It looks like federal regulators have decided to let a top investment bank executive off lightly after she and her bank manipulated the energy markets so that the states of California and Michigan ended up paying $83 million in “excessive” payments to her employer JPMorgan Chase.
Even as the nation’s top energy regulator is poised to extract a record settlement from JPMorgan Chase over accusations that it manipulated power markets, the agency is expected to spare a top bank lieutenant who federal investigators initially contended made “false and misleading statements under oath,” according to people briefed on the matter.
Blythe Masters, a seminal Wall Street figure who is known for developing exotic financial instruments, emerged this spring at the center of an investigation by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission into accusations of illegal trading in the California and Michigan electricity markets.
Why is she being let off the hook?
Ms. Masters formed close ties with Jamie Dimon, the bank’s chief executive, who has moved to shore up support for her, according to people close to the bank. The two were bound by their belief that the commodities business was critical to JPMorgan’s growth.
It would never do to prosecute someone who has ‘close ties’ to president Obama’s favorite banker, would it? That would be awkward.
“What is robbing a bank compared with founding a bank? What is a picklock compared to a debenture share?”
I don’t know if you are aware of him but Bill Black a former bank regulator has been writing a lot about the financial crisis and the lack of regulation or prosecutions over on the New Economic Perspectives blog.
Also this interview with him is worth listening to.
It would also never do to prosecute someone who’s only sin was breaking the law because of their “belief that the commodities business was critical to JPMorgan’s growth”. Business uber alles.
Business as usual, then. The penal system is overloaded with poor folk anyway.
The right to amass as much money as possible must be protected.
What does her friendship with Obama’s favourite exec have to do with anything? They’re not prosecuting anyone for this shit, whether they’re Dimon chums or not. The only people getting sent to prison about it are low-level analysts and brokers, not executives. Holder has more or less openly said they’re not going to, because of the possible effect on the economy. That is, the banks’ chiefs have told him that if he tries to prosecute any of them, they’ll bring the whole system down: “Nice little economy you’ve got here, mate, shame if anyfin’ ‘appened to it, innit?”
Too big to jail.