Search Results for: jpmc

Criminal Investigation of Madoff and JPMorgan Shines Harsh Light on NYU

By Pam Martens: October 28, 2013 Last week the business press reported that the U.S. Department of Justice may assert charges against JPMorgan Chase for its role in perpetuating the Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme which defrauded investors out of $17 billion in actual funds and $64 billion in paper losses based on the falsified values shown on client statements. Unnamed sources said the Justice Department may agree to a deferred prosecution agreement in exchange for an outside monitor or, in the alternative, charge JPMorgan’s banking division with violations of the Bank Secrecy Act for failing to report its Madoff suspicions to Federal authorities. Interestingly, JPMorgan did report its suspicions to a government regulator – in the United Kingdom, not in the U.S. Such a development would also raise serious new questions about how the Board of Trustees of NYU handles conflicts of interest. The Board is already under withering criticism … Continue reading

Wall Street’s Metals Cartel On Trial Today in the Senate

By Pam Martens: July 23, 2013  If you think Wall Street’s rigging of foreclosures to struggling homeowners, or rigging interest rate swaps sold to municipalities, or rigging the Libor interest rate benchmark is the extent of its cartel activities, think again. Today, in U.S. Senate chambers, expert witnesses will make the case that the London Metal Exchange (LME) has become little more than a rigged Wall Street game to benefit a handful of powerful Wall Street firms while costing consumers and the economy greatly.  The Senate Banking Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Protection, chaired by Senator Sherrod Brown, will hold a hearing titled: “Examining Financial Holding Companies: Should Banks Control Power Plants, Warehouses, and Oil Refineries?”  Timothy Weiner, Global Risk Manager of the giant beer brewer, MillerCoors LLC, has told the Senate in his written statement that his company’s concerns about the London Metal Exchange are shared by many other companies, … Continue reading

As Criminal Probes of JPMorgan Expand, Documents Surface Showing JPMorgan Paid $190,000 Annually to Spouse of the Bank’s Top Regulator

By Pam Martens: July 11, 2012 On May 10 of this year, Jamie Dimon, Chairman and CEO of JPMorgan, announced that billions of insured deposits at his bank had been invested in high risk derivatives and had sustained at least a $2 billion loss.  The Department of Justice and FBI have commenced investigations.  Dimon is expected to announce the current extent of those losses this Friday in an earnings conference call. Following the May 10 announcement, there were numerous calls for Dimon to step down from the Board of Directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.  That organization is the primary regulator of the firm. There was widespread public outrage that the CEO of a bank had no business serving on the governing body of his regulator.  (The New York Fed has a long history of such conflicts.) Now it has emerged that not only was Dimon conflicted … Continue reading

Jamie Dimon’s New Business Model From Hell Could Take Down Wall Street — Again

By Pam Martens: June 14, 2012 If you want to trade securities at any brokerage firm in the U.S., you’ll need to study intensively for about three months, memorize dizzying rules and regulations, then take a six hour licensing exam. (The exam is so rigorous that it’s compared to the CPA exam. I don’t know if it’s fact or lore, but I was told exam rooms in past decades had puke buckets in the corners.  My room didn’t in 1986.) Then, you’ll need to get fingerprinted, pass a background check, register with a host of stock exchanges, make sure you have a supervisor who holds a principal’s license, get approved in each state in which you plan to conduct business, and take ongoing continuing education classes to keep your licenses.  Or, you could skip all of that and earn $14 million a year trading – without a license – stocks, … Continue reading