JPMorgan Vice President’s Death in London Shines a Light on the Bank’s Close Ties to the CIA

The nonstop crime news swirling around JPMorgan Chase for a solid 18 months has started to feel a little spooky – they do lots of crime but never any time; and with each closed case, a trail of unanswered questions remains in the public’s mind.

Just last month, JPMorgan Chase acknowledged that it facilitated the largest Ponzi scheme in history, looking the other way as Bernie Madoff brazenly turned his business bank account at JPMorgan Chase into an unprecedented money laundering operation that would have set off bells, whistles and sirens at any other bank.

The U.S. Justice Department allowed JPMorgan to pay $1.7 billion and sign a deferred prosecution agreement, meaning no one goes to jail at JPMorgan — again. The largest question that no one can or will answer is how the compliance, legal and anti-money laundering personnel at JPMorgan ignored for years hundreds of transfers and billions of dollars in round trip maneuvers between Madoff and the account of Norman Levy. Even one such maneuver should set off an investigation. (Levy is now deceased and the Trustee for Madoff’s victims has settled with his estate.)

Then there was the report done by the U.S. Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the London Whale episode which left the public in the dark about just what JPMorgan was doing with stock trading in its Chief Investment Office in London, redacting all information in the 300-page report that related to that topic...

http://wallstreetonparade.com/2014/02/jpmorgan-vice-president’s-death-in-london-shines-a-light-on-the-bank’s-close-ties-to-the-cia/

JPMorgan Tracked Business Linked to China Hiring

Federal authorities have obtained confidential documents that shed new light onJPMorgan Chase’s decision to hire the children of China’s ruling elite, securing emails that show how the bank linked one prominent hire to “existing and potential business opportunities” from a Chinese government-run company.

The documents, which also include spreadsheets that list the bank’s “track record” for converting hires into business deals, offer the most detailed account yet of JPMorgan’s “Sons and Daughters” hiring program, which has been at the center of a federal bribery investigation for months. The spreadsheets and emails — recently submitted by JPMorgan to authorities — illuminate how the bank created the program to prevent questionable hiring practices but ultimately viewed it as a gateway to doing business with state-owned companies in China, which commonly issue stock with the help of Wall Street banks.

The hiring practices seemed to have been an open secret at the bank’s headquarters in Hong Kong, according to the documents, copies of which were reviewed by The New York Times. In the email citing the “existing and potential business opportunities,” a senior JPMorgan executive in Hong Kong emphasized that the father of a job candidate was the chairman of the China Everbright Group, a state-controlled financial conglomerate. The executive also extolled the broader benefits of the hiring program, telling colleagues in another email: “You all know I have always been a big believer of the Sons and Daughters program — it almost has a linear relationship” with winning assignments to advise Chinese companies. Until now, the indications of a connection between the hires and business deals have not been so explicit...

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/12/07/bank-tabulated-business-linked-to-china-hiring/

JPMorgan and the Wen Family

For two years beginning in 2006, JPMorgan Chase employed a consulting firm run by Wen Ruchun, the daughter of former Prime Minister Wen Jiabao of China. During this period and later, the bank was involved with several companies in which members of the Wen family or their colleagues had investments. The bank’s primary ties to the Wen family and its colleagues are shown in the panel at bottom...

http://cryptome.cn.com/2013/JPMorgan-Wen-Family-13-1113.pdf

JPMorgan hiring in China being investigated

Authorities are investigating whether JPMorgan Chase's Chinese offices hired young workers from prominent Chinese families that in turn offered the bank business.

The bank made a passing reference to a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation in its quarterly filing earlier this month, and The New York Times fanned the fire by reporting on a confidential U.S. government document that went into greater detail.

The document showed that the SEC is looking into the hiring of several well-connected young JPMorgan (JPM, Fortune 500) employees, including the son of the former vice chairman of China's top banking regulator and the daughter of a Chinese railway official, according to the Times...

http://money.cnn.com/2013/08/18/news/companies/jpmorgan-investigation-china/index.html

Senate probes banks' aluminium warehouse role

A US Senate committee heard evidence on the controversial role of big banks in the aluminium industry.

Buyers like beer giant MillerCoors testified that banks' control of metal warehouses has increased their costs by as much as $3bn (£1.95bn) last year.

The Senate Banking Committee is investigating whether banks should be allowed to control infrastructure used in the commodities and energy sectors.

This includes warehouses used to store metals like aluminium...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-23418834