Another High-Profile Mortgage Fraud Case?

Yes, indeed. Mind you, it does not involve the actual indictment of any mortgage fraudsters — for some reason, the policy of refusing to charge banksters with crimes seems to be a bipartisan policy — but it looks like these civil charges may well stick:

The U.S. Justice Department is preparing to sue JPMorgan Chase & Co over mortgage bonds it sold in the run-up to the financial crisis, a sign the bank’s legal troubles are not yet over.

A lawsuit, first reported by Reuters, could come as early as Tuesday, people familiar with the matter said on Monday.

JPMorgan spokesman Brian Marchiony and Justice Department spokeswoman Adora Andy Jenkins declined to comment.

The bank disclosed in August that federal prosecutors in California were conducting criminal and civil investigations into the bank’s mortgage securities.

In those investigations, government lawyers have concluded that JPMorgan committed civil violations of securities laws in offering mortgage bonds from 2005 to 2007 that were backed by subprime and other risky residential mortgages.

Hmmm… “criminal and civil investigations.” You never know — indictments are still a remote possibility, though I am not holding my breath. For the time being, a cast member of The Real Housewives of New Jersey and her husband remain the highest-profile people to face criminal charges in the scandal that nearly brought down the US economy

D.B. Hirsch

D.B. Hirsch is a political activist, news junkie, and retired ad copy writer and spin doctor. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.