The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is reportedly not going to file charges against individual executives as part of its planned mortgage fraud enforcement action against J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.
The Wall Street Journal, citing anonymous sources that are supposedly ‘close to the investigation,’ reports that J.P. Morgan will pay a ‘significant financial penalty under the proposed deal,’ which has reportedly already been approved by SEC staff but not by the agency's five commissioners. J.P. Morgan has already issued a regulatory filing stating that it agreed ‘in principle’ to settle the SEC's civil charges regarding actions by its Bear Stearns Cos. unit in the packaging of residential mortgages that were sold to investors prior to the 2008 crash.
The Wall Street Journal's sources claim that the settlement will not require J.P. Morgan to admit to wrongdoing, and that current or former executives will not be charged by the SEC. Robert Khuzami, the SEC's director of enforcement, declined to comment on this case and the report that no executives would be charged. However, he states that his agency will ‘take enforcement action against individuals whenever the law and the evidence justifies doing so.’