Wednesday, January 21, 2009

E-Trade Get Fined 1M for No Protection Against Money Laundering

This is perhaps a great time to take advantage of a stock that will be backed by the bailout. Going at $1.21 a share, E-trade will have to recover from the money laundering lawsuit that was slapped on them for Financial Industry Regulatory Authority I have to say this lawsuit is epic because E-Trade has a record for being known to hold money for up to 2 weeks. I know this because I am a E-trade client. Well, not a big client. I have an experimental account with them with the grade total of $50. My current cash cows are antiques, Gold and Silver and tax free stock dividends.

However, I do have some E-trade stock. I thought to myself, why not, it is so low and they will be protected by the bailout before the banks are. Unfortunately this scandel happened after I got the stock at $1.27. They were at $1.21, but needless to say I need more than $30 invested to get big returns. And no, I got it two weeks ago. However, despite all of the recent controversy behind E-trade, they will more than likely get a piece of that bailout money as the internets biggest onlline stock trader. Alas there is information to take advantage of!

Accroding to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, E-Trade did not have "adequate anti-money laundering programs in place between January 2003 and May 2007" Stock brokerage firms are supposebly required to establish a anti-laundering policy, but if you ask me it is really an excuse to track were all of your cash goes. What if you were sent a money order and then you foward it to them? That in some states , is a form of money laundering. FINRA has been after the online brokerage firms as of late. I believe Scottstrade will be on the chopping block next, if they do not watching their toes. Also FINRA has been trying to go after E-Trade for failed audits, which means that there is a possibility they might not of send everyone a W-2 or 1099 form. Fortunately I do not have enough [in E-Trade] to be audited by the IRS however it does not exclude me from 2010. More than likely, E-Trade is going to go through some staffing transistions and tighten up their management.

If anyone was wondering, if you got in on the action when it fell, there would have been a 5 cent gain on each stock. I am just waiting for the next scandel. I am holding on to E-Trade as my wild card stock. My blue chip stock is WMT which I have way more invested in it.