- JP Morgan Chase over $6billion from the scandal
- Executives initially thought losses would mount to a 'tempest in a teapot'
- The bank is also about to settle with US regulators, admit fault in the shocking incident
By Ryan Gorman
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Federal authorities will arrest two former JPMorgan Chase & Co. employees on suspicion that they tried to conceal losses incurred by the infamous 'London Whale.'
Javier Martin-Artajo and Julien Grout are expected to be arrested in London in coming days for their part in trying to conceal the investment bank's $6 billion trading loss last year, the New York Times first reported Friday. Bruno Iksil, the trader known as the London Whale, will not be arrested.
Cooperating with investigators and is considered key to any prosecution, Iksil is not likley to be charged over the series of events that led to the scandal.
Staggering losses: JP Morgan Chase lost over $6billion from the London Whale scandal
Martin-Artajo oversaw JPMorgan's trading strategy in London, while Grout recorded the value of the soured investments, according to the New York Times, which said a federal grand jury moved to indict both on criminal fraud charges.
Federal investigators concluded that Martin-Artajo ordered Grout to falsify records and conceal more than $400 million in losses from their superiors at the bank, the newspaper reported. Likely to be extradited to the US under an agreement with British authorities, it is not clear where the two men are located, they are nationals of other European countries, according to the Times.
The charges against Martin-Artajo and Grout hinge on the cooperation of Iksil, the JPMorgan in London who placed the large bets that led to the loss, according to the report.
JP Morgan is also close to a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission requiring the bank - by assets, the largest in the country - to admit fault, according to separate Times report.
Despite the pending settlement with the SEC, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and federal prosecutors are trying to determine if executives misled investors with their under-representation of the magnitude of the losses, according to a separate Times report. The beleaguered firm is also facing fines from Britain's Financial Services Authority, the Times reported.
Chief Executive Jamie Dimon famously referred to the scandal as a 'tempest in a teapot' early on, words that came to haunt him as the firm came to realize the staggering losses incurred by Iksil and co. 'There was no hiding, there was no lying, there was no bullsh---ing, period,' Dimon pleaded during a conference in New York this past June.
Initially misled: JPMorgan Chase Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon testified in June about the scandal during a US House Financial Services Committee hearing on Capitol Hill
Iksil incurred a stunning portfolio of derivatives positions as a trader in the firm's chief investment office in London, England. The chief investment office, which has since been dissolved, both took bets and hedged the firm's risk on the open market. It traded only proprietary capital, no client money was lost.
Derivatives are contracts tied to assets such as corporate bonds or even common stock, and are used to bet on the expected performance of the underlying company. Designed with varying degrees of complexity, it is possible to earn a profit or insure against potential loss regardless of how a company performs, depending on the type of contract used.
Iksil is not likely to be charged because investigators have concluded he was unfairly blamed, according to Reuters. Charges against the firm's top executives are also highly unlikely, the Times noted.
Dimon reportedly reviewed the division's profit and loss reports for large positions every day. The alleged actions of both Martin-Artajo and Grout are said by regulators to have led to the surprising disconnect between anticipated and actual losses.
The U.S. attorney's office in New York declined to comment late Friday. A call left with the FBI office in New York was not immediately returned.
The trading loss disclosed in 2012 was an embarrassment for the biggest U.S. bank and raised concerns about risk-taking at Wall Street banks four years after the financial crisis.
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- Basil Busted , United Weimar Republic, United Kingdom, 10/8/2013 18:22
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