tpg--here are many of the letter that you can copy and used it for you own to sent it to your congress representative. There are many like it but this is the first one that i found so far.
Dear Senator XXXXXXX,
I am writing to ask you to look into the FDIC seizure of Washington Mutual Corporation.
Shareholders, especially individual investors, were robbed by JP Morgan aided by the FDIC.
A little more than a week preceding the bank's seizure by the FDIC, shareholders had been assured by the then newly-appointed Washington Mutual CEO that the company was 'well capitalized' and could fund its operations until 2010. In short, there was no need to be concerned about bankruptcy. The company was then actively looking for a buyer and there were reports of interes from at least three major banks.
The other disturbing fact is that everyone knew that a new tax law was about to go into effect and that this law would allow potential bank acquirers to write off billions of dollars in bad debt. This would have made Washington Mutual a more suitable target for takeover by another banks, which is what shareholders were expecting. We all also knew that there was going to be additional relief from the 'bailout package' that was being discussed and voted on in congress.
Why didn't the FDIC give Washington Mutual and its shareholders a fair chance at weathering the storm and finding a solution acceptable to the organization and its shareholders? Apparently, the FDIC had stated that they did not want to have to deal with Washington Mutual's bad debt in case the company had initiated bankruptcy proceedings, but how could this well-capitalized company with interested takeover suitors declare bankruptcy?
Why did the FDIC make a deal with JP Morgan without including Washington Mutual, its Board of Directors and its shareholders and then proceed to seize the bank on a Thursday evening (apparently, they usually perform seizures over the weekend)?
What was the urgency of the Washington Mutual seizure?
The only real beneficiary is JP Morgan who only had to pay $1.7 Billion for all of Washington Mutual's banking operations (valued at several billion dollars) and also got to write of about $30 Billion in Washington Mutual's bad debt, effectively still leaving over $200 Billion in bad debt for the taxpayers to absorb through the FDIC.
The deal does not make sense and has angered most of us shareholders. This is fueled by today's events involving a bid by Wells Fargo to take over Wachovia Bank, which had previously almost succumbed to the same FDIC tactics with Citgroup being the beneficiary. Luckily, Wachovia fought back and their shareholders are smiling again. This shows a serious flaw in the judgment of the FDIC when they had practically wiped out Wachovia Bank's shareholder value.
I humbly ask you to look into this and come to the rescue of hardworking Americans who have invested their hard-earned money into the stock market and also to restore some confidence into this market so we do not risk losing our monies to government confiscation whenever the going gets tough. Companies should be allowed to determine their own destinies.
Thank You.
Sincerely,
