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To: Robert Dirks who wrote (43876)	10/26/1999 8:39:00 AM
From: Alex	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116815

Millions Vanish from W.Va. Bank By STEPHEN SINGER Associated Press Writer KEYSTONE, W.Va. (AP) -- No one stopped to watch as workers dismantled the only bank in this southern West Virginia coal town, one box at a time. There is no more shock at the collapse of an institution that once boasted the motto ``Time Tried, Panic Tested.' Hour after hour last week, movers loaded 7,000 boxes of documents onto trucks headed for Dallas. Federal regulators there hope to discover how $515 million vanished from a prosperous bank in an Appalachian county where 37 percent of the residents live in poverty. Even before Sept. 1, when the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency closed the First National Bank of Keystone amid allegations of ``apparent fraud,' rumors of trouble swirled through this town of 627, prompting a run on the bank. ``All that money didn't disappear overnight,' said Ann Jervis, part owner of D&A Flea Market in nearby Northfork. ``It was worked on.' The 95-year-old community bank which anchored Main Street and advertised assets of $1.1 billion still has its supporters along the winding two-lane highway that connects small towns in a rugged valley. ``We thought they were just as solid as anything and still don't know that it's not,' said Becky Barker, an employee at the Kimball Light and Water Co. in nearby Kimball. Federal investigators may disagree. At the top of a mountain reached by a dirt road rutted by coal trucks, investigators have recovered 370 boxes of bank records that had been buried in a 100-foot-long trench on property belonging to Terry Church, the bank's senior executive vice president. A federal magistrate ruled last week there is sufficient evidence that Church, 46, and Michael Graham, 49, who performed accounting work at the bank, interfered with a federal investigation by burying three truckloads of bank records. Prosecutors have 30 days to seek indictments against the pair. Church and Graham have refused to comment. The federal comptroller's office said it closed the bank after a three-month investigation found that $515 million in loans -- nearly half the bank's assets -- were sold yet remained on the bank's books as assets. First National's failure could ultimately cost the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. even more as the agency tries to cover another $200 million in missing assets and administrative expenses. The recovery may place First National among the 10 costliest bank failures in the nation since the mid-1980s, said David Barr, a spokesman for the FDIC in Washington. A civil suit filed in McDowell County Circuit Court last Thursday contends that hundreds of local depositors lost as much as $15 million. Bank customers who deposited more than the amount protected by the FDIC -- $100,000 for each account -- want bank officers to reimburse them for their uninsured losses. The federal probe will likely focus on the bank's practice of paying high interest rates to attract capital from across the United States and selling mortgage loans to pools of investors who put up additional money. The practice is not uncommon, but federal regulators are examining the bank's aggressive marketing of federally backed mortgages. J. Knox McConnell, a Pittsburgh banker who took over First National in 1977, used the Internet to advertise beyond southwest McDowell County to draw deposits through high interest rates. McConnell's strategy worked, boosting assets from $17 million to more than $1 billion in 20 years. An industry publication, American Banker, once referred to his bank as the most profitable community bank in the nation. McConnell died of a heart attack in 1997 at age 69. Officials at Ameribank Inc., which assumed Keystone's operations and $135 million in locally held deposits after the closing, said they will be more traditional in their banking style. McConnell's banking methods were a ``very sophisticated kind of financing that requires Wall Street,' said Ameribank chairman Jim Sutton. ``We're country bankers. We don't have that kind of sophistication.' First National's failure has created a $465,000 hole in Keystone's municipal budget, forcing officials to lay off six of 15 employees. The bank's loss also has taken $200,000 out of McDowell County's annual $2.9 million budget, officials said. Katherine Young, a manager of a medical equipment business in Northfork, said she fears ripple effects if Keystone bank's failure takes down its top two officers. ``It's like the town is going to be a ghost town,' she said. Keystone Mayor Billie Cherry, a longtime friend of McConnell and chairwoman of First National's board of directors, said she will continue to fight. ``We're not finished,' Cherry said. ``I don't know what I can do. I can't give up, though.' biz.yahoo.com

To: Robert Dirks who wrote (43876)	10/26/1999 8:49:00 AM
From: Enigma	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116815

The way you talk you'd think that the people running these companies have no responsibility for their actions! And if anything goes wrong - they don't have to account to their shareholders - instead they can blame everything on the 'manipulators' and other agents of darkness. Time for a reality check! d

To: Robert Dirks who wrote (43876)	10/26/1999 9:08:00 AM
From: Ironyman	Respond to of 116815

To: Robert Dirks who wrote (43876)	10/26/1999 9:25:00 AM
From: long-gone	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116815

<<Theoretically all the bankrupt mines could sue the Manipulators if they can prove that they were indeed harmed by the organized illegal market manipulation of a supposidly "Free Trading" commodity - GOLD. This is Organized Crime, no less.>> I believe you are wrong, funny, I was just looking into this: Articles of Agreement of the International Monetary Fund A R T I C L E I X Status, Immunities, and Privileges Section 1. Purposes of Article To enable the Fund to fulfill the functions with which it is entrusted, the status, immunities, and privileges set forth in this Article shall be accorded to the Fund in the territories of each member. Section 2. Status of the Fund The Fund shall possess full juridical personality, and in particular, the capacity: (i) to contract; (ii) to acquire and dispose of immovable and movable property; and (iii) to institute legal proceedings. Section 3. Immunity from judicial process The Fund, its property and its assets, wherever located and by whomsoever held, shall enjoy immunity from every form of judicial process except to the extent that it expressly waives its immunity for the purpose of any proceedings or by the terms of any contract. Section 4. Immunity from other action Property and assets of the Fund, wherever located and by whomsoever held, shall be immune from search, requisition, confiscation, expropriation, or any other form of seizure by executive or legislative action. Section 5. Immunity of archives The archives of the Fund shall be inviolable. Section 6. Freedom of assets from restrictions To the extent necessary to carry out the activities provided for in this Agreement, all property and assets of the Fund shall be free from restrictions, regulations, controls, and moratoria of any nature. Section 7. Privilege for communications The official communications of the Fund shall be accorded by members the same treatment as the official communications of other members. Section 8. Immunities and privileges of officers and employees All Governors, Executive Directors, Alternates, members of committees, representatives appointed under Article XII, Section 3(j), advisors of any of the foregoing persons, officers, and employees of the Fund: (i) shall be immune from legal process with respect to acts performed by them in their official capacity except when the Fund waives this immunity; (ii) not being local nationals, shall be granted the same immunities from immigration restrictions, alien registration requirements, and national service obligations and the same facilities as regards exchange restrictions as are accorded by members to the representatives, officials, and employees of comparable rank of other members; and (iii) shall be granted the same treatment in respect of traveling facilities as is accorded by members to representatives, officials, and employees of comparable rank of other members. Section 9. Immunities from taxation (a) The Fund, its assets, property, income, and its operations and transactions authorized by this Agreement shall be immune from all taxation and from all customs duties. The Fund shall also be immune from liability for the collection or payment of any tax or duty. (b) No tax shall be levied on or in respect of salaries and emoluments paid by the Fund to Executive Directors, Alternates, officers, or employees of the Fund who are not local citizens, local subjects, or other local nationals. (c) No taxation of any kind shall be levied on any obligation or security issued by the Fund, including any dividend or interest thereon, by whomsoever held: (i) which discriminates against such obligation or security solely because of its origin; or (ii) if the sole jurisdictional basis for such taxation is the place or currency in which it is issued, made payable or paid, or the location of any office or place of business maintained by the Fund. Section 10. Application of Article Each member shall take such action as is necessary in its own territories for the purpose of making effective in terms of its own law the principles set forth in this Article and shall inform the Fund of the detailed action which it has taken. imf.org