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You just don’t know how hard it is -- what with liberals harassing us, thinking we actually owe some responsibility to society. And all the while, we are trying to do the good deed of bringing the joys of home ownership to millions of Americans …


The Lawbreaking JPMorgan Chase


January 17th, JPMorgan Chase breathlessly announced,

 

"JPMORGAN CHASE REPORTS FOURTH-QUARTER 2010 NET INCOME OF $4.8 BILLION, UP 47% OVER PRIOR YEAR, ON REVENUE OF $26.7 BILLION; $1.12 EARNINGS PER SHARE. FULL-YEAR 2010 NET INCOME OF $17.4 BILLION, UP 48% OVER PRIOR YEAR, ON REVENUE OF $104.8 BILLION; $3.96 EARNINGS PER SHARE."

 

They make a lot of money and, as the House Veterans Affairs Committee learned last Wednesday, they break a lot of laws.

 

Calling borrowers (whose loans you have assumed, JPMorgan Chase did not originally make the loans themselves) at three and four in the morning is against the law. As the Chair of the House Veterans Affairs Committee Jeff Miller noted in his opening remarks, they also broke the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act which has been around "in various forms since the war of 1812." They did so by harassing active duty service members and their families and by overcharing them.

And if you couldn't make those overcharged payments? They foreclosed. Foreclosure took place on at least eighteen homes.

But, JPMorgan Chase, in the form of Stephanie Mu****, wanted to insist the foreclosure wasn't really like foreclosure because JPMorgan Chase didn't sell the homes to an outside buyer, JPMorgan Chase just took over the ownership of the homes and kicked the veterans and veterans families over.

 

Stephanie Mur****

VP Consumer Practices 

 

Oh, the family lost their home but a Century 21 sign didn't go up in the front yard so it's no harm, no foul?

But, Mu**** wanted the Committee, the Rowles and the press to know, not to worry because they were going to repay the overpayments and they would even tack on 7.5% interest.

US House Rep. Michael Michaud wasn't impressed with that meager amount.

 

"You heard the Rowles went through a lot. And you mentioned errors. And originally when I heard about it, I figured, yeah, it was for people to make errors but what the Rowles went through -- five years of harassing phone calls, three or four o'clock in the morning is just beyond errors. And you heard some of my colleagues talk about arrogance, greed within JPMorgan and, actually, Mr. [US House Rep Cliff] Stearns mentioned the fact that JPMorgan received -- I know they paid it back -- $25 billion of the TARP funding [US government bail out of the bank industry at the end of 2008]. Mr. Diamond, the CEO for JPMorgan, received a bonus in 2007 of $28 million. Last year, almost $16 million bonus. And you're paying these individuals seven-and-a-half percent interest? I think there is a disconnect when you look at the bonuses received to the CEOs and what you have done to individuals who have served this country very well. I'm sure that the CEO for JPMorgan has a very nice home he probably can cater Christmas parties, Thanksgiving parties at his very elegant home and he can probably sleep very well at night."

Stephanie Mu**** felt that 7.5% was ample (that averaged out to a $70 payment for each overcharged customer) because "[. . .] most of the, uh, service members who were impacted by this, uh, are-are not even aware that they overpaid. And in part, that's because the amount they overpaid was not-not material to them." You swipe money from most people's pockets, its "material to them." Whether its five dollars, fifty dollars or five hundred dollars. And you swipe money from someone's pocket? That's theft. And it's against the law which makes JPMorgan Chase's behavior very "material."

 

The Committee appeared largely unimpressed with the statements from JPMorgan Chase's Vice President of Customer Service (Mu****).

 

Ranking Member Bob Filner: Are you going to tell us who? Are you going to give us a person? Or people? That are responsible?


Stephanie Mu****: Well we will certainly hold those folks who are responsible for this accountable.

 

Ranking Member Bob Filner: I want to know about you. You broke the law. How are we going to hold you accountable? Are we going to know who did what when?

 

And those important questions found no answers at last week's hearing. They still linger in the air. Will JPMorgan Chase get away with breaking the law? Will their measely seventy dollar median payments qualify as 'compensation' to the families who suffered? And what's to prevent it from happening again? The Rowles' attorneys proposed upgrading breaking the the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act to a felony and that might be one way of ensuring that it's not 'accidentally' and repeatedly broken again. Another thing could be a week of Congressional hearings on this issue.

http://thirdestatesundayreview...-jpmorgan-chase.html

 

Just trying to make a buck. Nothing personal – it’s just business. No hard feelings, right?

 

Meanwhile …



Congresswoman Speier Urges Prosecution Of JPMorgan Chase For Illegal Foreclosures On Military Families

http://speier.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=338:congresswoman-speier-urges-prosecution-of-jpmorgan-chase-for-illegal-foreclosures-on-military-families&catid=2:jackie-in-the-news&Itemid=15

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