While I pledged to stop Google searching historical “no admission of guilt” fraud by our banks, I guess I did not include new stuff. So in case you missed it, JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America are now on the list of those undergoing money laundering charges by the Comptroller of the Currency. Evidently Chase is supposed have engaged in money laundering “pertaining to drug cartels, especially in Venezuela and several other economically restricted nations.“ That’s actually a relief personally, as JPMorgan’s last year multi-million $$$ fine by the Treasury Department was for thwarting U.S. sanctions against Cuba and “egregious” conduct where JPMorgan’s “managers and supervisors acted with knowledge of the conduct constituting the apparent violations and recklessly failed to exercise a minimal degree of caution or care.” At the time, JPMorgan said that it had not dealt directly with institutions in Cuba and Iran and that it had merely acted as a middleman. Well it’s nice to know we are not deal with Castro or Tehran anymore. After all Oliver Stone says that Hugo Chavez is really a nice guy.
In another follow up piece, my crystal ball from a week ago is pretty good, as Corzine and the bunch at MFGlobal are evidently off the hook. No criminal charges for that disappearing $1 Billion in customer money. Corzine made $14.25 Million in the 18 months before all that money went missing. He’s now considering starting a hedge fund. Not a bad gig if you can get it.
Oh, and The New York Times reports that of the disappearing funds “$175 million of this stolen money went to JPMorgan Chase.” Sure pays to be a middleman.
