It’s about time. The county filed suit today, charging fraud, conspiracy and unjust enrichment. The suit also names Larry Langford, Bill Blount, Al LaPierre, and former JPMorgan bankers Charles LeCroy and Douglas MacFaddin.
“JPMorgan, JPMorgan Chase, and Blount Parrish were paid millions of dollars as a result of the issuance of variable rate demand warrants and auction rate warrants and the closing of interest rate swap transactions,” the county says in the lawsuit. “The price the County paid for these transactions in terms of fees and interest rates was artificially inflated by millions of dollars, to account in part for the fact that JPMorgan’s scheme to secure the County’s business included bribes, kickbacks, and pay-offs the Defendants paid to or received from each other.”
JPMorgan already agreed to pay the county $50 million as part of a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission. It’s only a drop in the bucket of the $3.2 billion the county owes. We can only hope the company is still in a settling mood.