U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said that an agreement requiring JPMorgan Chase & Co. to pay $2.6 billion to resolve criminal and civil allegations that it failed to stop Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme isn’t “the last big” money-laundering case his office will bring, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The JPMorgan accord that was announced this month, which includes a record Justice Department penalty for a violation of the Bank Secrecy Act, highlighted inadequate programs for policing money laundering. Bharara said that it was an “aggressive action to take against the nation’s largest bank, but it was appropriately aggressive.” “The Bank Secrecy Act is not merely a suggestion, and it has to be taken seriously,” Bharara said. “It was not taken seriously by JPMorgan in dealing with Madoff, and the bank paid a price for it. And JPMorgan is not going to be the last big case that my office brings in this area, I can promise that.” The top federal prosecutor in Manhattan also cited the money-laundering case filed against SAC Capital Advisors LP last year and the hedge fund’s decision to plead guilty and pay a penalty of $1.2 billion. A U.S. judge hasn’t decided whether she will accept the plea.
