Forum Post: TARP Recipient sending US jobs to INDIA

My name is Dan Armstrong. I am fifty years old and I have worked in the mutual fund industry in Boston since 1987. The reason we have no jobs is because we are giving them away, and I as an American I believe it is morally and ethically wrong.

My employer, State Street Corporation, a large Mutual fund firm in Boston, received between $3 billion in US government TARP bailout money about two years ago, and we are now embarked on a program (A Joint Venture "JV" with SYNTEL of TROY, MI) of sending hundreds of jobs (in "small increments" in order to avoid the attention of the media, the press, and politicians) to India where the workers will receive approximately $400 per month to perform work for which American workers in Boston and in Kansas City, and Irvine, California, currently receive approximately $3,100 a month on average to perform.

When my employer needed help. the federal government bent over backwards and provided a huge amount of operating capital - which ultimately came from each American Worker.

Currently in the cities of Pune, Chennai, and Mumbai, India, there are large campuses filled with workers from a company called "Syntel" where hundreds of workers are performing - Fund Accounting, Portfolio of Investments compilations, and Custody work. All of these people are now doing work that was once being done by Americans in Kansas City, Irvine California, and Boston, and other parts of Massachusetts. I was told by one of the Syntel workers that in Pune alone over 1,200 workers are now performing jobs which less than two years ago were being performed in Massachusetts.

I was told by a Administrative person who works in the office of the Unit Head, that State Street plans by the end of 2012 to move almost all of the Fund Admin operartions - which is about 725 people, to Mumbai and Punai where "Syntel" will perform all of these jobs leaving several hundred Massachusetts. Irvine CA, and or Kansas City residents out of work at a crucial time in our economy and our history. If you contact State Street and they tell you they are not going forward with the "JV" They are lying - We Just trained a bunch of guys last week, and I am not doing this much longer...

If the US congress enacted a "Jobs Expatriation Act" which require any corporation - with 100 employees or more - doing business in the US to file paperwork each year with the Federal government indicating just how many employees they (the corporations) have on their payroll. If there were any change in employment figures within such a firm during a given year based on the fact that an organization "expatriated" US jobs to a foreign country, than that entity would have to pay the federal government a $250,000 tax per job expatriated. If such a firm within that year failed to report such activity, a fine of $500,000 would be assessed for any unreported "expatriated" US employment.

This act would halt corporations like my current employer "State Street Corporation" from depleting the US job base to enrich the lives of a few corporate officers, and a hand full of institutional investors - who are presumably pretty wealthy to begin with.

Thank you

Daniel J. Armstrong 8 Hall Avenue #3 Braintree, MA 02184 617-820-6009