JPMorgan Chase Fined For Deleting Millions Of Emails
JPMorgan Chase was fined $4 million by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) after the company allegedly deleted approximately 47 million emails. This action came while the company faced several investigations.
According to the settlement order, messages were erased from roughly 8,700 mailboxes utilized by about 7,500 employees who engaged in regular contact with bank customers.
The SEC maintained the email messages were deleted in 2019 and were dated from January to April of the previous year.
During this time, the Wall Street giant faced at least 12 regulatory investigations. Some of the messages, according to investigators, included business records sought in the probes that the company was required to hold for three years by SEC rule.
The Daily Wire reported the commission said that the exact nature and number of the records is impossible to determine. Therefore, “it is unknown — and unknowable — how the lost records may have affected the regulatory investigations.”
It was even determined by JPMorgan Chase’s compliance department that some of the deleted emails may have concerned future investigations.
SEC officials ordered the company to “cease and desist from committing any future violations.” In a statement to Reuters, the company insisted that it “takes its record-keeping obligations seriously.”
Evidence, however, suggests otherwise.
This latest punishment reportedly is the third instance of the financial company going under the microscope for failing to maintain electronic records as required.
JPMorgan Chase officials agreed in 2021 to pay $125 million in penalties for losing electronic communications sent between Jan. 2018 and Nov. 2020. And in 2005, the company paid $700,000 in penalties for failing to maintain records from 1999 to 2002.
The latest incident followed closely behind the bank’s settlement earlier this month with victims of convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. JPMorgan Chase had a long relationship with the now-deceased financier and will pay out $290 million to his victims through a tentative agreement.
Despite this hefty sum, the bank did not admit to knowing about his grotesque activities. CEO Jamie Dimon insisted in testimony that JPMorgan Chase was unaware of its client’s actions involving underage females.
It faces a separate lawsuit from the Virgin Islands over its relationship with Epstein that is to begin in October.
