Bloomberg - Dawn Kopecki, 8/08/13
The U.S. is investigating JPMorgan under the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act, according to a person briefed on the matter, requesting anonymity because details of the inquiry aren’t public. Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg
“It is unprecedented that the Department of Justice has seriously considered criminal indictment of a major bank and I question whether it truly is,” said John Coffee, a professor at Columbia Law School in New York. “You can often bring dual investigations, civil and criminal, in order to maximize pressure for a global civil resolution.”
Investigators are seeking to wrap up years-long probes of abuses that fueled the housing collapse and led global credit markets to freeze in 2008. This week, the Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission sued Bank of America Corp., the nation’s second-biggest lender, accusing it of misleading investors in an $850 million mortgage-backed bond.
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