Madoff case at stalemate

The extent to which JPMorgan Chase employees knew about Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme is still unclear, despite regulators’ attempts to draw the information out, says the New York Times.

Five years ago, lawyers for JPMorgan interviewed employees who had contact with Madoff or his company. The Office of the Comptroller of Currency wants copies of those lawyers’ notes but the bank has refused to hand them over, citing attorney-client privilege, says the Times.

Read: Embattled JPMorgan giving CEO Dimon a raise

The fight has gone to the Treasury Department. Its inspector general says the bank has to hand over the papers because the notes were “made for the purpose of getting advice for the commission of a fraud or crime,” the Times reports.

Now the regulators are at odds with the Justice Department over how to force the bank to release the documents. The Justice Department says there’s no foundation to the argument that the notes were used to help commit a crime.

Read more here.

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Staff

The staff of Advisor.ca have been covering news for financial advisors since 1998.