After Profiting $1 Billion From Madoff Scheme, JP Morgan Refuses to Cooperate With Investigation

After Profiting $1 Billion From Madoff Scheme, JP Morgan Refuses to Cooperate With Investigation

Official documents obtained by Newsweek show that the Justice Department denied a request for enforcement of a subpoena, presented by federal banking regulators. The subpoena was meant to force JP Morgan Chase to disclose information relating to Bernard Madoff’s massive Ponzi scheme.
Madoff, a former non-executive Chairman of the NASDAQ stock market, was responsible for the largest financial fraud in US history. Madoff took advantage of thousands of investors, in a scheme that may have cost as much as $65 billion in losses. He was convicted of 11 felony crimes in 2009, resulting in a prison sentence of 150 years.

Madoff was one of the JP Morgan Chase’s largest customers, with accounts totaling billions of dollars. The bank is estimated to have profited by at least $1 billion from the Madoff scheme. While the bank has denied any knowledge of the fraud, federal inspectors have continued to probe the bank, regarding the crime, and Madoff himself claims that many people working for the bank were aware of criminal scheme.

A memo obtained by Newsweek shows that federal banking inspectors requested support in obtaining internal memos from JP Morgan Chase. The memos involve 90 employee interviews which were conducted by the bank, in regards to the Madoff fraud. The bank has denied inspectors access to documents for several years, leading the Inspector General to petition the Justice Department, requesting that obstruction charges be brought against the bank.

The memos are an important part of JP Morgan Chase investigation. Inspectors clearly believe that they could provide evidence showing that JP Morgan Chase employees were aware of the Madoff fraud and failed to report it to authorities, because they were also profiting from the activity. The law requires bank employees to immediately report suspicious activity to federal authorities.

The Department of Justice declined to pursue obstruction charges against JP Morgan Chase for failing to provide the memos as late as September of this year. This has led to short-sighted speculation that the Obama administration is working to protect the bank. However, there are other possible reasons that the Justice Department declined the request.

The Truth Be Told

Triking the Pole

 

Riding tricycles down your driveway and on sidewalks around town was a lot of fun when you were a kid, but now tricycles have traded in their all plastic construction for steel frames and treaded rubber tires that can survive a trek across the South Pole.
This tricycle isn’t child’s play- it was made by Inspired Cycle Engineering to survive even the toughest conditions and prove it’s durability in a three person race that started on the edge of Antarctica and ends at the South Pole.
35-year-old Maria Leijerstam is braving the elements to show she has what it takes to beat her competition, who are riding standard bikes, and survive the freezing 400 mile ride across the barren landscape on a tricycle built for one.

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5 Genetic Discoveries in 2013

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Five Desolate Locations Hidden Inside Big Cities

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A Polka Dot Bomber from World War II

Judas Iscariot is infamous for his betrayal of jesus by leading soldiers to arrest him in the Garden of Gethsemane. In shepherding, a Judas goat is one that is trained to lead sheep to a particular location—the slaughterhouse.
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Victorian And Edwardian Street Furniture

The British Heritage Group decided in 2006 to carry out research to discover whether any examples of the cast iron street urinals and public conveniences favored and used by the Victorians and Edwardians still existed in the 21st century.

The ongoing and progressive increase in the demand requirements for health and safety and environmental health must have speeded the demise of this type of external toilet facility. Nevertheless, it was found that urinals still exist around the country with several still in use.

The Chinese Village With The Secret To Long Life

Famed for centuries for its residents' unusual longevity, the Chinese village of Bama now has 81 centenarians. Proportional to population, that is roughly five times China's average. A decade ago the best-known settlement in the county rebranded itself as Longevity Village.

Yang Ze, deputy director of the Institute of Geriatrics at Beijing hospital, began researching Bama's secret in the mid-90s. One key, he said, is natural selection. The area is remote and mountainous. In the old days, it took three days to leave the hills, so there was relatively little mixing with the outside world. In tough conditions, without medical treatment, the strong genes remained; the weak were eliminated.

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***

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The Blue Whale at London's Natural History Museum

Like the T. rex skeleton at the American Museum of Natural History, the blue whale model at London's Natural History Museum is the institution's unofficial mascot. The life-sized model (28.3 meters long) is now 75 years old. New Scientist tells the story of its birth:

The giant was created by Percy and Stuart Stammwitz, a father and son team in the museum's zoology department, using photographs and measurements made by scientists on British whaling fleet vessels in the south Atlantic. Although it was accurate for its time, modern underwater photography shows the model doesn't match reality, says Sabin, probably because it was based on carcasses that became distorted as they were dragged on to ships. Built in situ in the museum's Whale Hall, the model drew on technology used to make first-world-war planes. The general foreman, William Sanders, suggested building a wooden frame, covering it in lightweight wire meshwork, then coating it with plaster and painting over that, rather than using traditional plaster casts.

"Magical giant: The story of a much-loved museum whale"

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The Daily Drift

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Today in History

1500		The Portuguese explorer Pedro Alvares Cabral searches the coast of Brazil and claims the region for Portugal.
1586		Sir Francis Drake launches a surprise attack on the heavily fortified city of Santo Domingo in Hipanola.
1698		The Abenaki Indians and Massachusetts colonists sign a treaty halting hostilities between the two.
1766		The Old Pretender, son of James III, dies.
1788		The Times, London's oldest running newspaper, publishes its first edition.
1808		A U.S. law banning the import of slaves comes into effect, but is widely ignored.
1824		The Camp Street Theatre opens as the first English-language playhouse in New Orleans.
1830		William Lloyd Garrison publishes the first edition of a journal entitled The Liberator, calling for the complete and immediate emancipation of all slaves in the United States.
1863		Confederate General Braxton Bragg and Union General William Rosecrans readjust their troops as the Battle of Murfreesboro continues.
1863		President Abraham Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing the slaves in the Confederacy.
1891		Facilities opened on Ellis Island, New York, to cope with the vast flood of immigrants coming into the United States.
1907		The Pure Food and Drug Act becomes law in the United States.
1915		The German submarine U-24 sinks the British battleship Formidable in the English Channel.
1918		The first gasoline pipeline begins operation. Along the 40 miles and three inches of pipe from Salt Creek to Casper, Wyoming.
1923		Sadi Lecointe sets a new aviation speed record flying an average of 208 mph at Istres.
1937		At a party at the Hormel Mansion in Minnesota, a guest wins $100 for naming a new canned meat–Spam.
1945		In Operation Bodenplatte, German planes attack American forward air bases in Europe. This is the last major offensive of the Luftwaffe.
1959		Fidel Castro seizes power in Cuba as General Fulgencio Batista flees.
1986		As the United States builds its strength in the Mediterranean, Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi threatens to retaliate if attacked.