Here is NPR's Marketplace reporting on the Glaxco fraud. They to fail to report the full picture of the fraud. I have told the ombudsman on several occasions that they cannot have financial reporting on public radio that does not report in the interest of the public, but serves to perpetuate the deceit. WE WANT OUR PUBLIC RADIO STATIONS BACK!!!! GET RID OF WALL STREET REPORTING!!!!!! AS YOU SEE, THIS FRAUD INVOLVES BILLIONS IN TAXPAYER MONEY AND THE FRAUD WAS SO OPEN AS TO SHOW THAT YOUR ELECTED OFFICIAL SAID NOTHING......MAKING THEM A CO-CONSPIRATOR IN THE CRIME. I WILL REPEAT....THERE IS NO WAY YOUR POLITICIAN DIDN'T KNOW THIS WAS HAPPENING! THIS IS WHY ENTITLEMENTS ARE FALLING SHORT IN FUNDING AND YOUR ELECTED OFFICIAL IS GOING TO CUT BENEFITS TO COVER THE FRAUDULENT GAINS.
VOTE YOUR INCUMBENT OUT!!!!
It would be good to let the listeners know that the total profit from these drugs was $18 billion dollars as reported by NBC Nightly News...thanks to them. Also, in making it seem as though the Obama Administration is getting tough on entitlement fraud you again are failing to report with accuracy. We read investigative journalism like Propublica and the Center for Public Integrity to see that the Justice Department under Obama has placed limited resources to the investigation of healthcare and any other fraud and the size of the busts just reflect the tremendous amount of fraud in the system.
So, as yet again, a fine for a fraction of the fraudulent gains and no criminal prosecutions for the pharma industry for knowingly pushing drugs that were harmful to Medicaid patients for profits and for doctors knowingly prescribing the drug under false pretenses. This was allowed to happen with your elected oficial knowing because it involved taxpayer money and the poor.
Glaxo Agrees to Pay $3 Billion in Fraud Settlement
by Carrie Johnson July 2, 2012
Listen to the Story All Things Considered
British pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline has agreed to pay $3 billion in civil and criminal fines for promoting two drugs, Paxil and Wellbutrin, for unapproved uses, and failing to report key safety data about the diabetes drug Avandia.
ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:
From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Robert Siegel.
MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:
And I'm Melissa Block. In what the government is calling the biggest health care fraud settlement in history, drug maker Glaxo SmithKline has agreed to plead guilty to misdemeanor criminal charges and pay $3 billion. As NPR's Carrie Johnson reports, the Justice Department says Glaxo used illegal tactics to promote two popular depression drugs and failed to report safety data on a third drug for diabetes.
CARRIE JOHNSON, BYLINE: Over the past three years, the Obama administration has stepped up its efforts to police the pharmaceutical industry, collecting $10 billion in settlements and fines, but today's blockbuster deal with Glaxo SmithKline had a different feel. Deputy Attorney General Jim Cole.
JIM COLE: This action constitutes the largest health care settlement in United States history. It underscores our robust commitment to protecting the American people from the scourge of health care fraud.
JOHNSON: Under the terms of the settlement, Glaxo agreed to plead guilty to three misdemeanor charges. One charge says the company encouraged children with depression to use the drug Paxil even though it had not won regulatory approval for patients under age 18. Dan Levinson is the inspector general at the Department of Health and Human Services.
DAN LEVINSON: This unlawful promotion put children at risk of taking drugs that were unproven to be effective for them and have been shown to increase the risk of suicide.
JOHNSON: In the second criminal charge, Glaxo agreed it had unlawfully marketed Wellbutrin as a sort of wonder drug for uses like weight loss that had not been found safe or effective. U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz of Boston.
CARMEN ORTIZ: GSK hired a public relations firm to create a buzz about getting skinny and how you could have more sex simply by using this drug.
JOHNSON: Ortiz said Glaxo sales people bribed doctors to prescribe its drugs.
ORTIZ: ...using every imaginable form of high-priced entertainment, from Hawaiian vacations to paying doctors millions of dollars to go on speaking tours, to a European pheasant hunt, to tickets for Madonna concerts.
JOHNSON: The third charge accuses Glaxo of failing to turn over data about its diabetes drug Avandia and whether it increased the risk of heart troubles. Glaxo didn't want to go on tape, but its chief executive, Andrew Witty, expressed regret for the past misconduct in a written statement. He said the company had learned from its mistakes and made big changes in the way it does business. Inspector General Dan Levinson gave the company some credit.
LEVINSON: Sales representatives are now being paid based on the quality of service they deliver to customers, not on sales targets.
JOHNSON: Justice officials refused to say whether any individual executives at Glaxo would be charged with a crime, but lawyers who follow the case say they doubt it. Federal prosecutors accused a Glaxo lawyer of obstructing justice in the Wellbutrin investigation. But last year, a judge threw out the case even before the defense presented any evidence. Brian Kenney represents two former Glaxo employees who raised alarms about its marketing practices a decade ago. Kenney says the company buried the allegations.
BRIAN KENNEY: Had they been responsible corporate citizens, they could have solved their problems in 2002 instead of going through 10 years of investigations and ultimately paying $3 billion today.
JOHNSON: The message, Kenney says, is to listen to employees who blow the whistle. Carrie Johnson, NPR News, Washington
~
________________________________________________
FOR THOSE NOT UNDERSTANDING WHAT THE LIBOR RATE MEANS, VERY BASICLY IT IS THE RATE OF INTEREST CHARGED ON PERSONAL LOANS AND CREDIT CARDS AND THE AMOUNT OF INTEREST PAID ON PENSION INVESTMENTS ETC. BEFORE THE FINANCIAL SYSTEM WENT COMPLETELY CRIMINAL, THIS RATE WAS DETERMINED BY CONCENSUS AND HAD A RELATIVELY HONEST IMPLEMENTATION. THE ARTICLE BELOW SHOWS THAT THE WHOLE SYSTEM WAS FRAUDULENT MOVING BILLIONS OF DOLLARS TO BANKS OVER A DECADE OR MORE BY FIXING THE RATES TO THEIR ADVANTAGE WITH EVERYONE IN THE FINANCIAL INDUSTRY KNOWING THIS....YOUR POLITICIAN AS WELL. NPR'S NEWS WENT SO FAR AS TO SAY THAT THE ENTIRE WESTERN FINANCIAL SYSTEM WAS NO LONGER FUNCTIONING AND HAD TO BE COMPLETELY SCRAPPED AT THE SAME TIME MARKETPLACE MONEY WAS LAMENTING THE DECLINE OF WESTERN BANKING DUE TO REGULATIONS LEAVING THE CHINESE TO LEAD THE FINANCIAL INDUSTRY. THIS IS HOW CORRUPT THE SYSTEM HAS BECOME AS JOURNALISTS KNOWING THEY ARE WORKING WITH A CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE ARE ALLOWED TO OPENLY DECRY OVERSIGHT OF THE INDUSTRY. MEANWHILE, DIMON OF MORGAN STANLEY WAS HERALDED AS THE TOP US BANKER BY THE SENATE AS THE FRAUDULENT INVESTMENTS IN EUROPEAN SOVEREIGN DEBT NOW REACH ALMOST 9 BILLION DOLLARS. THESE POLITICIANS MUST PROTECT SHAREHOLDERS AT ALL COST!
VOTE YOUR INCUMBENT OUT!!!!!!!
__________________________
Barclays CEO Diamond Quits Under Pressure by The Associated Press July 3, 2012
Some analysts had thought Bob Diamond's position as Barclays chief executive was secure because there was no obvious successor in the wings.
Barclays chief executive Bob Diamond quit his job Tuesday, the latest scalp in a financial markets scandal that has also seen the bank's chairman announce his intention to resign and sown the seeds for another investigation into Britain's banking sector.
Diamond's resignation, which has taken effect immediately, comes a day after Chairman Marcus Agius fell on his sword too. However, Agius will lead the search for a new chief executive and will leave the company only after a new chairman is found.
The external pressure placed on Barclays has reached a level that risks damaging the franchise — I cannot let that happen.
Barclays' management has come under fire since the bank was fined $453 million last week by U.S. and British regulators for submitting false reports on interbank borrowing rates between 2005 and 2009. Much of that activity originated from traders in Barclays Capital, the investment banking division which Diamond headed at the time.
"The external pressure placed on Barclays has reached a level that risks damaging the franchise — I cannot let that happen," Diamond said Tuesday in the statement accompanying his resignation. "I am deeply disappointed that the impression created by the events announced last week about what Barclays and its people stand for could not be further from the truth."
Britain's Serious Fraud Office said Monday that it would decide within a month whether to pursue criminal charges in the case. The government, which has come under pressure to initiate a judge-led inquiry into the sector, also announced a parliamentary committee to investigate what went on and report by the end of the year.
Barclays' share price was up 3.5 percent at 175 pence in midmorning London trading as investors hoped some of the heat will have been taken out of the scandal.
"Although Diamond's resignation should take some of the ferocity out of the intense criticism heaped on Barclays there is little doubt that the risk of holding the stock has risen substantially in recent days," said Nic Clarke, an analyst at Charles Stanley. "A cloud is likely to hang over the stock until a suitable successor is chosen."
As well as facing intense media pressure over the past few days, Diamond has seen growing calls for his resignation from the political world. Both Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and opposition Labour Party leader Ed Miliband called for Diamond, a 60-year-old American, to stand down.
George Osborne, Britain's Treasury chief, said Diamond had decided to go Monday night. Osborne said he was told by Agius that "the board had come to view that that was the right decision and Mr. Diamond had come to that view."
"I think it is the right decision for Barclays, I think it is the right decision for the country," Osborne said.
The bank said Agius, 65, would become full-time chairman and would chair the executive committee until a new CEO is appointed.
"Clearly there's a lot more to come from this story right across the sector, but that's a significant scalp to be taken at this stage and now leaves a looming succession issue for the bank," said Mike McCudden, head of derivatives at Interactive Investor.
Some analysts had thought Diamond's position was secure because there was no obvious successor in the wings.
Diamond said he still intended to face the House of Commons Treasury Committee on Wednesday to give the bank's explanation for the false interest rate reports.
Barclays is one of a number of banks which regularly submit estimates of what it will cost them to borrow from other banks. These estimates feed into a calculation of the London interbank offered rate (LIBOR) which is used to determine payments from a range of financial contracts.
The London rate, and the related European interbank offered rate, are the benchmarks for over $500 trillion in global contracts, including loans and mortgages.
Barclays admitted that it had submitted lower than actual figures on its interbank borrowing during the credit crisis in 2007 and 2008. Several other global banks are being investigated in other countries for similar actions.
Last week, Diamond announced that he and three other senior executives were waiving any bonuses for 2012 because of the rate scandal.
The financial terms of his departure were not immediately disclosed.
His departure came as a surprise.
On Monday, Diamond sounded like a man determined to keep his job. In a memo to staff, he said he was disappointed by the misbehavior which led to the massive fines, but said: "It is my responsibility to make sure that it cannot happen again."
Diamond built up Barclays Capital into a profit-spinning powerhouse, and scored an important coup during the financial crisis by buying the remains of Lehman Brothers U.S. operations in a $1.35 billion deal.
Barclays survived the credit crisis without resorting to the kind of taxpayer bailout which saved Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland, relying instead on an injection of capital from Qatar Holding, the government-backed investment fund.
In January last year, Diamond memorably told a House of Commons committee: "There was a period of remorse and apology for banks. I think that period is over."
VOTE YOUR INCUMBENT OUT!!!!
It would be good to let the listeners know that the total profit from these drugs was $18 billion dollars as reported by NBC Nightly News...thanks to them. Also, in making it seem as though the Obama Administration is getting tough on entitlement fraud you again are failing to report with accuracy. We read investigative journalism like Propublica and the Center for Public Integrity to see that the Justice Department under Obama has placed limited resources to the investigation of healthcare and any other fraud and the size of the busts just reflect the tremendous amount of fraud in the system.
So, as yet again, a fine for a fraction of the fraudulent gains and no criminal prosecutions for the pharma industry for knowingly pushing drugs that were harmful to Medicaid patients for profits and for doctors knowingly prescribing the drug under false pretenses. This was allowed to happen with your elected oficial knowing because it involved taxpayer money and the poor.
Glaxo Agrees to Pay $3 Billion in Fraud Settlement
by Carrie Johnson July 2, 2012
Listen to the Story All Things Considered
British pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline has agreed to pay $3 billion in civil and criminal fines for promoting two drugs, Paxil and Wellbutrin, for unapproved uses, and failing to report key safety data about the diabetes drug Avandia.
ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:
From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Robert Siegel.
MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:
And I'm Melissa Block. In what the government is calling the biggest health care fraud settlement in history, drug maker Glaxo SmithKline has agreed to plead guilty to misdemeanor criminal charges and pay $3 billion. As NPR's Carrie Johnson reports, the Justice Department says Glaxo used illegal tactics to promote two popular depression drugs and failed to report safety data on a third drug for diabetes.
CARRIE JOHNSON, BYLINE: Over the past three years, the Obama administration has stepped up its efforts to police the pharmaceutical industry, collecting $10 billion in settlements and fines, but today's blockbuster deal with Glaxo SmithKline had a different feel. Deputy Attorney General Jim Cole.
JIM COLE: This action constitutes the largest health care settlement in United States history. It underscores our robust commitment to protecting the American people from the scourge of health care fraud.
JOHNSON: Under the terms of the settlement, Glaxo agreed to plead guilty to three misdemeanor charges. One charge says the company encouraged children with depression to use the drug Paxil even though it had not won regulatory approval for patients under age 18. Dan Levinson is the inspector general at the Department of Health and Human Services.
DAN LEVINSON: This unlawful promotion put children at risk of taking drugs that were unproven to be effective for them and have been shown to increase the risk of suicide.
JOHNSON: In the second criminal charge, Glaxo agreed it had unlawfully marketed Wellbutrin as a sort of wonder drug for uses like weight loss that had not been found safe or effective. U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz of Boston.
CARMEN ORTIZ: GSK hired a public relations firm to create a buzz about getting skinny and how you could have more sex simply by using this drug.
JOHNSON: Ortiz said Glaxo sales people bribed doctors to prescribe its drugs.
ORTIZ: ...using every imaginable form of high-priced entertainment, from Hawaiian vacations to paying doctors millions of dollars to go on speaking tours, to a European pheasant hunt, to tickets for Madonna concerts.
JOHNSON: The third charge accuses Glaxo of failing to turn over data about its diabetes drug Avandia and whether it increased the risk of heart troubles. Glaxo didn't want to go on tape, but its chief executive, Andrew Witty, expressed regret for the past misconduct in a written statement. He said the company had learned from its mistakes and made big changes in the way it does business. Inspector General Dan Levinson gave the company some credit.
LEVINSON: Sales representatives are now being paid based on the quality of service they deliver to customers, not on sales targets.
JOHNSON: Justice officials refused to say whether any individual executives at Glaxo would be charged with a crime, but lawyers who follow the case say they doubt it. Federal prosecutors accused a Glaxo lawyer of obstructing justice in the Wellbutrin investigation. But last year, a judge threw out the case even before the defense presented any evidence. Brian Kenney represents two former Glaxo employees who raised alarms about its marketing practices a decade ago. Kenney says the company buried the allegations.
BRIAN KENNEY: Had they been responsible corporate citizens, they could have solved their problems in 2002 instead of going through 10 years of investigations and ultimately paying $3 billion today.
JOHNSON: The message, Kenney says, is to listen to employees who blow the whistle. Carrie Johnson, NPR News, Washington
~
________________________________________________
FOR THOSE NOT UNDERSTANDING WHAT THE LIBOR RATE MEANS, VERY BASICLY IT IS THE RATE OF INTEREST CHARGED ON PERSONAL LOANS AND CREDIT CARDS AND THE AMOUNT OF INTEREST PAID ON PENSION INVESTMENTS ETC. BEFORE THE FINANCIAL SYSTEM WENT COMPLETELY CRIMINAL, THIS RATE WAS DETERMINED BY CONCENSUS AND HAD A RELATIVELY HONEST IMPLEMENTATION. THE ARTICLE BELOW SHOWS THAT THE WHOLE SYSTEM WAS FRAUDULENT MOVING BILLIONS OF DOLLARS TO BANKS OVER A DECADE OR MORE BY FIXING THE RATES TO THEIR ADVANTAGE WITH EVERYONE IN THE FINANCIAL INDUSTRY KNOWING THIS....YOUR POLITICIAN AS WELL. NPR'S NEWS WENT SO FAR AS TO SAY THAT THE ENTIRE WESTERN FINANCIAL SYSTEM WAS NO LONGER FUNCTIONING AND HAD TO BE COMPLETELY SCRAPPED AT THE SAME TIME MARKETPLACE MONEY WAS LAMENTING THE DECLINE OF WESTERN BANKING DUE TO REGULATIONS LEAVING THE CHINESE TO LEAD THE FINANCIAL INDUSTRY. THIS IS HOW CORRUPT THE SYSTEM HAS BECOME AS JOURNALISTS KNOWING THEY ARE WORKING WITH A CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE ARE ALLOWED TO OPENLY DECRY OVERSIGHT OF THE INDUSTRY. MEANWHILE, DIMON OF MORGAN STANLEY WAS HERALDED AS THE TOP US BANKER BY THE SENATE AS THE FRAUDULENT INVESTMENTS IN EUROPEAN SOVEREIGN DEBT NOW REACH ALMOST 9 BILLION DOLLARS. THESE POLITICIANS MUST PROTECT SHAREHOLDERS AT ALL COST!
VOTE YOUR INCUMBENT OUT!!!!!!!
__________________________
Barclays CEO Diamond Quits Under Pressure by The Associated Press July 3, 2012
Some analysts had thought Bob Diamond's position as Barclays chief executive was secure because there was no obvious successor in the wings.
Barclays chief executive Bob Diamond quit his job Tuesday, the latest scalp in a financial markets scandal that has also seen the bank's chairman announce his intention to resign and sown the seeds for another investigation into Britain's banking sector.
Diamond's resignation, which has taken effect immediately, comes a day after Chairman Marcus Agius fell on his sword too. However, Agius will lead the search for a new chief executive and will leave the company only after a new chairman is found.
The external pressure placed on Barclays has reached a level that risks damaging the franchise — I cannot let that happen.
Barclays' management has come under fire since the bank was fined $453 million last week by U.S. and British regulators for submitting false reports on interbank borrowing rates between 2005 and 2009. Much of that activity originated from traders in Barclays Capital, the investment banking division which Diamond headed at the time.
"The external pressure placed on Barclays has reached a level that risks damaging the franchise — I cannot let that happen," Diamond said Tuesday in the statement accompanying his resignation. "I am deeply disappointed that the impression created by the events announced last week about what Barclays and its people stand for could not be further from the truth."
Britain's Serious Fraud Office said Monday that it would decide within a month whether to pursue criminal charges in the case. The government, which has come under pressure to initiate a judge-led inquiry into the sector, also announced a parliamentary committee to investigate what went on and report by the end of the year.
Barclays' share price was up 3.5 percent at 175 pence in midmorning London trading as investors hoped some of the heat will have been taken out of the scandal.
"Although Diamond's resignation should take some of the ferocity out of the intense criticism heaped on Barclays there is little doubt that the risk of holding the stock has risen substantially in recent days," said Nic Clarke, an analyst at Charles Stanley. "A cloud is likely to hang over the stock until a suitable successor is chosen."
As well as facing intense media pressure over the past few days, Diamond has seen growing calls for his resignation from the political world. Both Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and opposition Labour Party leader Ed Miliband called for Diamond, a 60-year-old American, to stand down.
George Osborne, Britain's Treasury chief, said Diamond had decided to go Monday night. Osborne said he was told by Agius that "the board had come to view that that was the right decision and Mr. Diamond had come to that view."
"I think it is the right decision for Barclays, I think it is the right decision for the country," Osborne said.
The bank said Agius, 65, would become full-time chairman and would chair the executive committee until a new CEO is appointed.
"Clearly there's a lot more to come from this story right across the sector, but that's a significant scalp to be taken at this stage and now leaves a looming succession issue for the bank," said Mike McCudden, head of derivatives at Interactive Investor.
Some analysts had thought Diamond's position was secure because there was no obvious successor in the wings.
Diamond said he still intended to face the House of Commons Treasury Committee on Wednesday to give the bank's explanation for the false interest rate reports.
Barclays is one of a number of banks which regularly submit estimates of what it will cost them to borrow from other banks. These estimates feed into a calculation of the London interbank offered rate (LIBOR) which is used to determine payments from a range of financial contracts.
The London rate, and the related European interbank offered rate, are the benchmarks for over $500 trillion in global contracts, including loans and mortgages.
Barclays admitted that it had submitted lower than actual figures on its interbank borrowing during the credit crisis in 2007 and 2008. Several other global banks are being investigated in other countries for similar actions.
Last week, Diamond announced that he and three other senior executives were waiving any bonuses for 2012 because of the rate scandal.
The financial terms of his departure were not immediately disclosed.
His departure came as a surprise.
On Monday, Diamond sounded like a man determined to keep his job. In a memo to staff, he said he was disappointed by the misbehavior which led to the massive fines, but said: "It is my responsibility to make sure that it cannot happen again."
Diamond built up Barclays Capital into a profit-spinning powerhouse, and scored an important coup during the financial crisis by buying the remains of Lehman Brothers U.S. operations in a $1.35 billion deal.
Barclays survived the credit crisis without resorting to the kind of taxpayer bailout which saved Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland, relying instead on an injection of capital from Qatar Holding, the government-backed investment fund.
In January last year, Diamond memorably told a House of Commons committee: "There was a period of remorse and apology for banks. I think that period is over."
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