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SPANISH POLICE TODAY arrested a former JP Morgan bank trader wanted by the United States to face criminal charges in the massive “London Whale” fraud scandal.
Officers arrested Spanish national Javier Martin-Artajo Rueda on an international warrant by the United States for alleged fraud and tax crimes, police said in a statement.
He is accused of being the senior figure in the 2012 trading scandal involving €4.6 billion in trading losses at the US banking giant.
“The detainee is suspected of being responsible for manipulating and inflating the value of positions on his firm’s credit portfolio,” the statement said.
The suspect went before a judge at the National Court in Madrid, who granted him bail pending a ruling on extradition after Martin-Artajo did not consent to be extradited voluntarily, a judicial source said.
He was released on condition that he check in with the court every two weeks and was banned from leaving Spain, said the source, who asked not to be named.
US federal prosecutors filed criminal charges on August 14 against Martin-Artajo and Frenchman Julien Grout, alleging they kept false records on trades, committed wire fraud and submitted false US securities filings.
The Securities and Exchange Commission, the US stock trading authority, also filed civil charges against the two men alleging securities fraud.
A third ex-JPMorgan banker, French national Bruno Iksil — originally identified as the “London Whale” responsible for the trades — was cleared of criminal responsibility after cooperating with prosecutors.
Martin-Artajo, 49, is a Spaniard who usually resides in London, while Grout, 35, resides in his native France.
Next step
Grout’s lawyer Edward Little said his team was “negotiating with the US to decide how to proceed”.
“The US cannot have him arrested as long as he is in France,” Little told AFP by telephone. “The only way he would return to the US is if we can reach a reasonable agreement on bail.”
According to US prosecutors, Martin-Artajo was the most senior of the three employees implicated in the scandal.
The Spaniard’s law firm earlier said he would be “cleared of any wrongdoing.”
The US complaint documents how the London team allegedly falsified financial records after Martin-Artajo was pressured from higher-ups about losses in early 2012.
Martin-Artajo directed underlings to calculate trades and price assets in such a way as to discount the losses, according to the complaint, which cites phone calls and emails.
Iksil is depicted in the complaints as a generally unwilling participant in the cover-up, urging Martin-Artajo to revise pricing practices to more accurately reflect the losses.
At one point, Martin-Artajo allegedly quarrelled with Iksil after he reported in an email a single-day trading loss of $€30 million.
As a result of the false records, JPMorgan in July 2012 understated losses from its corporate private equity division, which included the London trading operation, by $459 million (€344 million).
The defendants each face a maximum sentence of 65 years in prison when all the criminal charges are combined, and a fine of at least $5 million (€3.7 million).
The debacle led to senior bank resignations, slashed pay for JPMorgan chief executive Jamie Dimon and sparked various government probes.
The case is one of several regulatory headaches still facing JPMorgan. The bank also faces probes on its sale of mortgage-backed securities, among other issues.
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Kathleen, you’ll be lucky if your family vote for you in the next election although you’ll probably run to the hills with your big fat pension.
I was talking to an uncle of a current Government T.D. and he said he wouldn’t make the mistake of voting for him again! ……… Makes you wonder about the accuracy of polls!
Is there any group in society apart from themselves they haven’t attacked?
No.
Bankers. They’ve been very kind to them so far.
Kathleen, I doubt you even believe it yourself. Nothing is ringfenced. There is no money there to ring fence. It’s been spent, its gone. We gave it to Sean Fitzpatrick to buy magic beans.
70 million to host the Presidency of Europe, It was 35 in Denmark!
More cuts from the party that brought you the property tax
The politics and those practicing it in this country ‘strikes fear into me’
It’s a deplorable act – one of the many, many, many of the like carried out on societies most vulnerable by successive governments. Shame is obviously a bi-word these days.
Another nail in the coffin for this government it will be very interesting to see how many will take their big fat pensions and retire and end up in the same boat as Bertie Aherne and the rest of his friends from the pervious government
@Kenneth, bertie and his gang of con artist did really well for themselves, they retired on huge made-for-life pensions and landed on there feet with careers. They never even answered or paid for destroying this country and its people, and don’t forget… look what party is leading in the polls for the next election!
Maybe now the apparently gormless general population of Ireland, gormless because they appear reluctant to stand up for themselves, will stand up for THE most vulnerable section of Irish society and in the process restore some credibility to themselves. And about frugging time……. Deep within the Irish psyche we are a stoic and compassionate people……… Time now folks for the compassion to find voice. Besides, the stoicism exhibited in recent years has taken a greater toll than the U-know whoze could dare believe. If this is not the time to say stop then give it up……. you have new masters.
An interesting example of the law of unintended consequences – a complaint is made to the Ombudsman that the Mobility Allowance Scheme is illegal because it excludes people over 66 years of age.
Rather than extend the scheme to everyone which the government can not afford, it is forced to completely abolish the scheme so it is no longer in breach of the Equal Status Act.
thats because you Joe are most likely dipping into the same pot as your buddys no wonder they have no money.
Utterly sickens me to hear FF to speak like they are the defenders of the down trodden when any simpleton can see they’d do the exactly same thing if, God forbid, they ever get back into power. You got us into this s*it pit FF…you have demnstrated you are utterly incapable of getting us out of it. Just like the current crop…
Think you will find that like every other grant in this country… a huge cohort of those getting it should not be… same goes for carers etc… I commend the HSE for reviewing every case and giving the money to those that deserve it. I wish people were half as critical of the huge volume of people out there playing the system…
Don’t feed the troll….people
DO NOT FEED THE TROLL!
:D
Of course Declan you have proof and only to happy to provide links to same?Yes?
Well Declan any links or are you just spinning the party line?
You’re a pr*ck …
Thats at Declan Cotter by the way…
You feeding out of the same pot as yourb buddy Joe greedy fickers.
Nice Tony… big man behind a screen… moron…!!!
And I am no troll… just dont beat the usual populist drum that is played on here…
No party line… I commend the Goverment for trying to undo the mess we find ourselves in… and yes it is of our own doing… I saw no protests on the street when social welfare was increased year after year… i saw no protests when income tax was reduced, college fee’s removed etc. etc etc… I could go on and on…
BTW Jenny… There is a world outside of links!!!! You need to get out more
If your gonna make a comment like you did it would be nice if you backed it up,did FG HQ not provide you with the info?
Call it real life Jenny… I see it day in, day out… Saw a couple on SF take a trip to Disney Land last year… Right through college i saw people getting grants having there own cars!!! This couple has a brutal record of holding individuals accountable.. If you deserve the benefits then the state should provide…but the state has an obligation to verify..
Playing the system like google to tune of circa €6 billion over 5 yrs. quite a tune while the disabled stranded at home.
So they can’t afford 10.1 Million for the disabled of the country for mobility allowance, but yet for 266 people they can manage to have travel expenses of 7.2 Million…when are people gonna fight back!
Could we not just take it out of the foreign aid budget?
You are inviting more taxation Kelleher. Is that your policy? If the money is not there it is not there. Are you seriously saying we need more taxation? If we cannot afford these allowances how are you proposi mg the money be made available. Tell the nation you want more taxation and stop playing party politics with an important issue.
ANGLO IRISH BANK HAD PRIVATE CONTRACTS WITH GERMAN AND FRENCH BANKS…..not a word was mentioned in those contracts about the Irish citizen being responsible for any liability for those loans in anyway shape or form….60 BILLION has been pushed on us illegally through agents in our government working for the Troika and the ECB , so are we going to take this bull** or are we going to say NO ?
there was a very nicely cut coat and red shoes walking into the dail today, whilst i sat outside in my wheelchair protesting, yep.
i didnt feel nice in my scruff nor the bucket the hse gave me for a wheelchair, a reconstituted sick clapped out museum piece it is. i think revolt is the only way. surely there was more than twin and myself who heard this news last night? where were you today then? all working? too sick? we need far more people out there being expressive not sitting at a laptop being passively aggressive, this way is the easy way. i am in utter fear of what will happen next and when kathleen expresses herself as ‘agonizing’ over this….no Kathleen Lynch, you dont agonize over disability cuts, we agonize as we are the disabled being cut. if you have to make a decision over heating for the house, versus ‘can i afford this to help keep my eyesight? YES, thats agonizing, and thats what i do all the time. a disability pension only goes so far Minister for Health with special responsibility for disability and mental health. i am mental with this agonizing and thats a bloody fact.
The Irish bull. Where do you get the money? I take it for your comment that you are willing to pay additional tax , but , do you really think the people can afford to pay more tax? The cause is mighty but people are stretched. The idea that the State can just magic up the money is outdated. How much cash are you personally prepared to cough up to replace these grants, each week?
How about makin corporations cough up seeing as they wont even pay the 12.5% tax they are supposed to pay and how about cutting the salaries of the high end earners and special allowances for the political elite and how about nationalising our gas and oil ???…..shall i continue ??
Tua,
Thats the corporations that employ hundreds of thousands up and down the country… Give me a break….I work for these companies and know first hand that our corporation tax is a massive insentive.. I hear this kind of babble from Boyd Barrett all the time… rediculous.
Rory is bang on with his comment.
They are very kind to employ a man who can’t even spell incentive. Is this a quid pro quo for them paying around 4% ?
Rory , can you pay my bils ? I have a private contract with the ESB and you have to pay my bill….just like ANGLO they had private contracts with European banks and we are paying those bills, so will you pay my bills which you have no liability for ?
An actual tax take of 0.14% is a joke. As for them paying wages etc that a red herring. Our 12.5% rate is lowest in Europe by far. So implementing the full rate would not send these companies elsewhere. Ur stance is “half a loaf” politics. Except we ain’t getting half a loaf or even the crumbs of the corporate tables.
Kellehers scared? The thought of Fianna Fáil getting back into power scares me shitless!
This government is devoid of any humanity. They are a disgrace to this country. Enda is the most sniveling , two-faced p***k I have ever come across!!
I thought this government promised to look after the most vunerable in this country how come they didn’t tell the public what they really had planned once they had there massive wages and pensions sorted
Kathleen should be ashamed, especially considering the fact had she not made a full recovery, it could so easily be her on the receiving end of these cutbacks now: http://www.medicalindependent.ie/6797/ready_for_the_challenge
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