JPMorgan Executives Caught Stealing Millions From California Electricity Users

If you watched the History Channel series, The Men Who Built America you may recall that JP Morgan backed Thomas Edison and made a bid to control the electric industry in America. The clip above is just an introduction and doesn't go into Morgan's ruthlessness. Today JP Morgan is an even more powerful Wall Street firm than the founder could have ever imagined-- and, once again, ruthless in its quest to make money from electricity. Like Enron before them, the Morgan criminal banksters are manipulating California's electricity markets to enrich themselves while rate payers are fleeced.

In an official notice, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission alleged that the bank had engaged in "eight manipulative bidding strategies" in California and Midwestern markets.

The strategies led to payments to JPMorgan "of tens of millions of dollars at rates far above market prices," according to the notice. JPMorgan is expected to pay a massive fine related to the allegations.

The strategies allegedly worked like this. In California, for example, the bank would bid to deliver electricity to a utility the next day at a low price of $30 per megawatt hour. When the next day came, JPMorgan would change its offer to a much higher price of $999 per megawatt hour, assuring the power did not get bought, according to the notice.

California ISO, the state's power-grid operator, would then have to compensate the bank for the cost of making the bid, under California's "make whole provision," which requires ratepayers to cover certain costs incurred by energy sellers.

Still too big to jail? Fines-- paid by shareholders-- don't do anything at all to put a stop to the criminal behavior of these Wall Street sociopaths. I know the sensitivities of most of us don't allow for firing squads but... what about some hard prison terms for the top executives? That would put a stop to this kind of behavior-- at least for a while.This is from a press release I got yesterday from Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey. And this is what Blue America was talking about when we promoted the idea of this incredible team:

Massachusetts Senators Elizabeth Warren and Edward J. Markey today asked the head of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission how his agency was protecting consumers and prosecuting JPMorgan Chase following the agreement by the company to pay $410 million in penalties and surrendered profits to settle allegations of market manipulation in electricity markets. In a letter sent to FERC Chairman Jon Wellinghoff, the two Massachusetts Democrats ask how FERC determined the financial punishment for JPMorgan, how harm to consumers was evaluated, and whether this incident is part of an increasing trend of energy market manipulation.

“While this fine is large in absolute terms, the total penalties are equal to roughly 1.3 percent of JPMorgan’s 2012 profits,” write the Senators. “We are concerned about whether the settlement includes adequate refunds to defrauded ratepayers and also concerned that the individual executives who sought to impede the Commission’s investigation will not be punished. It is critical that government settlements provide appropriate relief for consumers and deter future law-breaking.”

...According to FERC allegations, a JPMorgan energy-trading unit engaged in 12 deceptive bidding strategies in wholesale energy markets from September 2010 to November 2012 in California and the Midwest, resulting in tens of millions of dollars in overpayments from the grid operators. Of the $410 million JPMorgan will pay, $125 million consists of disgorged profits that will go to ratepayers in California and the Midwest and $285 million civil penalties.