JPMorgan Chase Still Going Strong Despite Paying Billions for Long List of Misdeeds

(It should go without saying so, but will: these fines and penalties are expenses borne by shareholders and JPM clients.)

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan CEO

JPMorgan Chase has paid $16 billion in fines, settlements and other litigation expenses in just the last four years. But the troubles have not substantially weakened the bank, still the nation’s largest financial holding company.

Of the $16 billion JPMorgan Chase has shelled out, about $8.5 billion were for fines and settlements resulting from illegal actions taken by bank executives, according to Richard Eskow at the Campaign for America’s Future, who cited a new report from Joshua Rosner of Graham Fisher & Co.

The $16 billion total does not include a recent settlement that calls for JPMorgan Chase to pay $100 million to waive $417 million in claims it had made against clients of the firm MF Global.

The U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control found that JPMorgan had illegally aided dictatorships in Cuba, Sudan, Liberia and Iran, including transferring 32,000 ounces of gold bullion for an Iranian bank.

Among its other transgressions, JPMorgan has been found to have

• misled investors
• engaged in fictitious trades
• collected illegal flood insurance commissions
• wrongfully foreclosed on soldiers, charged veterans hidden fees for refinancing
• violated the Federal Trade commission Act by making false statements to people seeking automobile loans
• illegally increased their collection of overdraft fees by processing large transactions before smaller ones
• helped drive Jefferson County, Alabama, into bankruptcy by switching its fixed-rate debt to variable
• violated antitrust provision of the Sherman Act relating to bid rigging

Despite all this, JPMorgan Chase is still the largest financial holding company in the United States, with $2.4 trillion in assets and $350 billion in excess deposits.

-David Wallechinsky, Noel Brinkerhoff

To Learn More:

The Price of Evil at JPMorgan Chase (by Richard Eskow, Campaign for America’s Future)

JPMorgan Chase: Out of Control (by Joshua Rosner, GrahamFisher)

JPMorgan Chase Whale Trades: A Case History Of Derivatives Risks And Abuses (Senate Subcommittee on Investigations) (pdf)

In a Regulatory First, JPMorgan Suspended from Trading in Energy Market (by Ken Broder, AllGov)

JPMorgan Chase Nightmare Foreclosure Story (by Noel Brinkerhoff and David Wallechinsky, AllGov)

Welfare for the Rich: U.S. Gives JPMorgan $14 Billion a Year in Subsidies (by Noel Brinkerhoff and David Wallechinsky, AllGov)

JPMorgan Chase Caught “Misrepresenting” Credit Card Collections; Whistleblower Fired (by David Wallechinsky and Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)