Alabama county files biggest municipal bankruptcy in US history

[thelakelander]

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama (Reuters) - Alabama's Jefferson County filed for bankruptcy court protection on Wednesday in the biggest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history.

Commissioners for the county, which is home to Birmingham, the state's biggest city and economic powerhouse, voted 4-1 to declare bankruptcy after meeting behind closed doors for two days in a last ditch-attempt to restructure its debt out of court.

A tentative deal reached with creditors in September to settle $3.14 billion in red ink had been widely expected to avert bankruptcy. But the deal fell apart over what the commission described as creditors' refusal to meet the terms of previously agreed economic concessions.

There was also frustration over the fact that the estimated savings from the September agreement had shrunk by about $140 million, commission sources said.

full article: http://news.yahoo.com/alabama-county-seeks-file-biggest-municipal-bankruptcy-001117903.html

[finehoe]

Let's remember folks that there were actual people jailed over bribery and other improper acts -- but let us also remember that not one of the prosecuted individuals was one of the major bankster employees or officers.

The debt deals also were rife with political corruption, leading the cost of the sewer project to soar as it was built during the 1990s. Former commission president and Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford, a Democrat, was convicted of accepting bribes in connection with the financing.

Two former JPMorgan bankers are fighting Securities and Exchange Commission charges that they made $8 million in undisclosed payments to friends of commissioners to secure the bank’s role in the deals. In 2009, JPMorgan agreed to a $722 million settlement with the SEC.

You get convicted of crimes if you take a bribe, but if the person giving the bribe is a bankster, the SEC comes after them and then "settles" the civil charges.

In order to receive a bribe someone must offer a bribe.  Both parties are equally culpable and must be punished equally.

WHERE ARE THE DAMNED HANDCUFFS FOR THE BANKSTERS?