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JP Morgan Chase Sues Former Exec Tied to Epstein’s Finances

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JP Morgan Chase is no stranger to being associated with criminal activity. The organization was fined billions of dollars following the 2008 collapse and recession. The massive multiyear investigations spanned across virtually all government agencies.

In the summer of 2022, the former executive in charge of Global Precious Metals Trading was sent to prison after being convicted along with a slew of others for participating in price fixing and manipulating metals prices for nearly a decade.

Late last year, Christopher Jordan, a trader from Credit Suisse who had previously worked at the PM trading desk, was found guilty of silver price manipulation after an eight-day trial.

JPMorgan agreed in 2020 to pay more than $920 million and admitted to wrongdoing to settle with the Justice Department and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission over its traders’ conduct. At the time, the largest fine in banking history.

In December, the USVI filed a lawsuit claiming that JP Morgan Chase enabled the Epstein criminal enterprise by knowingly facilitating the disgraced financier’s payments to victims.

The lawsuit references an investigation by the DOJ that revealed that “JP Morgan knowingly, negligently, and unlawfully provided and pulled the levers… and was indispensable to the operation and concealment of the Epstein trafficking enterprise.”

JP Morgan has denied involvement and according to the NY Times has been fighting efforts to have Jamie Dimon disposed in other lawsuits related to the scandal.

In an attempt to distance itself from further entanglements with the scandal, JP Morgan has gone on an offensive tack and launched a lawsuit against former long-time executive Jes Staley over his ties to Epstein.

Claims from JP Morgan in court filings assert that Staley “affirmatively misrepresented the true facts of his and Epstein’s personal interactions and activities,” and “repeatedly provided misleading information” about Mr. Epstein to bank officials.

The lawsuit seeks to claw back Staley’s compensation from at least 2006 to 2013 totaling around $80 million and to distance the bank from liability related to the scandal. The claims in the suit includes references that suggest the exec may have had far more familiarity with Epstein’s activities than previously known.

News of the new lawsuit follows reports that courts are planning to unseal documents in other related Epstein cases that will name as many as 167 individuals closely associated with Epstein.

JP Morgan Chase is the world’s most dominant bullion bank with operations that span all facets of the industry from trading futures with hedge funds to transporting physical bullion around the world. They are one of the custodians for the ETF gold trust SPDR.

In January, Chase announced that they were evaluating getting into the settlement of precious metals trades in Zurich, a business historically dominated by UBS Group AG and the failing Credit Suisse Group AG.

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A New Global Gold Standard?

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Gold has been an instrumental component of the economy since before the American Revolution.

Our founding fathers had the forethought to include gold and silver coins in the Constitution.

A metallic standard was a central foundation for the economy in the United States based on gold and silver coins.

The US Mint was established on April 6, 1792, prior to the Declaration of Independence.

Recently, legislation has been introduced into the House of Representatives that is intended to move the United States back towards a gold-standard.

The sponsor of the bill, Representative Alex Mooney (R-WV), has stated that the purpose of the Bill is to give greater visibility of the spending by politicians in Washington.

Jerome Powell has said that gold bullion has no purpose in the US economy. The rest of the world is still remembers the Nixon Shock and other major events in the global commodities markets caused by US foreign policy.

Gold has been a core, instrumental component of the global economy, politics and international trade for thousands of years.

With the Moscow World Standard posited to compete with the LBMA, COMEX, Shanghai and other global trading markets.

* gold.org

Many speculate that Moscow is trying to position itself as an economic leader in the global economy. Earlier this year, the Moscow World Standard was announced by the Russian Finance Ministry as an open and fair competitor to the LBMA.

Moscow hopes that many of the BRICS nations and developing nations that are abundant in natural resources have opportunities to trade more fairly in global markets.

Minerals like cobalt, lithium, manganese, nickel and other rare earth minerals that are necessary for the production of batteries for electric cars, houses and other future energy needs. Silver is used in the manufacturing of solar panels and other electrical components.

All of these natural resources are also part of a national initiative to secure resources necessary to build new supply chains for the reemergence of high-tech and semi-conductor manufacturing on American soil.

An emerging Global Gold Standard built on Blockchain Auditing

Outside of the US, private gold ownership continues to grow, particularly amongst Asian markets including China and India.

Russia responded to economic sanctions by starting a program to buy gold from citizens in exchange for rubles and began requiring payment for oil, natural gas and other energy needs in Rubles as a way to stabilize the Russian economy following the invasion of Ukraine.

Bloomberg reports that at least 4 accounts in Rubles have been opened with Gazprom PJSC.

The government of Zimbabwe began to issue gold coins as currency as a way to stabilize their economy following decades of inflation due to corruption.

Many developing nations in Africa, Central and South America and Asia are rich and abundant with natural resources.

Having direct access to global markets for selling commodities such as lithium, cobalt and other minerals is of interest to leaders and businesses of many nations, some of which may be looking to renegotiate contracts with global conglomerates as a way to better leverage their local resources to rebuild their local economies following the pandemic.

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