Judicial Watch Sues for Details of Biden Administration Bank Bailouts

We filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) suit against three federal agencies for details of the Biden agencies’ decision to expand asset protection to large depositors in the Silicon Valley and Signature Bank government takeovers (Judicial Watch Inc. v. U.S. Department of the Treasury, et al.(No. 1:23-cv-01174)).

The fact that the responsible Biden officials are hiding documents about the issue suggests that they have something to hide.

We sued in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia against the U.S. Department of the Treasury, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System after the agencies failed to respond to March 13 and 14, 2023, FOIA requests for:

• All records relating to the systemic risk exception granted to Silicon Valley Bank. Such records include minutes, memoranda, and any communications between the [agency] and employees and/or representatives of Silicon Valley Bank.
• All records concerning the systemic risk exception granted to Signature Bank. Such records include minutes, memoranda, and any communications between the [agency] and employees and/or representatives of Signature Bank.

Silicon Valley Bank in Santa Clara, CA, failed on March 10, 2023, and Signature Bank in New York City failed two days later. On March 12 the Fed, FDIC, and Treasury Department, with the approval of President Biden, announced that a “systemic risk exception” was being invoked for both banks. This, they claimed, would fully protect all depositors.

The FDIC’s standard deposit insurance coverage limit is $250,000 per depositor, per FDIC-insured bank, per ownership category. A systemic risk exception allows the FDIC, after multiple agency reviews, to protect uninsured depositors over the $250,000 insured limit.

The Hill reported that midsize banks are lobbying federal officials to guarantee all bank deposits over the next two years and that small, community banks “have spoken out against paying more to cover the failure of larger banks such as SVB.” The article points out that “only around 10 percent of deposits in community banks are over the $250,000 limit, compared to roughly 90 percent for Silicon Valley Bank,” according to Cam Fine, former CEO of the Independent Community Bankers of America.

Fortune reported that the FDIC listed large companies that were “in no real danger” of failure that it bailed out in the wake of the Silicon Valley Bank collapse:

The $1 billion that Sequoia, the firm famous for backing iconic companies including Apple, Google and WhatsApp, had at SVB made up a fraction of its $85 billion assets under management.

Kanzhun, which had $902.9 million in deposits with SVB … was heavily backed by Chinese giant Tencent before it went public on the Nasdaq in 2021, was among the largest Chinese companies to IPO in the US that year.

Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) said during a hearing of the Senate Banking Committee. “I think, you know, had had [sic] deposits of over $3 billion, and I think Roku had deposits of over $500 million, but there are a lot of people, a lot of firms in Silicon Valley Bank that had deposits well over $1 million, over $5 million.”

Governor Gavin Newsom (D-CA) reportedly lobbied for the bailout “after the failed bank began lobbying California’s government and donating to Newsom’s wife.” Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats were lobbied for the bailout. Silicon Valley was also a major supporter of President Biden in the 2020 election.

The bank’s board reportedly had many Democratic Party ties, including “a Hillary Clinton mega-donor” as well as someone who “worked for President Barack Obama before her own political career spectacularly failed.” A third was a “prolific contributor to Democrats, including Nancy Pelosi — who owns a Napa Valley vineyard just 15 minutes” away.

We have been instrumental in uncovering previous bank bailout information.

In February 2011, we obtained FDIC records through a FOIA lawsuit filed on behalf of former Federal Reserve and FDIC employee Vern McKinley that pertained to the Citigroup and Bank of America bailouts, as well as documents detailing the FDIC’s Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program, which guaranteed unsecured debt of private financial institutions and provided them “full coverage of non-interest bearing [sic] deposit transaction accounts, regardless of dollar amount.” Included were unredacted minutes from FDIC Board meetings during which FDIC officials and staff discussed the rationale for the bailouts which centered on the “systemic risk” of allowing the two financial institutions to fail.

In October 2011, we petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court, asking for a review of a lower court ruling validating the Federal Reserve’s decision to withhold documents about its $29 billion bailout of Bear Stearns.

In April 2012, McKinley and I co-authored an op-ed in The Washington Times titled “Bernanke’s Fairy Tale Recession Story for Kids; Records Show Fed Had No Coherent Strategy for Bank Bailouts,” which stated in part:

It’s an oldie but a goodie for our Federal Reserve chairman. In one of his recent lectures at George Washington University (GWU), Ben S. Bernanke made the self-congratulatory assertion that the “forceful policy response” led by the Federal Reserve in 2008 helped avoid a more serious economic downturn.

This rhetoric is nothing new. Mr. Bernanke has made similar remarks in the past. As he confided in one interview, “I was not going to be the Federal Reserve chairman who presided over the second Great Depression.” It is clear that like Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner, who recently trumpeted the fourth anniversary of his role in the Bear Stearns bailout, Mr. Bernanke is aggressively using the GWU lectures to shape his legacy before he steps down.

‘LGBTQ+ Trailblazers’ Join 9/11 Rescuers, Helen Keller in Dept of Labor Hall of Honor

Last year we told you how the Census Bureau was spending $10 million to research how best to add questions about sexual orientation and gender identity on surveys. A few months ago, I commented on the CIA celebrating its LGBTQ+ officers.

Now Biden’s Department of Labor has joined the fray, honoring three people whose contributions to American labor are dubious at best. Our Corruption Chronicles blog has the details:

The Biden administration is inducting a transgender woman and two gay men into the Department of Labor (DOL) Hall of Honor, describing them as “LGBTQ+ Trailblazers” that helped advance workplace protections and equity. The trio will join the likes of the 9/11 rescue workers who “engaged in a heroic effort to rescue survivors of terrorist attacks,” President Ronald Reagan, United Farm Workers of America leader César Chávez and disability rights advocate Helen Keller. Last year’s inductees were the essential workers of the Coronavirus pandemic who showed up when everyone else stayed home. The DOL notes that they were disproportionately women and workers of color.

“The Labor Hall of Honor recognizes individuals and groups whose distinctive contributions to the field of labor have enhanced the quality of life of millions – yesterday, today, and for generations to come,” the agency writes in its Hall of Honor Inductees page. “Nominees are considered on a rolling basis, and formal induction ceremonies are conducted at the U.S. Department of Labor in Washington, D.C.” Every inductee is listed along with a portrait and a brief description of what they did to deserve the honor. The first to be recognized in 1989 was Cyrus S. Ching, a labor union leader who was appointed director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service by President Harry Truman. Ching “established a pattern of constructive cooperation with employees,” according to the DOL, which includes a quote from Ching calling collective bargaining one of the greatest cornerstones of our democratic institutions.

Besides the LGBTQ+ trailblazers this year’s honorees include dozens of Thai garment workers discovered by federal agents in 1995 at a sweatshop in the southern California city of El Monte, which is in Los Angeles County. The case sparked national outcry, according to the DOL, and inspired legislation against human trafficking and forced labor. “Through sheer determination and perseverance, the workers defied the odds and fought bravely for the freedom, rights and protections long denied to them,” the agency writes in this year’s Hall of Honor announcement. “Their case galvanized significant changes in U.S. labor and immigration law.” The Thais were allowed to stay in the U.S. and were provided with a path to citizenship. “The El Monte Thai garment workers serve as a lasting reminder of the importance of the Department of Labor’s mission to protect rights of all workers,” said the agency’s acting secretary, Julie Su, adding that their contributions to federal labor and immigration laws cannot be understated.

After all, the DOL conducts the annual Hall of Honor induction to “recognize extraordinary individuals whose distinctive contributions to the field of labor elevated working conditions, wages and overall quality of life of America’s working families.” It remains unclear how the LGBTQ+ trailblazers met the criteria, but the agency is nevertheless honoring them. The transgender woman, Aimee Stephens, got fired and received a severance package after working six years at a Detroit funeral home as a man. When Stephens informed her employer that she was taking leave to undergo gender affirming surgery and would return as a woman in 2013, the owner terminated her, and the Obama Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) sued the business for sex discrimination. In 2016 a federal court ruled in favor of the funeral home, but a federal appellate court reversed the decision after the EEOC appealed. In 2020 the Supreme Court ruled against the funeral home, which argued that federal protections against sex discrimination do not include gender identity or transgender status.

The two gay men who will be honored this month along with the transgender woman also took their case to the Supreme Court. Donald Zarda was a skydiving instructor in Long Island, New York when he came out as gay to ease a female customer’s concern. The customer complained and Zarda got fired for misconduct. He sued his employer alleging that he got fired based on his sexual orientation. A federal court in New York ruled in favor of the employer in 2014 and, although Zarda died later that year, his family appealed on his behalf, citing violation of the Civil Rights Act. The other DOL honoree, Gerald Bostock, claims he got fired as a child welfare advocate in a Georgia county after joining a gay recreational softball league in 2013. Last year the county approved a $825,000 settlement to resolve the case.

Until next week,