economy. Its decisions move markets, shape global capital flows, and set the tone for the world’s monetary system. Infiltrating the Fed doesn’t just give China intelligence – it gives them influence.

Over at least a decade, the CCP has targeted Fed employees through a mix of coercion, recruitment offers, unauthorized data access, and propaganda partnerships, mostly hidden behind Chinese academic institutions and think tanks.

According to this damning Senate report, the Fed’s own counterintelligence team identified a group of 13 employees across eight regional banks—internally referred to as the “P-Network”—who exhibited serious red flags linked to the Chinese government.

This pattern could be replicated at scale.

Hard Evidence of Espionage and Infiltration

Here are some documented examples that received little attention from the mainstream media:

1. Detained and Surveilled in China (Individual A)

    •    In 2019, a Fed employee was detained four separate times by Chinese authorities during a visit to Shanghai. He was threatened, told his family would be harmed, and coerced into handing over sensitive U.S. economic data. Chinese agents accessed his Fed laptop, phones, and internal contact lists. He was ordered to “tell a good story about China” back in the U.S. This employee returned to his post with full access to confidential monetary policy data.

2. Secret Data Transfers to Chinese Institutions (Individual B)

    •    Another employee sent modeling code and restricted Fed data to a university linked to China’s central bank (PBOC). He proposed deeper collaboration between his Reserve Bank and Chinese state institutions while maintaining access to Class II FOMC data, which includes sensitive internal forecasts and deliberations.

3. Coordination with Chinese Propaganda Outlets (Individual C)

    •   Another Fed employee took a paid visiting professorship in China funded by the CCP and subsequently acted as a liaison with Xinhua News Agency, the Chinese government’s propaganda arm. He even helped Chinese journalists and officials gain access to Fed contacts, often bypassing formal Fed communication channels.

4. Suspicious Talent Recruitment Programs (Individual D)

    •    Another Fed employee attempted to transfer large U.S. data sets to Chinese institutions. He was found to have joined the Thousand Talents Program, China’s premier foreign recruitment tool for stealing scientific and economic research. This affiliation was never disclosed and the employee continued working at the Fed.

A Named Case: John Harold Rogers

The Justice Department indicted John Harold Rogers, a former senior adviser in the Federal Reserve’s Division of International Finance, for allegedly passing sensitive U.S. economic data to agents tied to the Chinese government  .

Rogers served at the Fed from 2010 to 2021, holding access to confidential materials related to FOMC deliberations, economic forecasts, and tariff policy analysis  .

He allegedly began working with Chinese co‑conspirators posing as university students starting around 2013, and intensified the misconduct after 2018, using personal email and printed documents to transfer restricted Fed data  .

In 2023, Rogers is accused of receiving approximately $450,000 from a Chinese university while teaching and meeting with these supposed “students” in China, including hotel rooms where he shared Fed trade secrets.

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