JPMorgan Chase & Co. said that traders appear to have hidden problems in a portfolio whose losses have ballooned to $5.8 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday. A review of roughly 1 million e-mails and tens of thousands of voice tapes suggests traders within the once-obscure Chief Investment Office "may have been seeking to avoid showing the full amount of losses" during the first quarter by placing inaccurate prices on their positions, the bank said on Friday. The discovery, made in recent days, prompted the company to restate earnings for the first quarter and admit to a "material weakness" within a unit that manages the bank's excess cash.
