Susanne Posel -- Banks Can Legally Steal Customer Funds From Private Checking Accounts

In 2007, the Sentinel Management Group (SMG) collapsed, leaving many customer segregated funds lost after they had been used as collateral. After a plethora of lawsuits and creditor claims, a decision earlier this month in the 7th Circuit Court placed the banking cartels ahead of customer claims for funds returned. Essentially, the Bank of New York Mellon (BNYM) sued to be first in line for return on stolen customer account monies – and won the right by the US court system.

In the mainstream media (MSM), the SMG collapse and subsequent ruling in favor of BNYM was touted as a difficulty “for customers to recoup money lost”.

SMG, a Chicago-based futures broker, had stolen more than $500 million in segregated customer funds to use as collateral on a loan to BNYM for in-house proprietary trading operations. Their books were audited by the National Futures Association (NFA), however the NFA admitted that they could not understand the convoluted mess they were provided by SMG to sign off on. And yet they did; and approved the audit.

BNYM sued SMG to re-coup any monies owed to them. However, these monies were customer segregated funds that SMG stole and re-hypothecated.

In federal court, John D. Tinder, US Circuit Court Judge ruled “that Sentinel failed to keep client funds properly segregated is not, on its own, sufficient to rule as a matter of law that Sentinel acted ‘with actual intent to hinder, delay, or defraud’ its customers.”

This means that once a banking customer deposits their money into an account with a bank, the funds become property of the bank. The customer, at the point of deposit, relinquishes all rights to that money regardless of any laws in place, legal assurances, claims or guarantees; and this extends from investments to private checking accounts.

Once the bank has physical possession of your money, they own it and can use it for any means they deem fit. The veil has been lifted on separation of customer and bank funds. They are now legally co-mingled.

The bank could use it as collateral (as SMG did), to pay off debts, or place it on the stock market to bump up their trading with extra cash. And in the event that the customer allocated funds are lost, the bank does not owe the customer the money back.

Essentially, once you deposit money in your bank account it is gone.

Fred Grede, SMG trustee remarked: “I don’t think that’s what the Commodity Futures Trading Commission had in mind. It does not bode well for the protection of customer funds.”

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