J.P. Morgan won't face criminal antitrust prosecution in return for cooperation

[Ichingcarpenter]

SEC alleges bank colluded with agents to win some auctions, lose others

-- J.P. Morgan won't face criminal antitrust prosecution in return for cooperation

-- J.P. Morgan says settlement payments won't materially affect earnings

(Updates with more details from complaint in fourth paragraph.)

NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM) agreed to a $228 million settlement to charges it rigged nearly 100 transactions involving municipal bonds, federal and state authorities said Thursday.

It is the third, and largest, settlement reached with a bank in a continuing investigation into an alleged nationwide conspiracy to rig municipal-bond bidding processes. ...


http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20110707-712701.html

[Rex]

1. The paymasters would be agitated if they were brought down

to face the same laws as the peasant class! Thank you Oz!

[Ichingcarpenter]

2. JP Morgan Chase got $25 billion in TARP then bought state bonds

JPMorgan Chase pointed out that it recently bought more than $1 billion in Illinois bonds

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/US/12/22/bailout.accountability/

[Rex]

14. Wish I could do that, you think the Feds would give me a loaner?

Just til I make it all back and then some. Honest.

[JDPriestly]

3. The Obama Justice Department is encouraging

irresponsibility in the banking/mortgage/business sector.

Things will just get worse thanks to Holder's wet noodle approach.

The deals the Justice Department makes with this big cheats makes me wonder about corruption at high levels. I have no evidence, but I can't understand why they make these giveaway deals, especially at a time at which the US government, we are told, is facing default.

It makes no sense to me.

[Fumesucker]

4. Ah, but those civilization destroying pot vendors won't escape the gleam in Holder's gimlet eyes.

So everything is good..

[Ichingcarpenter]

5. They just had another $154m payout to avoid criminal charges on another matter.

It comes after the bank agreed a $154m payout to settle charges of misleading buyers of its mortgage investments





CHUMP CHANGE TO THEM IF IT KEEPS YOU OUT OF JAIL


The JUSTICE department has brought criminal charges against 18 of the bank's former executives - of whom nine have pleaded guilty.
But the bank itself had only faced civil charges after it agreed to co-operate. The CRIMINAL charges are dropped.


For its own part, JP Morgan said it was "pleased to have resolved this matter with its regulators".




http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14074971

[eShirl]

6. maybe they can start paying $$ in advance to commit more crimes in the future

we can call it "buying indulgences"

[muriel_volestrangler]

8. I think someone could set up a profitable market in those

Just think of it as doing deals for a 'get out of jail free' card. I mean, if it turns out you're not caught after all, you wouldn't want your investment in a bribepre-paid no-blame financial adjustment to go to waste.

[formercia]

9. Crime Franchises

Holder can change his name to Colonel Sanders.

[Warren Stupidity]

7. I like this. Can I have some too?

I'd like to go into the bank robbing bidness. However, the downside of a very long time in prison, at my advanced age, seems to be a major obstacle. So if I could be assured that if I were to be caught I could simply cooperate, pay some of the banks back, and continue on my way, I think a life of bank robbery would be just the thing.

[Ichingcarpenter]

10. JP Morgan Chase got an innocent man thrown in jail

Chase Gets Man Thrown In Jail For Fraudulent Check. Except The Check Is Legit.

Ikenna, a 28-year old construction worker, went to deposit a $8,463.21 Chase cashier's check at his local Chase branch, only for the teller to decide that neither he nor his check looked right and he got tossed in jail for forgery, KING5 reports. The next day, a Friday the bank realized its mistake and left a message with the detective. But it was her day off, so he spent the entire weekend in jail.

By the time he got out, he had been fired from his job for not showing up to work. His car had been towed as well. It ended up getting sold off at auction because he couldn't afford to get it out of the pound. He had been relying on that cashier's check for his money but it was taken as evidence and by the time he got it back it was auctioned off.

All this while the cashier's check had been issued by the very bank he was trying to cash it at.

Chase didn't even apologize, not even after a year. A lawyer volunteered to help write a strongly-worded letter requesting damages. After trying hard to get a response, they sent KING 5 a two-sentence reply: "We received the letter and are reviewing the situation. We'll be reaching out to the customer."

http://consumerist.com/2011/07/chase-gets-man-thrown-in..

DU link:


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1435462

[muriel_volestrangler]

11. With behaviour like that, "reaching out" almost seems like a threat

When he tried to use them as a bank, they ruined his life. 'Reaching out to the victim customer' seems like the criminal revisiting the scene of the crime."

The police may need to be sued too - "it was her day off" is no excuse for holding an innocent man in jail. If the detective wasn't there, then a call saying "we made a mistake, the man is innocent" isn't just something you put on a PostIt note. Unless the bank never actually said what the call was about.

[Ichingcarpenter]

13. You are right most americans are in the wrong business

You need to be under Holder's protection and then rob and steal
by paying a small percentage of your crime profits to the FEDs.
as a kickback...... cough cough..... I mean penalty..

[salin]

12. ARGGGGH !!!!

manipulating transactions with govt bonds at all levels. Rigged to sometimes win and sometimes lose.

Good God - these finanacial institutions no longer serve any economic good (per investments that allow entities to open and grow) and just extract monitary value out of existing economic activities. Think of all the money made by these schemes and how zero economic activity or economic good has been generated. It just screams: Regulation! Regulation! Regulation!