JP Morgan Found Guilty Of Money Laundering

Financial services company JPMorgan is facing allegations after being exposed for money laundering. The difficulties arrive only two months after a hefty $4 billion mortgage fraud fine in September.

Turn of Fate for CEO Jamie Dimon

CEO of JPMorgan, Jamie Dimon, has also been hard at work the last few months proclaiming bitcoin to be a fraud. Not only as he irritated Steve Wozniak, Chamath Palihapitiya, and Mike Novogratz, but may also be responsible for his variety of pump and dump.

Dimon did not limit himself to calling bitcoin a fraud either. The CEO of the investment firm went as threatening to fire anyone “stupid enough to trade bitcoin.”

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak rebutted Dimon’s comments by emphasizing bitcoin’s legitimacy. He reminded both Dimon and listeners of bitcoin’s qualities as a decentralized, transparent and peer-network operated, thus making it highly resistant to censorship.

Wozniak, apparently offended by Dimon’s comments, went on to add that bitcoin was purely mathematical, as was he a mathematician. He further stated that bitcoin was limited to a finite number of 21 million bitcoins, which points to its internal capacity to regulate and manage deflation and inflation.

Dimon’s accusations of bitcoin appeared to be largely self-serving, being made suspiciously soon after the colossal failure of JPMorgan’s blockchain technology, Quorum. Despite the sketchy circumstances surrounding his claims, bitcoin did experience a dip in value earlier in 2017 associated with false declarations, only to recover soon afterward.

Andreas Antonopolous was another commentator to comment on Jamie Dimon’s outburst. He noted it interesting that the CEO of a highly influential investment bank found time at all to discuss the alleged irrelevance of bitcoin.

Following his denunciations, Dimon announced that he would “no longer talk about it.” Other representatives of the bank claimed JPMorgan was open-minded as far as bitcoin was concerned. However, the damage had already been done. Dimon’s public criticisms had undoubtedly earned few friends in the industry.

Money Laundering Report

The current money laundering report compiled by Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) was scheduled to be published the week after it was issued on June 30. JPMorgan has, however, taken action to prevent it from being made public. The Federal Administrative Court dismissed JPMorgan’s attempt at an appeal.

The Swiss authority did disclose that they found JPMorgan to have “seriously violated supervision laws,” although the specifics of the malpractice had not been detailed. While FINMA is unable to impose fines, it is authorized to seize unlawfully acquired funds. The regulatory body may additionally impose professional limitations on bankers, or revoke the banking license of an institution, in extreme cases.

Proposed Anti-Money Laundering Programs

A JPMorgan spokeswoman expressed that the safety and soundness of the global monetary system was its primary concern. In light of that, the company claims to be making every effort to meet regulatory expectations, through the introduction of noteworthy improvements to its anti-money laundering program.

As the FINMA resolution remains to be made public, many cannot help but speculate at the extent of the breach. In an ongoing debate, there is talk of Dimon using the bank to trade bitcoin, and in doing so, circumventing anti-money laundering regulations enforced by Switzerland.