The Wall Street Journal News Alert
How a Memo Cost Big Banks $37 Billion
"In a memo, one J.P. Morgan employee warned her bosses they were putting bad loans into securities being created before the financial crisis hit.
After the memo was discovered by a Justice Department lawyer, the U.S. attorney's office in Sacramento, Calif., sent subpoenas to J.P. Morgan officials tied to the memo. Three months later, top Justice Department officials in Washington told investigative teams across the country to hunt for similar ammunition in tens of millions of documents from other banks, especially Bank of America and Citigroup.
The investigation helped the department get nearly $37 billion in financial-crisis-related settlements from J.P. Morgan, Bank of America and Citigroup"
Moral of story: never listen to a subordinate, what do they know? (life long tough lesson) tb
