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Tuesday, May 22, 2012

The JPMorgan Trade: Time for a Special Counsel



HOLDER MUST APPOINT SPECIAL COUNSEL TO INVESTIGATE POLITICALLY CONNECTED DIMON, JPMORGAN

Better Markets is a non-profit started by Mike Masters, who has frequently testified before Congress on commodities regulation.

Dennis Kelleher is Pres/CEO of Better Markets.  Here's an intro to the letter they sent to Congress.

Better Markets sent a letter Monday to Attorney General Eric Holder, calling for
the appointment of a special counsel in connection with the multibillion-dollar
trading loss at JPMorgan Chase & Co. What's at stake is very important, and goes
to the heart of whether Americans still have faith that the judicial system can
hold Wall Street accountable, especially after failing to prosecute any major figures
for the 2008 financial crisis.

A probe by the Justice Department would present conflicts of interest, as well as
the overall appearance of a conflict of interest. The most glaring example was this
weekend when President Obama pre-judged the ongoing investigations by calling the
$2 billion to $5 billion derivatives trading loss just "a big mistake" in his radio
address.

This appears much more than a big mistake. In fact, the reported trade is the same
type that resulted in a $182 billion taxpayer bailout to AIG. Moreover, JPMorgan
and its CEO Jamie Dimon on April 13 apparently gave false information on the trade to the public, shareholders, regulators, and the media. And "big mistakes" don't
typically trigger simultaneous probes by the FBI, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

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