Jamie Dimon, Billionaire - FDL [View all]

[WillyT]

Jamie Dimon, Billionaire
DSWright - FDL
June 10, 2015 at 11:00 AM PDT



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The ancient Athenian philosopher Anacharsis is said to have once noted that laws are no different than a spider’s web in that “They’ll restrain anyone weak and insignificant who gets caught in them, but they’ll be torn to shreds by people with power and wealth.” It would be difficult to provide a stronger example proving Anacharsis’ thesis regarding the dynamic between law and wealth than the example of JPMorgan and its CEO, Jamie Dimon. Such an example is particularly worth noting now that Mr. Dimon has reportedly breached the great elite wealth barrier of our time and become a billionaire.

Under Dimon’s leadership – he was and is chairman, president and CEO – JPMorgan Chase went on one of the most successful corporate crime sprees in the history of American business raking in billions of revenue from clients and US taxpayers alike. The amount of wealth snatched by Dimon’s JPMorgan was almost as impressive as the firm’s ability to evade substantive legal recourse from the Department of Justice over and over again.

The litany of known offenses committed under the reign of Jamie Dimon is simply breathtaking. In many cases JPMorgan went so far as to pay large fines but did not outright admit wrongdoing:

•JPMorgan paid out a $13 billion settlement for fraudulent activities in the mortgage securities market that led to the 2008 financial crisis. The crisis and resulting recession hollowed out the wealth of the American middle class and threw millions out of work.

•A $500 million settlement for role JPMorgan-acquired Bear Stearns played in the mortgage market.

•The bank paid out over $600 million to settle charges of manipulating currency markets in collusion with other banks and made a mostly symbolic criminal guilty plea.

•Not only did JPMorgan cause the housing crisis, it fraudulently foreclosed on homeowners with faulty paperwork during the crisis and paid $50 million to settle those charges.

•While JPMorgan lobbyists flooded Washington DC to stop regulations that would attempt to prevent reckless trading – a trader in JPMorgan’s London office known as the “London Whale” was busy recklessly trading and violating securities laws charges for which JPMorgan paid over $900 million to settle.

•A cartel of banks including JPMorgan were involved in rigging an international interest rate known as the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) which has already led to JPMorgan paying over $100 million in fines.

It was a hell of a run and is far from over...

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More: http://firedoglake.com/2015/06/10/jamie-dimon-billionaire/