The financial markets in low-income urban communities: The case of Sapang Palay

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Washington, DC, United States (AHN) – Legislation settling decades-old discrimination cases against the government from black and Native American farmers was enacted late Wednesday.

President Barack Obama signed into law H.R. 4783, which provides $1.15 billion in compensation for plaintiffs in the Pigford II case, and $3.4 billion in the lawsuit from Native Americans led by Elouise Cobell.

“While I am pleased that this Act reflects important progress, much work remains to be done to address other claims of past discrimination made by women and Hispanic farmers against the Department of Agriculture as well as to address needs of tribal communities,” the president said in a statement.

The Obama administration settled each case early this year, but appropriation from Congress was delayed over Republican concerns about fraudulent claims and the costs of the settlements during a recession.

The historic enactment took place exactly one year after the departments of Agriculture, Interior and Justice announced that an agreement had been reached with Native American farmers.

“It is impossible to undo the past, but this bipartisan measure closes a chapter by providing amends to those wronged by years of discrimination and mismanagement,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D -NV).

The USDA last year reached a $1.25 billion settlement with African-American farmers who sued the agency more than a decade ago for discrimination. The agreement is the second with the farmers, led by Timothy Pigford, who filed a class action suit in 1997 alleging racial discrimination in farm loan programs.

The government paid out $1 billion in 1999 to thousands of farmers but thousands more were left out because their claims were not received before the deadline. Lawmakers appropriated $100 million for the Pigford II case in 2008 through a farm bill, leaving $1.15 billion that still required approval.

House Republicans led by Reps. Michelle Bachman (R-MN) and Steve King (R-IA) had sought to withhold funding, citing fraud in the claims process.

Agriculture Sec. Tom Vilsack has assured that the legislation includes “strong protections against waste, fraud, and abuse to ensure integrity of the claims process.”

The bill signed into law also settles another class action lawsuit, one filed by Elouise Cobell in 1996 on behalf of American Indians because of the Interior Department’s failure to account for individual Indian trust funds.

Four water rights agreements with Native Americans are also included in the legislation, agreements that Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said would finally provide permanent water supplies and economic security to at least six pueblos and two tribes.

Senate Republicans had sought to reduce attorney’s fees in the Cobell case from $100 million, or less than 3 percent of the settlement, to $50 million. They also proposed other changes in the agreement despite a warning from the Justice Department that the court case had been settled through 14 years of negotiations.

The Cobell settlement, which excludes the $760 million settlement for another discrimination case involving the USDA and American Indians led by George Keepseagle, still needs final approval from the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, which is set to hold a hearing on the case on Dec. 21.

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Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – The United States Secret Service disclosed this week that its investigation resulted in the indictment of a Malaysian national and uncovering of a history of compromising computer servers belonging to financial institutions, defense contractors and major corporations, and selling or trading the information obtained from these businesses.

“An international investigation into hacked computer systems has resulted in a federal indictment against Lin Mun Poo, a resident and citizen of Malaysia,” said the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York in a communique, announcing the indictment.

The four-count indictment charged Poo, 32, with hacking into a computer network of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, Ohio. He is also charged with possessing more than 400,000 stolen credit and debit card account numbers allegedly obtained by hacking into various computer systems of other financial institutions.

“As today’s technology continues to evolve, cybercriminals use these advances and enhancements to perpetrate an expanding range of crimes,” said Brian Parr, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Secret Service New York Field Office.

“These crimes not only affect our nation’s financial infrastructure, but are also an ongoing threat to our national security. The Secret Service is committed to deploying cutting edge investigative practices and technology in order to bring these offenders to justice,” Parr added.

According to the communique, Poo was arrested on October 21, 2010, after traveling to the U.S. to obtain additional stolen financial account information from other hackers.

Hours after arriving at John F. Kennedy International Airport, Secret Service agents arrested Poo and seized his heavily encrypted laptop.

Among the results of a forensic examination of the seized laptop were huge quantities of alleged hacked information from FedComp, a data processor for federal credit unions, detailing “financial account data and personal identifying information,” and from “Federal Reserve Bank in Cleveland, Ohio,” and the computer systems of a defense contractor.

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Washington, DC, United States (AHN) – Native American farmers who sued the Agriculture Department for discrimination have agreed to a $760 million settlement. It is the second discrimination settlement this year for the USDA, which has agreed to compensate black farmers.

Plaintiffs in the class action lawsuit led by George and Marilyn Keepseagle will receive $680 million in damages and $80 million in debt forgiveness. The agreement will be implemented next year after final approval by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

“This settlement marks a major turning point in the important relationship between Native Americans, our nation’s first farmers and ranchers, and the USDA,” Joseph Sellers, lead attorney for the farmers, said in a statement.

The agreement with the USDA ends a case that began more than a decade ago. The suit was filed in 1999 and charged the agency with denying farm loans to Native Americans since 1981, a span of time President Barack Obama in a statement called “USDA’s unfortunate civil rights history.”

“We have been waiting nearly three decades for this day to come,” Marilyn Keepseagle, a member of the Sioux Tribe who has maintained a ranch in North Dakota with her husband for decades, said in a statement.

“This settlement will help thousands of Native Americans who are still farming and ranching,” she added. “But more important, through this settlement we will leave to our children and grandchildren a farm loan system far more responsive to our community than the system we inherited from our parents.”

According to the lawsuit, George Keepseagle lost 50 calves in 1995 due to scours, and another 50 calves the next year after a blizzard.

The region was declared a disaster area in both years, but no Native American rancher received emergency disaster loans in those two years while white farmers were given such loans. Keepseagle had applied for emergency loans but was told he was not eligible without being informed of the reason.

The rancher also had trouble paying for annual grazing leases because USDA officials “often returned his loan applications without explanation, or set the applications aside until he inquired about the loan processing. To his knowledge, white farmers did not receive this treatment.”

Another rancher, Luke Crasco, was subjected “to overtly racist and demeaning remarks” and experienced “systematic and deliberate delays in loan processing.”

The complaint said one Farmer’s Home Administration official, LaVern Hellyer, stated “his dislike for Native Americans [and] reminded Crasco that he was assigned to that office for two reasons: ‘to watch FMHA’s money” and ‘to sell you people out.’ “

Under the settlement, farmers will receive a uniform settlement of up to $50,000 after providing evidence of bias to an impartial adjudicator. Farmers who have records showing they suffered greater economic losses due to discrimination will receive up to $250,000 in damages.

The agreement also creates a Native American Farmer and Rancher Council that will lead initiatives to improve the way the USDA implements farm programs. Moreover, the USDA will open regional offices to provide technical assistance to Native American farmers and ranchers, and review farm loan policies to determine what kind of reforms are necessary.

“Today’s settlement can never undo wrongs that Native Americans may have experienced in past decades, but combined with the actions we at USDA are taking to address such wrongs, the settlement will provide some measure of relief,” said Agriculture Sec. Tom Vilsack.

The settlement follows USDA’s agreement with black farmers who suffered discrimination around the same time, a case known as Pigford II.

Funds for the $1.25 billion Pigford II settlement currently require congressional approval. Lawmakers had appropriated $100 million and this summer failed to agree on how to pay for the remaining $1.15 billion.

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