(Anti Media) Score one for the poetic irony pages. Two months after JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon lashed out at bitcoin, calling it a “fraud” which is “worse than tulip bulbs, warning it won’t end well,” will “blow up” and “someone is going to get killed” and threatened that “any trader trading bitcoin” will be “fired for being stupid” as it was merely a tool for money-laundering, today Swiss daily Handelszeitung reported that the Swiss subsidiary of JPMorgan was sanctioned by the Swiss regulator, FINMA, over money laundering and “seriously violating supervision laws.”
As the newspaper adds, the Swiss sanctions relate to breaches of due diligence in connection with money laundering standards. In other words, JPMorgan was actively aiding and abetting criminal money laundering.
The report further notes the Finma decision was issued on June 30 and should have been published the following week but JPMorgan tried to prevent the publication of the judgment. More recently, the Federal Administrative Court dismissed the appeal.
In response to the money-laundering violation, JPM said that in support of safety and soundness of global monetary system, “we have made and continue to make significant enhancements to the firm’s AML program to ensure we are meeting regulatory expectations,” according to an emailed statement sent to Bloomberg.
Unfortunately, JPMorgan also said that it can’t, or rather won’t, provide further details since the Finma resolution from June 2017 isn’t public.
This means that anyone wondering if Jamie Dimon’s bank was using (and thus trading) bitcoin to circumvent Swiss anti-money laundering regulations, will just have to ask Jamie Dimon in person during his next public appearance.