JPMorgan Chase & Co will pay more than US$250 million to settle allegations by the US government that it had hired children of Chinese decisionmakers to win business, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters.
The bank will pay roughly US$200 million combined to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the US Department of Justice, and more than US$50 million to the US Federal Reserve, the source said.
There will not be any individual prosecution at this time, the source said.
Photo: Reuters
The SEC opened an investigation into JPMorgan in 2013 over the hiring. The justice department opened a parallel investigation around the same time.
Investment banks have a long history of employing the children of China’s politically connected. While close ties to top government officials are a boon to any banking franchise across the world, they are especially beneficial in China, where relationships and personal connections play a critical role in business decisions.
The SEC, JPMorgan and the justice department declined to comment.
The settlement was first reported by Bloomberg. It will end a probe into whether the bank’s hires violated US anti-bribery laws, Bloomberg said.
Meanwhile, conflicting information on whether JPMorgan chief executive Jamie Dimon could become US secretary of the treasury as part of US president-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet cast a cloud of uncertainty over the nation’s largest bank.
Tweets from Fox Business News reporters on Wednesday were the latest indication that Dimon was still in the running for the job, but initial word from anchor Maria Bartiromo that he would “get” the job was quickly knocked down.
JPMorgan spokespeople have declined to make any official comment about the idea of Dimon joining the Trump administration since Thursday last week.
Dimon declined to comment through a representative.
A Trump transition team source told Reuters that Dimon is “pitching hard” for the Treasury role.
However, two other sources indicated that he is not interested. One said Dimon has told colleagues since Tuesday last week, when Trump won the election, that he would not take the role. The three sources spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Bartiromo cited a meeting scheduled for yesterday, where a decision was to be made on either Dimon or Steve Mnuchin, who was Trump’s campaign finance manager, as Treasury secretary. Her colleague Charles Gasparino said Dimon would only be willing to play an advisory role.
Fortune later reported that Dimon has already said no.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last