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Post by unlawflcombatnt on Oct 19, 2013 22:15:22 GMT -6
from Reuters via Newsmax www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/Morgan-Chase-settlement-mortgage/2013/10/19/id/531960JPMorgan to Pay $13 Billion for Mortgage ClaimsSat, Oct 19, 2013 "JPMorgan Chase has reached a tentative $13 billion agreement with the U.S. Justice Department to settle a range of mortgage issues, a source familiar with the talks said on Saturday. The tentative deal does not release the bank from criminal liability, a factor that had been a major sticking point in the discussions, the source said. As part of the deal, the bank will continue to cooperate in criminal inquiries into certain individuals involved in the conduct at issue, the source, who declined to be identified.... A breakthrough in the weeks-long talks came Friday night, after Attorney General Eric Holder and JPMorgan Chief Executive Jamie Dimon spoke on the phone and the bank agreed to leave criminal liability out of the settlement, the source said. The bank and the Justice Department have been discussing a broad deal that would resolve not only a civil investigation into mortgage securities that the bank sold in the runup to the financial crisis, but also similar lawsuits from the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the National Credit Union Administration, the state of New York and others. Reuters reported late Friday that JPMorgan and FHFA had reached a tentative $4 billion deal. That agreement is expected to be part of the larger $13 billion settlement. JPMorgan is seeking a single settlement to resolve all claims from federal and state agencies over its mortgage-related liabilities stemming from the bust in house prices."
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Post by jeffolie on Oct 20, 2013 11:31:48 GMT -6
The key piece of the JPMorgan settlement isn't the record fine By Michael Hiltzik October 19, 2013 Yes, $13 billion in penalties--the figure at the center of the JPMorgan mortgage settlement deal being reported Saturday--is eye opening. Yes, it's a record in a civil proceeding against a major corporation. But the most significant thing about JPMorgan's deal with the Department of Justice may be what it doesn't do. It doesn't resolve the ongoing federal criminal investigations of the bank's conduct in the residential mortgage securities business during the run-up to the 2008 financial crisis. That investigation is being handled by federal prosecutors in Sacramento.The money penalty may sound big, and a series of earlier big settlements produced the firm's first quarterly loss since Jamie Dimon took over as CEO at the end of 2006. (He became chairman a year later.) But to an enterprise the size of JPMorgan it's still chump change. The people who pay it are not the executives who managed the bank to this pass, but the shareholders. Until the responsible executives are held personally accountable--including Dimon--no financial penalty will have a deterrent effect. Personal accountability may still be in the cards. Reports say that Dimon directly lobbied U.S. Atty. Gen. Eric Holder to drop the criminal investigation, but Holder turned him down. That's gratifying, because banks don't hurt people--bankers do. It's still highly unlikely that the criminal investigation will hit Dimon, but it will be interesting to see how far up the Morgan chain it goes. The settlement ends the government's civil allegations that JPMorgan and its subsidiaries misled investors, including the government-sponsored mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, about the real value of the mortgage securities it was selling. One defense of Dimon and JPMorgan you'll hear from their mouthpieces is that most of these securities were produced before 2008 by Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual. That's the date when Morgan acquired those firms at the government's behest in an effort to save the financial system from ruin. That's true but misleading. JPMorgan itself acknowledges that Bear Stearns and WaMu accounted for 80% of the suspect securities; some analysts say the correct figure is 70%. That still leaves JPMorgan with billions and billions and billions of dollars worth of responsibility. As for Dimon, his jobs at JPMorgan still look secure. That's a reproach to the ethics of American business' ruling class, and to the integrity of a JPMorgan board that leaves him in place despite many billions of legal and regulatory penalties for his bank's unethical behavior. It's sad when the quality a top executive is most admired for is his ability to deflect personal blame, and stick the shareholders with the bill. www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-mh-jpmorgan-20131019,0,1798321.story
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Post by jeffolie on Oct 20, 2013 11:34:14 GMT -6
corporatist Obama most likely will prosecute lower level managers at Chase ... 'round up the usual suspects'
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