JPMorgan scandal like Enron

This video from the USA is called Elbow From The Sky On JPMorgan – Trading Loss Surges.

From Bloomberg news agency in the USA:

How JPMorgan Is Like Enron

By Jonathan Weil

May 18, 2012 12:00 AM GMT+0200

Put this one in the category of the famous quote often credited to Mark Twain: “History does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme.”

Last week when JPMorgan Chase & Co. warned investors about a $2 billion trading loss at its chief investment office, it also disclosed it had been using a faulty model to determine the unit’s so-called value at risk. For me at least, the story conjured up memories of a similar tale at Enron Corp. more than a decade ago, the details of which I’ll get to in a moment.

Initially, in its first-quarter earnings press release on April 13, JPMorgan said the average value-at-risk figure for its chief investment office was $67 million during the three months ended March 31. JPMorgan revised that to $129 million when it filed its quarterly report with regulators last week.

See also here.

Jessica Silver-Greenberg and Ben Protess, The New York Times News Service: “Scores of federal regulators are stationed inside JPMorgan Chase’s Manhattan headquarters, but none of them were assigned to the powerful unit that recently disclosed a multibillion trading loss. The lapses have raised questions about who, if anyone, was policing the chief investment office and whether regulators were sufficiently independent. Instead of putting the JPMorgan unit under regular watch, the comptroller’s office and the Fed chose to examine it periodically”: here.

Is JPMorgan Paying for John Boehner‘s Personal Polling Operation? Questions Surround Shadowy Front “New Models USA”. Lee Fang, Republic Report: “We’d like to call your attention to a secretive nonprofit, ‘New Models U.S.A.’ The media has linked the group to a number of shady electioneering efforts in the past. In this day and age, not only can corporations spend unlimited amounts on elections, they can fully hide their identities using nonprofit groups that can operate as Super PACs or quasi-lobbying firms. New Models appears to exist for the express purpose of hiding political money”: here.

JPMorgan Chase and Credit Suisse will pay $416.9 million to settle charges by the Securities Exchange Commission that they lied to investors about the quality of mortgage-backed bonds: here.

At a Senate hearing ostensibly called to interrogate JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon about billions of dollars in speculative losses revealed last month, Dimon was given free rein to reiterate his opposition to any increase in bank regulation: here.

Why the Senate Won’t Touch Jamie Dimon: How JPMorgan Props Up US Debt. Ellen Brown, Truthout: “When Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase Bank, appeared before the Senate Banking Committee on June 13, he was wearing cufflinks bearing the presidential seal. ‘Was Dimon trying to send any particular message by wearing the presidential cufflinks?’ asked CNBC editor John Carney. ‘Was he … subtly hinting that he’s really the guy in charge?'” Here.

Related articles

• My Big Fat Overrated CEO: McKenna On Dimon On The Keiser Report (retheauditors.com)
• JPMorgan’s Trades Ensnared by Post-Enron Regulator Zeal – Bloomberg (bloomberg.com)
• JPMorgan Chase Trying to Throw Its Traders Under the Bus for Fail Whale-Related Securities Fraud (news.firedoglake.com)