Commentary - 07/06/2008

Using The Law To Lie And Steal

The Associated Press (AP) published this article July 5th:
Employers use federal law to deny benefits

But Spherion Corp., the temporary staffing company where Amschwand worked, told Amschwand-Bellinger she would not receive any of the $426,000 in benefits she believed she was due. When she went to court, Spherion succeeded in getting her lawsuit thrown out. The Supreme Court on June 27 refused to review the case.

Amschwand-Bellinger received a refund of the few thousand dollars in insurance premiums she and her husband dutifully had paid. The total, she said, would not cover the costs of his funeral.

The story has played out often under the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act. Designed to protect employee benefits, the law has been used by employers as a shield against suits.

And it's not just one company.
The court also recently turned down an appeal from Louis Gerard "Gerry" Goeres, who sued Charles M. Schwab & Co. over hundreds of thousands of dollars in retirement plan benefits.

For 16 months, Schwab mistakenly refused to acknowledge Goeres as the beneficiary in the retirement plan of his domestic partner, Stephen Ward, a Schwab employee who died in 1999. By the time Schwab acknowledged its error, the value of the account had declined by more than $500,000. Goeres sued for the rest. Federal courts dismissed the suit. "Unfortunately, legal relief is not available," U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer said in ruling against Goeres.

Perhaps this is why then President Clinton fired 93 U.S. Attorneys and the media didn't feel it worth reporting, and yet seemed to fret over President Bush's 8. It's just one more example of how selecting a president really doesn't matter if we don't pay attention to the collateral damage being done no matter who sits in the White House. A further explanation of how this is done is here.

These things are planned so far in advance that it's difficult for folks to understand the ramifications of these actions. The few that do point them out are generally ignored, both by the press, and if too right on, they're character assassinated. Works every time. It's a very efficient way of replacing decent men and women with sociopaths, who look up to their sociopathic bosses and have no empathy nor conscience for us common folks. This is exactly how a country rots from the inside out.

It appears that through hedge funds and private equity companies, the boomers' savings, insurance and pension funds have already been gambled away into a few sociopathic hands, leaving the managers of these funds with little recourse except to use the law to keep from paying out any more than absolutely necessary.

Perhaps the time is nearing where the up-and-coming generation will see through the corporate B.S. and put their premiums into savings accounts of local banks NOT controlled by these major holders. Even putting part of it in physical gold and silver and hiding it would probably pay off better than trusting these corporate folks. I am NOT anti-capitalist! Any system of government with sociopaths at the top would be of detriment to us common folks. They don't want us to lie, steal or murder, but that's exactly what they do at the top to keep us submissive and poor.

Cutting off the blood flow that these financial predators need to continue their existence will perhaps cut them down to size so that they can no longer afford to buy off the legal system in order to lie and steal from their customers.

And this certainly applies to other forms of insurance, too. The large insurance and healthcare companies have these same TOP 10 Major Holders, and it's obviously getting way out of hand.

This business of Sometimes The Dragon Wins has got to stop!


Symbol Name Of Corporation
SCHW

Major
Holders
Charles Schwab Corp. (As of 31-Mar-2008) (As of 31-Dec-2007)
Top 10 Institutional HoldersSharesPct.Value
FMR LLC (Fidelity)42,627,0393.72$802,667,144
Jennison Associates LLC35,623,7123.11$670,794,496
Barclays Global Investors UK Holdings Ltd32,505,6902.84$612,082,142
Goldman Sachs Group Inc.31,366,5792.74$590,632,682
State Street Corporation29,969,8452.61$564,332,181
Vanguard Group, Inc. (The)29,131,2962.54$548,542,303
KeyBank National Association22,676,2631.98$426,994,032
Wells Fargo & Company18,670,9261.63$351,573,536
Lord Abbett & Co17,803,1401.55$335,233,126
Bamco Inc.16,111,8751.41$303,386,606
% of Shares Held by All Insider and 5% Owners:19%
Top 10 [1.8%] of 544 Institutional Holders Control24.13%
Percentage of Barclays and "Associates" Control14.91%
NOTE: Vanguard manages three funds that control 1.87%.
Fidelity manages a fund that controls 0.95%.
Lord Abbett manages a fund that controls 0.94%.
Therefore, the TOP 10 Major Holders control 27.89% of Charles Schwab Inc.

Symbol Name Of Corporation
SFN

Major
Holders
Spherion Corp. (As of 31-Mar-2008)
Top 10 Institutional HoldersSharesPct.Value
Dimensional Fund Advisors Inc5,279,3619.62$32,309,689
Smith (Donald) & Company Inc.4,967,1549.05$30,398,982
Barclays Global Investors UK Holdings Ltd3,835,3986.99$23,472,635
Vanguard Group, Inc. (The)3,281,8965.98$20,085,203
AXA (Paris, France)3,025,2175.51$18,514,328
Goldman Sachs Group Inc2,717,6354.95$16,631,926
State Street Corporation2,490,4124.54$15,241,321
Bank of New York Mellon Corporation2,338,3914.26$14,310,952
Skyline Asset Management1,968,1203.59$12,044,894
Heartland Advisors Inc.1,500,0002.73$9,180,000
% of Shares Held by All Insider and 5% Owners:1%
Top 10 [6.3%] of 159 Institutional Holders Control57.22%
Percentage of Barclays and "Associates" Control20.74%
NOTE: Vanguard manages four funds that control 4.42%.
Dimensional Fund manages a fund that controls 3.67%.
Heartland manages a fund that controls 2.73%.
AMG (Skyline Asset) manages a fund that controls 1.51%>
Goldman Sachs manages a fund that controls 1.26%.
Therefore, the TOP 10 Major Holders control 70.81% of Spherion Corporation, and
Barclays/Associates control 22.00%.

© 2008 by Edward Ulysses Cate
Help Support This Site
Commentary Index:
Home: