The Securities and Exchange Commission has fined JPMorgan Chase $4 million for mistakenly and permanently deleting 47 million emails ,many of which the regulator was trying to access as part of multiple investiagtions.
The contents of some of the emails, which could not be recovered as they were permanently deleted, were requested in subpoenas for at least a dozen civil securities-related regulatory investigations, the SEC said in an administrative order published on Thursday.
According to the settlement order, the messages from January to April 2018 were deleted in 2019 from about 8,700 mailboxes belonging to as many as 7,500 employees who had regular contact with Chase customers.
It was just a mistake, accidents do happen so move along….nothing to see here
The Daily Wire reports: According to reports, the latest punishment marks the third time the financial adviser failed to preserve electronic records. In 2021, JPMorgan officials agreed to pay $125 million in penalties for losing text messages and other electronic communications sent between January 2018 and November 2020. In 2005 the banking firm paid $700,000 in penalties after failing to preserve electronic records from 1999 to 2002.
Earlier his month, JPMorgan Chase agreed to settle with victims of Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking operation for $290 million, according to a tentative agreement.
The victims had alleged the bank allowed Epstein, a wealthy financier and convicted pedophile who died in a New York City jail cell in 2019, to facilitate his sex trafficking operation through his accounts and connections at the bank. The precise number of victims involved in the suit remains unclear.
The bank did not admit any wrongdoing in connection to Epstein, and CEO Jamie Dimon has testified that the bank was in the dark about Epstein’s misdeeds.
JPMorgan is facing a similar lawsuit in the Virgin Islands, where it is also under fire over its relationship with Epstein. That trial is set to begin in October.
Previously, Deutsche Bank, another bank accused of ambivalence to Epstein’s sex trafficking operation, settled with several individuals who said they were victims of Epstein’s crimes and other women for $75 million.
JPMorgan Chase added in its Monday statement that it regretted any association with Epstein.
