 investors, paying them to participate and guaranteeing them the return of their investment, to further appear disassociated from the acquisition. The bank may have made about $1 billion from buying the assets of Executive Life; including other consortium participants, the total profit amounted to $2.5 billion
Crédit Lyonnais
This may seem like an aggressive maneuver for a long-standing public-owned bank in many ways directly answerable to the French Finance Ministry. Crédit Lyonnais was founded in 1863 and was nationalized in 1945. In this period of state control, the bank expanded into riskier investments in real estate and other sectors. This had put the firm at risk of failing at about the same time as the Executive Life collapse. After its clandestine purchase of Executive Life, the bank would itself have to be bailed out. It received a $35 billion rescue from the French government, the largest bank bailout at the time, when the latter established a new entity in 1995, the Consortium de Realisation, to purchase the bank’s riskier assets. The assets moved to the Consortium de Realisation included the bank’s ownership of the old Executive Life.
As at Executive Life, the troubles at Crédit Lyonnais were not only financial. The bank had its own governance problems. Years later, in the early 2000s, several individuals were convicted of falsifying the bank’s financial statements. Some of the accused were exonerated though and these included none other than Jean-Claude Trichet, who had earlier served as French Finance Minister and soon after this case went on to serve as President of the European Central Bank. By now, Crédit Lyonnais was no longer owned by the state, having been privatized in 1999.
Investigation and Settlement
While it likely hadn’t known what its firm was up to when it secretly led the acquisition of Executive Life, the French government learned about the deal during its investigation of the bank’s broader problems. This information was not shared with American regulators though. Nonetheless, the American Justice Department became aware of the scheme after a disgruntled French businessman alerted them of Crédit Lyonnais’s role in the purchase of Executive Life. The bank was thereafter subject to a five-year investigation. Finally, in July 2003, Crédit Lyonnais, the Consortium de Realisation, and various executives of the bank were indicted with 55 counts of conspiracy, fraud, money laundering, and lying to their regulator, the Federal Reserve. The indictment threatened the bank and the Consortium with a loss of $3.1 billion in the form of forfeitures of illegal profits.
In the end, the bank and its fellow defendants, with some intervention from the French government, pled guilty and agreed to pay a $771 million fine instead. At the time, this was believed to be the largest monetary settlement in any criminal case in American history. Crédit Lyonnais specifically was fined $200 million and the Consortium de Realisation paid another $375 million which was allocated to compensate former Executive Life policyholders. The balance of the settlement came from a handful of other defendants. That same year, Crédit Lyonnais was acquired by competitor Crédit Agricole for $20 billion.
Lesson
Crédit Lyonnais had been in business for well over a century until it found itself at the center of an international financial scandal. The bank was the recipient of what was then the largest bank bailout in the world and was among the parties to the largest criminal settlement in American history. When financial firms have gotten into trouble before and since, it is usually for financial reasons. Of course, that was part of the problem at Crédit Lyonnais as well. Nonetheless, the Executive Life purchase, though encouraged by the allure of the failed insurer’s junk bond portfolio, reveals more than a surprising readiness to accept financial risk. For a bank owned by a government, it sure had its own governance problems, and the company was also surprisingly willing to test the law and regulators. In many ways, it was the most compatible partner to Executive Life.
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The 1990s also saw the restructuring of the insurance marketplace Lloyd’s of London. Also, consider subscribing to this blog’s newsletter here.
Further Reading
1. “Credit Lyonnais and Others to Plead Guilty and Pay $771 Million in Executive Life Affair.” Archives.fbi.gov, Federal Bureau of Investigation, 18 Dec. 2003.
2. Crowney, Paul. “Inside the Crédit Lyonnais Scandal.” Institutional Investor, 11 Nov. 2003.
3. Kristof, Kathy M. “Behind Executive Life’s Fall: Regulators Are Taking the Heat for Letting the Insurer’s Problems Go On, Entrapping Thousands of Its Policyholders.” Los Angeles Times, 1 Sept. 1991.
4. “The Executive Life Affair: A Tangled Web.” The Economist, 27 Nov. 2003.
Ken RomanowskiI completely agree with you.  Amanda started all of the arguments and then would stomp off leaving everyone else to clean up.  I was flabbergasted when they were at the hotel and Amanda demanded to know who Tammy was talking to and was told it was none of her business. Amanda then stormed out yelling “don’t talk to me” “stay out of my face”.  When did this become all about her?

 I think Amanda is a bully and probably bullied Tammy and Amy when they were kids. Every time Amanda has a hissy fit or is dismissive of Amy, you can see Amy physically shrink.   
Amanda seems to want to dominate everyone and every scene by being the loudest and most contentious but I assume that is the role TLC wants her to play.Music I listened to while sewing: I’ve got an old favorite on this morning… Fort Fairfield.
Thoughts/Feelings behind the block: I am falling asleep at my desk. It’s 10:18am.
Sunday night, I was up until midnight and woke up at 2:30am.
Last night, I was understandably exhausted. In bed by 9:45pm, I read for a half hour before I turned off the lights; I was nodding off in the middle of every paragraph, so it seemed the obvious thing to do to stop. The minute the lights went off, I was wide awake.
I was up in bed, tossing and turning and reading again and so on for a few hours. It was past midnight at one point. I had one bad, anxiety-ridden work dream that woke me up around 2am. I had to have fallen asleep after a time, because another anxiety-ridden dream (about being forcibly evicted from my apartment) woke me up again. I think that was around 4. My alarm went off at 6. I am already struggling today, with my dog at work, with large coffee in hand, with music playing in my office.
On a side note, I think my upstairs neighbor is just as much of an insomniac as I am these days.
I am trying to be good. I am trying to take it easy. I am trying to eat well (better) and get enough sleep and get to the gym when I can and read and find time for hobbies and go to work and stay on top of it all and think upbeat about it all. But, wow, is this hard right now.As you watch this unfold please keep in mind that nurses rarely strike for wages alone. They are striking for their well-being and your safety. Hospitals always want to push the talks to wages but it doesn’t matter how much you make if you don’t have time to take care of your patients. And now that assholes want to criminalize us for making mistakes when we’ve been begging for help for years and we know that we can’t count on our hospitals to back us (Ahem cough Vanderbilt) everyone should expect to see more and more of this.Falling Bolt is a skill in Dark Souls III.
In-Game Description
- Hold axe high in air to gather fierce lightning, and smash ground to whip the bolts to the ground.
In-Game Description
- Hold swordspear high in the air to summon fierce lightning that descends upon distant foes.
DescriptionEdit
Dragonslayer Greataxe
The player stands their ground for a couple of seconds, holding their weapon high above with both hands whilst summoning a fierce bolt of lightning; then slams it onto the floor, provoking an electrifying explosion which deals massive damage and knocks down all enemies in the vicinity.
Dragonslayer Swordspear
The player stands their ground for a couple of seconds while electricity starts radiating from within the spear, then lifts it up in the air, calling a fierce bolt of lightning to fall in the distance.
The spot where the lighting bolt falls upon is dependent of the distance where the first enemy in front of the player is standing.
UsageEdit
CampaignEdit
Especially useful against bosses or enemies hiding behind their shields. Consumes a considerable amount of FP per cast (35 for the greataxe and 20 for the swordspear), which renders it to be used moderately.
The player should take into consideration the amount of time it takes to build up this attack (two seconds approximately), time in which they will be completely vulnerable; any attack received in the meantime will cancel the casting. However, if the player succeeds, they will be rewarded by inflicting a massive amount of Lightning damage, which will kill most lesser foes and seriously damage any boss.
Online gameplayEdit
Similar use as in campaign mode, although more caution should be