Charges related to JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s sales of mortgage-backed securities could be filed as early as today by U.S. prosecutors in California who have been investigating the bank, Bloomberg News reported today. The bank said last month in a regulatory filing that the U.S. Attorney’s office in Sacramento had parallel civil and criminal investigations under way. Investigators already have concluded that it broke civil laws and were examining whether criminal laws were broken, according to the filing. JPMorgan last week admitted to violating federal securities laws and agreed to pay about $920 million in connection with more than $6.2 billion in trading losses at its London offices. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said senior managers at the bank knew in April 2012 that the bank’s chief investment office in London was using aggressive valuations that hid losses. The probe of the New York-based bank’s securities sales stems from the work of an Obama administration task force set up to investigate causes of the financial crisis. The group includes U.S. Attorney Ben Wagner in Sacramento and New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.
