JPMorgan Chase has a long reputation of being one of the most responsible banks on Wall Street, with even Barack Obama proclaiming them as “one of the best-managed banks there is.” Of course, being one of the most accountable banks on Wall Street is the equivalent of being one of the kindest serial killers on death row.
An innumerable number of wrongdoing charges came out against JP after the market crash, including illegal robo-signing and intentionally misleading investors about the quality of the mortgage-backed securities they were selling. However, within the past couple of days, another wave of charges have emerged.
The Justice Department has launched a probe into accusations of the company manipulating energy markets in California and the Midwest, à la Enron.
The Securities and Exchange Commission has launched a probe into the bank bribing the children of powerful Chinese officials in order to gain favor with them.
Two former JPMorgan bankers have been charged with fraud, falsification of documents, conspiracy, and more over hiding billions in losses from bad investments.
Five other investigations are under way by the Justice Department, three of which haven’t been disclosed yet.
These and other probes and legal filings have led JP Morgan to announce that they may lose up to $6.8 billion more than what they have set aside for legal fees. That sure sounds like a lot, but how much is it to JP Morgan Chase?
Well, about 3 months of profit. Their maximum losses for numerous cases of corruption, bribery, manipulation of markets, fraud, conspiracy, and other things we don’t even know about is a season’s worth of gains. This sounds like some pretty lax punishment from a country that will put you in jail for up to a year for first-time marijuana possession.
Remember, this is just one of the big banks, and it’s the one commonly considered to be the most straight-shooting. Look at the big picture, and you’ll see a systemically corrupt financial landscape where rules and regulations mean absolutely nothing, because the gains of breaking said rules outweigh the losses, even after fines are accounted for. They settle out of court, they pay a fine, they admit no wrong-doing, and they continue business as usual. No arrests, no criminal charges, just a multi-billion dollar scam swept under the rug.
And if their behavior brings along the threat of failure? Well, they’re too big to fail, and they know that they’ll be rescued by a bailout without having to admit they did anything wrong.
As Forbes’ Shah Gilani states:
“The banks will pay whatever they have to in order to get these matters settled. They’ll all still be in business and able to digest these ‘costs of doing business.’ They’ll get bigger, and make enough profits to want to ‘reward shareholders’ by raising their dividend payouts and buying back their stock…
Banks have become protected criminal enterprises.”
And there’s where the money is: banks have absolutely zero reason to care about the legality or morality of their actions, because there are zero consequences. They, break the law, they include the legal damage into their business costs, they turn a profit, and then they repeat with no further consequences.
The law doesn’t apply to you if you have the money to opt-out of it.
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