Is Jamie Dimon a ruthless and intimidating banker, or are his suits made of Teflon? The chairman of JPMorgan Chase and his shareholders successfully killed an investors’ proposal to strip him of his title and split the job between two people, sources said Tuesday. While the final tally of the vote has yet to be released, several shareholders who have seen the total confirmed that Dimon did in fact defeat the campaign. It’s not the first time investor groups have tried to oust the silver-haired chief executive officer. A similar proposal was brought to the table in 2011, but failed to pass, garnering only 40 percent of the vote.
Jamie Dimon and the 10 other directors of JPMorgan Chase were all re-elected at the bank’s annual shareholders meeting in Tampa, Fla., today.
...
Even if JPMorgan shareholders had accepted the proposal, the bank would not have been required to act. But the board will likely make changes to derail future calls for a shake-up. The possibilities include reshuffling the bank’s risk committee or giving its lead director more power.
Oh, yeah give him more power. That'll teach him to be more cautious with other people's money.
In yet another disgusting episode of "Too Big to Fail," this time from the NYT:
"Government investigators have found that JPMorgan Chase devised “manipulative schemes” that transformed “money-losing power plants into powerful profit centers,” and that one of its most senior executives gave “false and misleading statements” under oath."
Yes, we're all shocked...again.
"The findings appear in a confidential government document, reviewed by The New York Times, that was sent to the bank in March, warning of a potential crackdown by the regulator of the nation’s energy markets."
What's with the secrecy? As if we don't know that we're being screwed by the banks.
"The possible action comes amid showdowns with other agencies. One of the bank’s chief regulators, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, is weighing new enforcement actions against JPMorgan over the way the bank collected credit card debt and its possible failure to alert authorities to suspicions about Bernard L. Madoff, according to people who were not authorized to discuss the cases publicly."
Suuuure they are.
"In a meeting last month at the bank’s Park Avenue headquarters, the comptroller’s office delivered an unusually stark message to Jamie Dimon, the chief executive and chairman: the nation’s biggest bank was quickly losing credibility in Washington. The bank’s top lawyers, including Stephen M. Cutler, the general counsel, have also cautioned executives about the bank’s regulatory problems, employees say."
Good Lord. A banker losing credibility in Washington! I'm shocked that Jamie Dimon has any credibility left to lose.
So, what exactly is the Big Bank in trouble for this time?
On Monday's Majority Report with Sam Seder, Matt Taibbi explains the myth of JP Morgan Chase as the “one good bank”, why too big to fail is the problem, why Washington is finally getting fed up with Wall Street, how Wall Street miscalculated the 2012 election, how JP Morgan Chase hides losses and commits regular acts of financial fraud and is genuine Wall Street reform possible now?
JPMorgan Chase chief executive Jamie Dimon greeted with noisy protests as he prepared to testify before the Senate Banking Committee in 2012. "This man is a crook and needs to go to jail!" yelled one man.
A new Senate report shows that last year JPMorgan Chase, the country's biggest bank, manipulated documents and ignored internal controls as they built up trading losses. Jamie Dimon, the chief executive, also withheld information from regulators. The 300-page report was released the day before the Senate plans to question bank leaders and regulators at a hearing, and "it may also foreshadow a criminal case against employees at the heart of the troubled wager," according to the NYT. “While we have repeatedly acknowledged significant mistakes, our senior management acted in good faith and never had any intent to mislead anyone," a spokeswoman for the bank said.
Mr. Dimon, whose reputation as an astute manager of risk has been undercut by the trading losses, comes under the harshest criticism yet from the Senate investigators. The chief executive signed off on changes to an internal alarm system that underestimated losses, seemingly contradicting his earlier statements to lawmakers, according to the report.
He is also accused of withholding from regulators details about the investment bank’s daily losses — and then raising “his voice in anger” at a deputy who later turned over the information.
While people close to the matter dispute whether the outburst actually happened, it illustrates a broader problem at JPMorgan: after emerging from the financial crisis in far better shape than rivals, the bank saw itself as being above its regulators. The bank was so filled with hubris, Senate investigators said, that an executive once screamed at examiners and called them “stupid.”
The bipartisan report, citing some of the same private documents that F.B.I. agents are now poring over, also highlighted how JPMorgan managers “pressured” traders to lowball losses by $660 million, a previously undisclosed figure, and then played down the problems to authorities.
With this line from the Times' report, you may start to think that the "too big to fail" could be falling..."After examining hundreds of e-mails and hours of taped phone calls, the people said, federal investigators also plan to interview top JPMorgan executives in the coming weeks, including Mr. Dimon."
But then the next line is a big let down, "While authorities do not suspect the chief executive of wrongdoing, the meetings signal that the case is at an advanced stage."
What a charade.
There is one highlight to come from this; Beginning at 9:30am Friday, Matt Taibbi will be live-blogging a hearing held by Senator Carl Levin's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations who will be grilling J.P. Morgan Chase executives and high-ranking federal regulators in a get-together entitled, "J.P. Morgan Chase "Whale" Trades: A Case History Of Derivatives Risks And Abuses." Bring your popcorn and be there.
JPMorgan’s CEO Jamie Dimon won’t be reaping any benefits from the bank’s third consecutive year of record profits. Dimon’s pay will be cut by more than half, the company revealed in an internal report that blamed him for at least $6.2 billion in losses from the “London Whale” trade. Dimon will take home $11.5 million in 2012, including his $1.5 million salary and $10 million in restricted stock—roughly half of his 2011 haul of $23 million. The bank pointed out Dimon’s “egregious mistakes” in the chief investment office that resulted in the Whale flop, for which he “bears ultimate responsibility.”
A U.S. judge has ordered JPMorgan Chase to explain why the court should not force the bank to turn over 25 internal emails demanded as part of an investigation into whether it manipulated electricity markets in California and the Midwest.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) filed a petition in federal court in Washington on Monday asking the court to order the bank to show cause as to why it would not comply with a subpoena issued by the commission as part of its investigation into the bank's power trading.
On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly gave the bank until July 13 to submit an explanation as to why the court should not enforce FERC's subpoenas. JPMorgan has asserted the emails are protected by the attorney-client privilege.
I wonder who is going to play Ken Lay in this remake of the Enron scandal?
Five members of Occupy Our Homes DC were silenced on Wednesday when they were escorted out of a Congressional hearing while JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon was giving testimony on his bank's most recent financial losses.
In an email from Occupy Our Homes DC:
Deborah Harris, a disabled former paramedic who lost the title to her home due to J.P. Morgan’s unethical business practices and is now facing eviction, confronted Mr. Dimon over a microphone, asking him to face the thousands of homeowners like herself that are losing their homes because of his work. She was quickly dragged away while fellow Occupy Our Homes members chanted and loudly accused Mr. Diamond of being a crook.
The protesters, including Ms. Harris, were held in jail for most of the day and by 6:00pm all had
been released.
“I told him to face up to the little people, like me, who had saved up for years only to have their homes taken by giants. When they slapped the handcuffs on me, I felt very proud that I was a voice who stood-up.” Deborah Harris, an Organizer with Occupy Our Homes who is facing eviction
“I found it shocking that Jamie Diamond, a billionaire who is responsible for taking thousands of people’s homes, can go before a congressional committee, just apologize and walk away. While those of us who are standing for those that lost their homes are hand-cuffed and thrown in jail.” said, Micah Bales, an Organizer with Occupy Our Homes-DC
A side note, there have been 7,289 Occupy protesters arrested across the nation to date. Bankers arrested for causing the economic collapse of our nation that left millions homeless or stuck with underwater home mortgages? Zero.
TGIF! Today is Friday, May 18th, 2012, and there still hasn't been even one banker jailed for the economic and foreclosure crisis in the United States.
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon has been one of the most outspoken critics of the Volcker Rule, a section of the Dodd-Frank Act that aims to keep the banks in which you deposit your money from gambling it on their own sometimes-risky investments. Now Dimon has announced that risky trades have cost his company $2 billion in losses. In this April 22, 2012 Moyers Moment from Moyers & Company, Paul Volcker himself responds to Jamie Dimon’s complaints about the rule and its effects.
