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Binance Says Sullivan & Cromwell, FRA To Serve As Monitors
by Gunnar Larson 14 May '24

14 May '24

Binance Says Sullivan & Cromwell, FRA To Serve As Monitors <https://www.law360.com/banking/articles/1836496?nl_pk=feb6bbba-7878-4d39-be…> By Aislinn Keely Crypto exchange Binance said Monday that the federal government has selected a Sullivan & Cromwell LLP partner and a Forensic Risk Alliance founding partner to serve as independent third-party monitors overseeing its compliance with the terms of its $4.3 billion settlement and guilty plea over money laundering, bank fraud and sanctions violations.

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Student Loan Servicer Faces Suit Over Tax Form Data Breach
by Gunnar Larson 14 May '24

14 May '24

Student Loan Servicer Faces Suit Over Tax Form Data Breach <https://www.law360.com/banking/articles/1836006?nl_pk=feb6bbba-7878-4d39-be…> By Emilie Ruscoe An education-focused subsidiary of payment processor Global Payments Inc. faces a proposed class action accusing it of negligence after it disclosed that part of its website allowed bad actors unfettered access to certain student tax documents for months at a time. Complaint attached | Read full article » <https://www.law360.com/banking/articles/1836006?nl_pk=feb6bbba-7878-4d39-be…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.com/banking/articles/1836006?nl_pk=feb6bbba-7878-4d39-be…>

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2nd Circ. Won't Revive UBS Suit Over Disclosed Account Info
by Gunnar Larson 14 May '24

14 May '24

2nd Circ. Won't Revive UBS Suit Over Disclosed Account Info <https://www.law360.com/banking/articles/1836595?nl_pk=feb6bbba-7878-4d39-be…> By Natalie Olivo The Second Circuit declined Monday to revive a couple's suit accusing UBS of fraudulently flagging an account to the Internal Revenue Service, finding that any alleged harm resulting from an audit would have been caused by the agency itself. Order attached | Read full article » <https://www.law360.com/banking/articles/1836595?nl_pk=feb6bbba-7878-4d39-be…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.com/banking/articles/1836595?nl_pk=feb6bbba-7878-4d39-be…>

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Archegos Boss Blew $36B, But It Was His To Lose, Jury Told
by Gunnar Larson 14 May '24

14 May '24

Archegos Boss Blew $36B, But It Was His To Lose, Jury Told <https://www.law360.com/banking/articles/1836363?nl_pk=feb6bbba-7878-4d39-be…> By Pete Brush The founder of fallen hedge fund Archegos argued to a Manhattan federal jury Monday that charges of distorting markets and lying fall short because he believed in his $36 billion investment strategy but was upended by COVID-19 financial fallout. Read full article » <https://www.law360.com/banking/articles/1836363?nl_pk=feb6bbba-7878-4d39-be…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.com/banking/articles/1836363?nl_pk=feb6bbba-7878-4d39-be…>

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Demand Grows For Cross-Border Pensions In Unstable States
by Gunnar Larson 14 May '24

14 May '24

Demand Grows For Cross-Border Pensions In Unstable States <https://www.law360.co.uk/financial-services-uk/articles/1836219?nl_pk=a94fc…> By Josh White Cross-border pension and saving plans have more than doubled in just five years, with much of the growth in schemes covering employees in unstable countries, according to a survey published Monday. Read full article » <https://www.law360.co.uk/financial-services-uk/articles/1836219?nl_pk=a94fc…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.co.uk/financial-services-uk/articles/1836219?nl_pk=a94fc…>

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JP Morgan Battles Viva Wallet Founder Over Buyout Value
by Gunnar Larson 14 May '24

14 May '24

JP Morgan Battles Viva Wallet Founder Over Buyout Value <https://www.law360.co.uk/financial-services-uk/articles/1836226?nl_pk=a94fc…> By Ronan Barnard J.P. Morgan International Finance Ltd. urged a London judge Monday to reject a payment company's "nonsensical" case over the investment bank's option to buy out its partner's stake in a joint venture fintech business. Read full article » <https://www.law360.co.uk/financial-services-uk/articles/1836226?nl_pk=a94fc…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.co.uk/financial-services-uk/articles/1836226?nl_pk=a94fc…>

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One of Jeffrey Epstein’s Protectors at JPMorgan Chase, Mary Erdoes, Has Sold $29 Million of Her Stock in the Bank Since Just Before Epstein’s Arrest in 2019
by Gunnar Larson 14 May '24

14 May '24

https://wallstreetonparade.com/2024/05/one-of-jeffrey-epsteins-protectors-a… By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: May 14, 2024 ~ Mary Erdoes, CEO of JPMorgan Chase Asset & Wealth Management Mary Erdoes, CEO of JPMorgan Chase Asset & Wealth Management In 2020, Netflix released a documentary series titled “Filthy Rich,” based on the book by the same name. The series examined how sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein was able to continue to enjoy his wealth and power even after Palm Beach, Florida police had built a case that he had sexually-assaulted more than a dozen young girls – many from public schools in middle-class areas surrounding the mansions of Palm Beach. A sweetheart deal between the Florida State Attorney and the U.S. Department of Justice allowed Epstein to serve just 13 months in jail from June 2008 to July 2009, most of it in a work release program in which he was driven to an office daily by his chauffeured limousine. Epstein was allowed to be on the loose for another decade until the Department of Justice was embarrassed into arresting Epstein on federal sex trafficking charges on July 6, 2019, following an explosive series of articles about Epstein’s victims by Julie Brown in the Miami Herald. (Epstein died in a Manhattan jail on August 10, 2019, a little more than a month after his arrest. His death was ruled a suicide by the New York City Medical Examiner.) Despite Epstein’s earlier arrest in Florida and sensational headlines that followed, Epstein was able to continue his long-term banking relationship with the largest bank in the United States – JPMorgan Chase – until at least 2013. (JPMorgan Chase is now a five-count felon itself, able to endlessly cut sweetheart deals with the U.S. Department of Justice.) One of Epstein’s protectors at JPMorgan Chase was Mary Erdoes – who continues to serve as CEO of the bank’s Asset & Wealth Management business that caters to the ultra-wealthy. Erdoes may never get as “filthy rich” as Epstein, but she has sold $29 million of her JPMorgan Chase stock since just before Epstein’s arrest in 2019. That includes the following amounts: $3.9 million so far this year; $3.7 million in 2023 as headlines flew around the world over the Epstein-related allegations against the bank made by the Attorney General of the U.S. Virgin Islands in federal court in Manhattan; $3.9 million in 2022; $7.4 million in 2021; $2.4 million in 2020; and less than three months before Epstein was indicted in 2019, Erdoes sold $7.95 million. These dollar amounts do not include the millions in stock sales that Erdoes made, ostensibly to pay taxes on stock awards. How did Erdoes come by all of this stock in the bank? The company granted it to Erdoes on the basis of good performance. This is what the Attorney General of the U.S. Virgin Islands alleged in a federal lawsuit last year against JPMorgan Chase and Erdoes: (Epstein owned a private island and compound in the U.S. Virgin Islands.) “In 2006, a JP Morgan Rapid Response Team noted that Epstein ‘routinely’ made cash withdrawals in amounts from $40,000 to $80,000 several times per month, totaling over $750,000 per year. In addition, Mary Erdoes admitted in her deposition that JP Morgan was aware by 2006 that Epstein was accused of paying cash to have underage girls and young women brought to his home. In the years that followed, JP Morgan employees, including senior executives, emailed internally that Epstein was under investigation or had been sued for trafficking or sexual abuse. This includes an email in 2010 between Mary Erdoes and Jes Staley regarding a federal investigation of Epstein for child trafficking; a 2011 email summarizing a few 2010 news stories connecting Epstein to human trafficking and promising to ‘monitor the accounts and cash usage closely going forward;’ and a 2011 compliance memo noting that ‘[n]umerous articles detail various law enforcement agencies investigating Jeffrey Epstein for allegedly participating in child trafficking and molesting underage girls’ and that ‘Epstein had settled a dozen civil lawsuits out of court from his victims regarding solicitation for an undisclosed amount.’ Internal emails also questioned who Epstein’s clients were, circulating an article regarding whether Epstein was running a Ponzi scheme. “Indeed, Epstein’s behavior was so widely known at JPMorgan that senior executives joked about Epstein’s interest in young girls. In 2008, for example, Mary Erdoes received an email asking her whether Epstein was at an event ‘with miley cyrus.’ In her deposition, Mary Erdoes testified that JP Morgan terminated Epstein as a customer in 2013 after she became aware that the withdrawals were ‘actual cash.’ However, Epstein had made substantial cash withdrawals every year he banked with JP Morgan….” This is how the New York Times reported Erdoes’ role with Epstein in August 2019: “When compliance officers at JPMorgan Chase conducted a sweep of their wealthy clients a decade ago, they recommended that the bank cut its ties to the financier Jeffrey E. Epstein because his accounts posed unacceptable legal and reputational risks.” The reason the relationship was allowed to continue, “according to six former senior executives and other bank employees familiar with the matter, was that Mary C. Erdoes, one of JPMorgan’s highest-ranking executives, intervened to keep him as a client, ” according to the New York Times article. Any person with a criminal history of paying hard cash to underage girls for sex assaults, and who is taking large sums of hard cash from a bank, should be terminated immediately. The bank is also legally-mandated to file reports with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). But according to an expert report written by a former FBI agent of 23 years, Shaun O’Neill, and introduced into evidence last year in the U.S. Virgin Islands’ federal court case, the following massive sums of hard cash were provided to Epstein by JPMorgan Chase: “Epstein was able to withdraw large amounts of cash from his JPMC accounts for years [Redacted]. In the year 2003, Epstein was able to withdraw highly suspicious amounts of cash totaling $175,311. In 2004, he withdrew $840,000. In 2005, he withdrew $904,337. In 2006, he withdrew $938,625. In 2007, he withdrew $526,000. In 2008, he withdrew $469,000. In 2009, he withdrew $165,011. In 2010, he withdrew $253,397. In 2011, he withdrew $260,000. In 2012, he withdrew $290,000. In 2013, he withdrew $197,152.” O’Neill writes further in the statement filed with the court last year: “Human trafficking under U.S. law was transformed with the enactment of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (the TVPA) in 2000. The TVPA equipped law enforcement, prosecutors and victim advocates with new tools and resources to mount a comprehensive and coordinated strategy to combat modern forms of slavery both domestically and internationally… “In reference to sex trafficking of a minor with great relevance to the numerous victims at the hands of Jeffrey Epstein, minors need not demonstrate force, fraud, or coercion were used against them to induce them to engage in a commercial sex act. Rather, U.S. law has firmly established that minors cannot consent to commercial sex. Additionally, there is recognition that many forms of human trafficking do not involve force but rather occur through psychological manipulation against victims.” O’Neill indicated that “Based on the review of the 17 victim statements contained within the July 25, 2006 Palm Beach Police Department Incident Report, more than ten victims were under the age of 18. The elements of child sex trafficking were present as the allegations referenced a commercial sex act involving a minor and there is no such thing as a ‘child prostitute.’ The allegations reflected a textbook definition of human trafficking.” O’Neill put the blame for the expansion of Epstein’s sex trafficking ring at the feet of JPMorgan Chase, writing: “Had JPMC cooperated with federal law enforcement and [Redacted]….Epstein would have been federally charged at a much earlier date. He likely would not have received the Florida Non-Prosecution Agreement, and he would have been imprisoned for the sex trafficking and money laundering crimes that he committed at an earlier time, thereby shrinking his overall list of victims.” The long-tenured Chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase, Jamie Dimon, was deposed in the U.S. Virgin Islands court case. His narrative is that he lived a cloistered existence in a corner office on the 48th floor of 270 Park Avenue where even the top executives who directly reported to him and worked only “a couple hundred feet” away from his office, never shared with Dimon their knowledge of, and meetings over, the bank’s concerns about Epstein’s massive withdrawals of hard cash, his prior history as a jailed sex offender in Florida, or his appearance on the front page of the New York Post in 2011 with the giant, all caps bold headline: “PRINCE AND PERV,” featuring a photo of Prince Andrew and Epstein, and the commentary: “Randy Andy with NYC sex creep.” Somehow, the fact that Epstein was referring to JPMorgan Chase some of the richest and most politically-connected men in the world also escaped Dimon’s perch in that corner office. According to the Attorney General of the U.S. Virgin Islands, Epstein referred the following individuals to the bank as clients: the sixth richest man in the world, Microsoft co-founder and billionaire Bill Gates; the ninth richest man in the world, Google co-founder and billionaire Sergey Brin; the Sultan of Dubai, Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem; media and real estate billionaire Mort Zuckerman; former U.S. Treasury Secretary and former Harvard President Larry Summers, and numerous others. As chance would have it, Dimon – for the first time since taking the helm of the bank – is also selling large chunks of his stock in the bank. See Jamie Dimon Dumped $150 Million of His JPMorgan Stock in February; Now He Says His Regulators Want 25 Percent More Capital at his Bank. For how the bank settled its Epstein-related lawsuits last year, see JPMorgan’s Settlements Reach $365 Million Over Civil Claims It Banked Jeffrey Epstein’s Sex Trafficking of Minors; Criminal Charges Could Lie Ahead.

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Feds Seek 20 Mos. For Ex-Baltimore State's Atty
by Gunnar Larson 14 May '24

14 May '24

Feds Seek 20 Mos. For Ex-Baltimore State's Atty <https://www.law360.com/legalethics/articles/1835664?nl_pk=153d4a8a-6fb9-4a5…> By Elliot Weld Prosecutors asked a Maryland federal court to sentence former state's attorney Marilyn Mosby to 20 months in prison after she was convicted of lying to obtain money from a retirement fund and conning a lender to obtain a vacation home, saying she "could not be trusted to tell the truth" despite her position of public trust. 2 documents attached | Read full article » <https://www.law360.com/legalethics/articles/1835664?nl_pk=153d4a8a-6fb9-4a5…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.com/legalethics/articles/1835664?nl_pk=153d4a8a-6fb9-4a5…>

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Rivian's Cert. Oppo Not How 'Real World Works,' Judge Says
by Gunnar Larson 14 May '24

14 May '24

Rivian's Cert. Oppo Not How 'Real World Works,' Judge Says <https://www.law360.com/technology/articles/1836099?nl_pk=2bd720dd-746c-4744…> By Craig Clough A California federal judge told Rivian's attorney Friday that his arguments opposing class certification for investors alleging the carmaker misled them on material costs appeared to say that unless a company practically admits fraud in a disclosure it's not a "corrective" disclosure, but "that is not how the real world works." Read full article » <https://www.law360.com/technology/articles/1836099?nl_pk=2bd720dd-746c-4744…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.com/technology/articles/1836099?nl_pk=2bd720dd-746c-4744…>

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Congress Wants Microsoft Prez To Testify On Security Failures
by Gunnar Larson 14 May '24

14 May '24

Congress Wants Microsoft Prez To Testify On Security Failures <https://www.law360.com/technology/articles/1836083?nl_pk=2bd720dd-746c-4744…> By Henrik Nilsson A congressional committee has asked Microsoft President Brad Smith to testify at a public hearing about the company's cybersecurity measures and response to recent successful attacks against government officials by Russian and Chinese hackers, according to a letter posted Friday on social media platform X. Read full article » <https://www.law360.com/technology/articles/1836083?nl_pk=2bd720dd-746c-4744…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.com/technology/articles/1836083?nl_pk=2bd720dd-746c-4744…>

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