Better Markets sues Justice Department over JPMorgan deal (JPM immunity for bad mortgage loans)

[El_Johns]

The non-profit group Better Markets filed a lawsuit against the Justice Department on Monday to block what it called an "unlawful" $13 billion settlement with JPMorgan Chase & Co over bad mortgage loans sold to investors before the financial crisis.

The record settlement, which was reached in November, does not release JPMorgan from potential criminal liability over the mortgages it packaged into bonds. But Better Markets said it was still appalled that the settlement gave the bank "blanket civil immunity" for its conduct without sufficient judicial review.

"The Wall Street bailouts were bad enough, but now taxpayers are being forced to accept a secretive backroom deal that may well have been another sweetheart deal," said Dennis Kelleher, chief executive of Better Markets.

"The Justice Department cannot act as prosecutor, jury and judge and extract $13 billion in exchange for blanket civil immunity to the largest, richest, most politically connected bank on Wall Street," he said.

Better Markets was founded in 2010 to advocate for tough Wall Street reforms.

The lawsuit, which names the Justice Department and Attorney General Eric Holder, was filed in federal court in Washington, D.C.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/10/us-lawsuit-justice-jpmorgan-idUSBREA191ET20140210

[okaawhatever]

1. I think this lawsuit is more political theater. Everything about this smells. Better Markets is

funded by Michael Masters. Although the CEO of Better Markets, Dennis Kelleher, has been around for quite a while, it was only after Citizens United, and right before the elections that he opened up shop.

I think others have been suspicious about Michael Masters for some time, Business Insider did a story on him:

BUSTED: Meet The Hedge Fund Manager Pushing The Government's New Attack On Speculators


Masters said that Newton's math was "way off," but we checked out what he's been investing in since telling Dan Rather that the oil market is being thrown out of balance by speculative traders. As you've seen above, almost his entire long portfolio is riding on low gas prices. (Masters says he runs a long/short equity fund, which would mean he's also short some companies, but the SEC doesn't require hedge fund managers to disclose shorts, so we're not sure what they are.)

In other words, this guy has an agenda: making money by getting the government to go after other traders. Not saving the American public from commodities speculators.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/michael-masters-2011-4#ixzz2tNepvRf7