CROOKED

JPMorgan Paid Feds to Duck Prosecution

Insider was ready to testify.

The Department of Justice appears to have backed off prosecution of JPMorgan for massive fraud after choosing to take a huge cash settlement instead. Rolling Stone reports that a former JPMorgan Chase securities lawyer who knew the bank was bundling bad mortgages and selling them to investors helped the Securities and Exchange Committee and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California investigate the bank’s transgressions. That investigation ultimately led a scheduled press conference where Attorney General Eric Holder was supposed to announce a list of civil fraud charges against the bank—but the conference never happened and charges were never filed. Instead, Jamie Dimon reportedly called Associate Attorney General Tony West hours before the presser and asked to re-open negotiations to settle the case out of court. JPMorgan eventually setted for $13 billion ($4 billion of which was “bogus ‘consumer relief’ added to make the payoff look bigger”).