--- COPS AND ROBBERS ---
17th February 2015

Former crooked Chicago Police detective Jerome (Jerry) Finnegan is being transferred from here tomorrow morning to another federal joint in Colorado named Englewood. Coincidentally, this particular federal prison also houses former crooked Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich who is presently serving 14 years for racketeering.

This is the Governor who got caught on tape trying to sell Obama's former Illinois Congressional seat to the highest bidder. Blagojevich is a gangster, right down to his hair (it's a humongous pompadour that can only be described as audacious). He not only went to trial, he also did the talk show circuit after being convicted and used the opportunity to talk trash about the U.S. Attorney that prosecuted him. They never invited me to be on Letterman. Maybe I should've done my hair differently when I pled guilty.

Life and prison are sometimes strange. I'm a robber, so it only stands to reason that I'm not too fond of crooked cops. But I like Jerry. He's a nice guy who just used his position of trust to shakedown criminals for money. It happens. It's a way of life and somewhat of an institution for a certain segment of Chicago cops, and Jerry just got caught. Plenty haven't and never will.

There's a high ranking member here of Chicago's most notorious street gangs, The Black Gangster Disciples, and one day I saw him walking the track with Jerry and they were laughing and cutting up. I later pulled him up and asked him point blank how he justifies that friendship or association. He smiled, and told me, "Aw, man, that's just Jerry. He used to shake me down on the Southside when I was a kid and I don't hold no grudges. He was doing what he did and I so was I. No harm no foul." You see that a lot with members of various gangs that were enemies on the street but they hang out back here simply because they're homeboys. They suspend their beefs (unless it involved killing a friend or family member), but when they get back out all bets are off and they're back to trying to kill each other.

I wished Jerry luck tonight when he told me he was leaving. I also told him to tell Governor Blogo about the Bank Robber's Blog, my books, and that it was time for him to upgrade his reading selection for the upcoming year. Then I added, "Tell him Jeff From Joliet says hello, and for God's sake, please tell him get a haircut."

Jeffrey P. Frye
murderslim.com
Bank Robber's Blog
bankblogger.weebly.com
@bankblogger2

--- CHIEF EXECUTIVE ROBBER ---
5th February 2015

It's been my experience that people don't like a criminal pointing out their own criminal behavior to them. So I do my best to keep from pointing my fat felonious finger at the flaws of fledgling felons. But occasionally, through some some fortuitous flaw of fate, I'll bump into something so blatantly hypocritical and something so criminally audacious, that I can't pass it up. Something so utterly blogolicious that I have to pick up my pen and tell you guys about it. The subject of this blog is one of those occasions.

After having ample time to consider it, I've determined that the only thing stupider than me walking into a bank without a gun and demanding money is the fact that they actually gave it to me. They should've known better. After all, they shouldn't be in the business of letting some idiot just walk in the door and talk them out of their loot. I mean, really.

But they did. For my part in this confederacy of stupidity I was given a lengthy federal stretch, and was bestowed with the eternal moniker of Bank Robber. Although this label has proved sufficient to attract you to this blog and buy my books, I still find it to be a wee bit overstated. And when I read about people like a gentleman named Brian Moynihan, I truly feel unworthy of such a title. Mr. Moynihan is living proof of my theory that "You can steal way more with a laptop than you can with a gun." Who is Brian Moynihan, you wonder? He's a fellow Bank Robber, that's who he is. He's also got a couple of other titles. I'll get to those in a moment.

In the fiscal year of 2014 in the United States of America, some 50 banks failed and had to close their doors. Fifty banks went bankrupt. What happens when a bank goes bankrupt? That's something that you don't see very often. But let's go a little bit farther down the robbing rabbit hole. What happens when a bank robs their customer, instead of the other way around? What moniker would be bestowed on the individual at the bank who was responsible for this? Employee of The Month? Close.

A few months ago, one of the largest banks in the united States, Bank of America, finally admitted to this type of conduct and agreed to pay nearly 17 billion dollars to settle the claim. That was billion with a B. The "Civil" charges were brought against the bank by United States Attorney General Eric Holder on behalf of the government. They were the result of an investigation by the Justice Department that found that the bank had engaged in a pattern of fraud against its customers and against other companies. This conduct was knowingly and willingly carried out, with malicious intent, over the course of several years not only by Bank of America, but also by other banking giants such as Citigroup, JP Morgan, and Wells Fargo.

It was this conduct that was ultimately responsible for sending the U.S. economy into the toilet and causing a recession; A recession that required intervention by the federal government in the form of bailouts for industries such as banking, insurance, and the auto industry. It also caused the government to literally give money to its citizens in the form of "Stimulus checks." Leading the charge of this American systemic fraud and robbery was none other than Bank of America. How apropos.

Bank of America's criminal conduct was two-fold. They diversified in 2008 and bought the companies Countrywide Financial and Merrill Lynch, two companies that also participated in this scheme. The first part involved approving loans for customers who weren't eligible to receive them. They had a computer program called CURES that would score-out applicants based on the personal and economic variables that were entered into the computer. Based on these variables, the computer would issue an "Accept" or "Reject" rating. The formula used in the CLUES program was straight; it was the bankers who were crooked.

In an effort to push an applicant through who couldn't obtain an Accept rating based on their legitimate data, the banker (and their supervisors) would falsify the information that they entered into the computer. Information such as income. The bank knew that the customer would eventually default on the loans, but they weren't concerned, because this would happen long after they'd received their commissions. Nor would the bank have to worry about getting stuck with the property when the customer defaulted on the mortgages because they would package and sell the toxic mortgages to other companies. They would literally pass the buck. The only problem was that the buck had to eventually stop somewhere. Unfortunately, it stopped with the American taxpayer.

Bank of America would package the toxic mortgages and sell them to companies that bought and sold debt. This is a normal business model that's highly successful, but only when it's predicated on legitimate debt. This is where bank's fraud basically turned into robbery and qualified them for a shout-out on the Bank Robber's Blog. They defrauded their customers by making bad loans to them, and then they robbed other companies by selling them the bad debt. The 16.65 billion dollar settlement that they paid to the United States Justice Department was considered a "Civil" claim and not a criminal one, but I'll bet that the people who lost their homes, or the companies who got stuck with the toxic mortgages, didn't consider Bank of America's behavior to be very civil.

So who is Brian Moynihan? He's a fellow Bank Robber and the CEO of Bank of America, and he's the one who was ultimately accountable for the bank's conduct. Just the same as I was ultimately accountable for liberating money from 7 different banks. My accountability translated to a 20 year prison sentence in the feds. However, Mr. Moynihan's consequences were a little bit different. In addition to his annual salary of over 15 million dollars, very shortly after he grudgingly made the phone call to Eric Holder and personally admitted to the bank's conduct and settled the claim, he was promoted to Chairman of The Board of Bank of America, in addition to his duties as its Chief Executive officer. You could never convince Brian Moynihan that crime doesn't pay. He's doing quite well.

So there it is. Another criminal tale from the annals of American bank robbery. Brought to you raw and uncut at murderslim.com on the Bank Robber's Blog. Although it will never be reported by mainstream media, the reality of the situation is that Brian Moynihan is more of a Bank Robber than I could ever dream of being. Hell, next to him, I look like a shoplifter. I just hope he doesn't decide to start writing books and blogging some day. I don't think my self esteem could take the hit.

Jeffrey P. Frye
murderslim.com
Bank Robber's Blog
bankblogger.weebly.com
@bankblogger2