JP Morgan: Protecting the Corrupt

Ongoing corruption scandals constantly surround the most solvent bank in the United States, JP Morgan, with a fund of more than 70 billion dollars, which is constantly "forgiven" by the establishment, which understands its trickery because it sees itself reflected in it.

The evil story goes back to those events that preceded the great economic crisis of 2008 that led to the ruin and make millions of people lose property and other means of life, mainly gullible middle-income people tempted by too many easy offers of tariffs and figureheads in search of illicit profits.

Actually, this crisis was brewing a year earlier, with those issues of the subprime and other "shady deals" – like a Havanan would say- that began with a U.S. bank, spread throughout the country and affected entities of this type in the world.

But JP Morgan and other strong banks survived, because the Empire is rides on their back and couldn't risk digging their own grave by burning the main foundations of its character.

Thus, the super-millionaire losses were followed by an official decision to "rescue" those guilty of the problems caused to the general population, as a shameless climax, decreed the royalty of at least one million dollars to each banker to “reward the money that they theoretically failed to receive during the duration of the crisis that they caused to a greater or lesser extent.

With all this background, it’s almost unlikely that a fine of more than a billion dollars has been imposed on the richest bank in the United States for market manipulation in the meddling of money futures and Treasury values.

But it was not just in the United States that this bank was questioned, as it had already avoided paying fines of up to 5.1 billion euros for mortgage bonds and money laundering in Europe, just like its peers on the Old Continent HSBC, Barclays, and Deutsche Bank.

The New York-based bank has been involved in several lawsuits for manipulating Treasury futures prices to benefit its position relative to other investors, which comes after several of its employees were accused last year of carrying out fake transactions in New York, London, and Singapore.

Eleven implicated collaborators were accused of conspiracy under the Civil Blackmail, Influence and Corrupt Organizations law, which has been used in several trials related to mafias and market manipulation crimes, and now seek dismissal of the charges before the Department of Justice of the country.

The government is not likely to impose trade restrictions on Morgan after the historic sanction, for the reasons explained earlier.

THE INDULGED OF WALL STREET

Earlier this week, JP Morgan Chase became the first Wall Street bank to invest in the metaverse, debuting a lounge in the virtual world Decentraland.

To understand it better, the Decentraland metaverse is powered by technology and allows users to buy land or create rooms, buildings, even entire cities can be built, that is, the bank offers a set of financial services virtually.

In other words, the metaverse is a kind of internet that comes to life. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has described it as a "virtual environment" you can immerse yourself in rather than just stare at a screen.

According to the creator, this will be a “space for machine interaction, idealized avatars, and a new virtual world where art, architecture, beauty, and fiction meet to socialize, shop, or do business. And all this, 'by work and grace' of virtual reality and augmented reality".

Theoretically, the metaverse would be a place where people can meet, work and play using virtual reality headsets, augmented reality glasses, apps and other devices.

According to JP Morgan estimates, the metaverse will infiltrate all sectors, with a market opportunity estimated at more than a trillion dollars a year.

Furthermore, according to data from four popular metaverse platforms, the average price of virtual land doubled from $6,000 to $12,000 between June and December of last year.

MUDDY WITH CRIME

But all this matter yet to be seen and although it may be possible, it will not clean the criminal face of banks like Morgan, an expert in transactions with companies registered in tax havens without identifying the client, thus skipping the rules against money laundering.

In this way, large banks in the world continue to allegedly defy the strong measures against money laundering, despite warnings and fines from authorities, according to an extensive analysis of secret documents of the United States government, released by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).

The ICIJ assured in an extensive report that the analyzed records of leaked documents estimate that the global banks Morgan, HSBC, Standard Charters Bank, Deutsche Bank, and Bank of New York Mellón have continued to benefit from powerful and dangerous players.

It further notes that this is a continued practice, even after U.S. authorities fined these financial institutions for past failures to stop the flows of dirty money.

According to the 16-month-long investigation, the main findings of which the ICIJ published on its website, U.S. agencies responsible for enforcing money laundering laws "rarely" prosecute megabanks that break the law.

They also assure in their report that actions taken by authorities barely affect the avalanche of money that flows through the international financial system.

In some cases, the report warns, banks continued to move illicit funds even after U.S. officials warned them that they would face criminal prosecution if they didn’t stop doing business with mobsters, fraudsters or corrupt regimes.

IN THE EYE OF THE HURRICANE

JP Morgan transferred money to individuals and companies linked to the massive looting of public funds in Malaysia, Venezuela, and Ukraine, according to leaked government documents, known as the Finchen Files.

The bank also processed more than $50 million in payments over a decade for Paul Manacor, the former campaign manager for former President Donald Trump.

JP Morgan transferred at least 6.9 million dollars in Manacor transactions in the fourteen months after he resigned from the campaign, and in response to questions asked of his executives, he indicated that it’s legally prohibited to speak of clients or transactions, and in that same line answered HSBC.

The leaked documents include more than 2,100 suspicious activity reports filed by banks and other financial firms with the U.S. Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, which ultimately does not enforce sanctions that could tarnish the image of “white collar” criminals.

Translated by Amilkal Labañino / CubaSí Translation Staff