Bond Scam

Bond scam yields profits at the expense of the needy

William Selway,Martin Z. Braun and David Dietz of Bloomberg News exposed a phantom bond scam-over $7 billion in the past 10 years- which promise benefits for the needy(better housing,improvements to inner-city schools,etc.) yet the only ones profitting are banks,insurance companies and financiers. "The arrangements-often called black box deals, because they're complicated and mysterious-sometimes contain secret agreements and promise to pay the financial middlemen higher fees if none of the money from the bond offerings is used to help the public. The agencies that issue the bonds buy them back from investors. The money goes untapped,and the advisers keep their fees."