From Wall Street on Parade, August 3:
Playing out in a federal courtroom in Chicago have been JPMorgan traders telling a jury that it was standard operating procedure at the bank to rig precious metals markets in order to make huge profits for their trading desk. That case is U.S. v. Smith in the Northern District Court in Chicago. (Case number 1:19-cr-00669.)
Now there may be more explosive revelations spilling out against JPMorgan Chase in the Southern District Court in Manhattan beginning this fall. That case is Shaquala Williams v JPMorgan Chase. (Case number 1:21-cv-0932.) Last week, Judge Jed Rakoff, who is overseeing the Williams case, ruled that JPMorgan’s motion for dismissal would not prevail on Williams’ claim for retaliatory dismissal and ruled that a jury trial would begin on November 7. (Judge Rakoff did dismiss the Williams’ claim that the bank’s actions had adversely affected a job offer.)
Williams is an attorney who previously worked as a compliance official at JPMorgan Chase. She is suing the bank for retaliating against her protected whistleblowing activities by terminating her employment after she raised concerns about improper activities at the bank.
One of those improper activities involves Tony Blair, who served as Prime Minister of the U.K. from 1997 to 2007. Blair started taking down big bucks from JPMorgan not long after leaving his post as Prime Minister. JPMorgan Chase issued a press release on January 10, 2008, announcing that Blair was being hired as a “senior advisor” and would be joining JPMorgan’s International Council.
Williams is a financial crimes compliance professional with more than a decade of experience at multiple global banks. Part of Williams’ role at JPMorgan Chase was to make sure that the bank was in compliance with a non-prosecution agreement the bank had signed with the Justice Department in 2016. (The bank has admitted to an unprecedented five criminal felony counts since 2014 and received deferred-prosecution agreements for those.) All of these frauds occurred while Jamie Dimon was Chairman and CEO of the bank.
Not only are this many felony charges unprecedented at a U.S. megabank, but the failure of federal regulators and the Board of Directors of JPMorgan Chase to demand that Dimon step down is equally unprecedented.
The 2016 non-prosecution agreement that Williams was supervising compliance with for the bank stemmed from charges brought by the Justice Department that JPMorgan’s Asia subsidiary had engaged in quid pro quo agreements with Chinese officials to obtain investment-banking business and had falsified internal documents to cover up the activities. The quid pro quo agreements resulted in the bank putting the children of high Chinese government officials on its payroll in order to further its business interests in China....
....MUCH MORE
In January 2009 we happened to catch the Blair/JPM tie-up:Kids, Some of These Green-Collar Jobs Pay Pretty Well
