Bob Filner: JPMorgan Responsible For 'Homicide' Of Soldiers

WASHINGTON -- A leading House Democrat said on Wednesday that executives at JPMorgan Chase are responsible for the deaths of soldiers who take their own lives under illegal financial pressure from the bank.

That charge, leveled by Rep. Bob Filner (D-Calif.), the ranking Democrat on the House Veterans' Affairs Committee, came at the panel's hearing Wednesday on violations of the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act by the megabank.

The law limits interest rates that banks can charge soldiers who are deployed abroad at 6 percent, a rule an executive at the hearing admitted the bank has broken.

"People who are under pressure commit suicide. I would call it homicide, frankly, because you are putting them under pressure. You are responsible for that," Filner told Stephanie B. Mudick, a JPMorgan Chase executive vice president of consumer practices.

Mudick didn't directly respond to Filner, but said that JPMorgan would work to correct its mistakes in the future. A JPMorgan Chase spokesman referred HuffPost to her testimony.

The bank also came under fire from committee Republicans. "Our nation's war fighters -- and their families -- should not have to fight to keep their piece of the American Dream while they are on foreign ground defending that fundamental right for all of us," Chairman Jeff Miller (R-Fla.) said. "While I am heartened that JPMorgan Chase Bank is attempting to fix these errors with respect to wrongful foreclosures and is refunding over $2.4 million in excessive interest charges, more must be done to ensure that this never happens again. I hope this is a wake-up call for the entire financial services industry."

The thrust of the hearing focused on the difficulty of getting banks to comply with the law, given that the bank has a financial incentive to pay occasional fines rather than strictly adhering to it. Filner made his remark during a discussion about what legal responsibility the bank might have for wrongful deaths.

In 2010, 156 active-duty soldiers committed suicide, down six from the year before. Suicides among soldiers not on active duty jumped from 80 to 145.

Comments

[David Jurgensen]

10:37 PM on 02/10/2011

Thanks and congratulations for telling it like it is! It's time the profiteering money mongering banking and finance executives and professionals be named and punished for their crimes.

[Rooster Coburn]

06:52 PM on 02/10/2011

Weren't we going to moderate the rhetoric or something like that?

[bobncar]

03:54 PM on 02/10/2011

The one thing I never see the republicans talk about is that John Pierpont Morgan ( JP Morgan) bailed out Wall street in the 1897 crash ( oh horrors a bailout) and when he was out of the country in the fall of October 1929, his son attempted to halt that crash with another bailout. It succeeded for a few days but eventually failed to stop the collapse and we ended with the great Depression whereupon Herbert Hoover completed the journey down. Republicans all.

[Get RealSoon]

11:29 AM on 02/10/2011

Wait. A few years ago I had savings. A home. Plans to get married and have a child. Now due to all this fraud I lost everything. I'm sleeping on a deflating air mattress in a family spare bedroom. Financial pressure? Try going threw the events of a loan servicer who will not answer and accelerates the foreclosure. Try being a victim to a fake mortgage rescue company and discover his background checks out to be a mortgage broker. Try contacting every state and Fed department by letter and phone who does nothing but reply with and excuse. Try the endless phone calls to lawyers who wont reply or get ripped off by the fake ones. Try defending your rights in a Non-judicial state. Try being self-employed/ unemployed for years without no unemployment living off the last of your savings. I'M STILL HERE! I would never give these con-artist the satisfaction. I'M NEVER GOING TO QUIT!

[Lpeter]

03:45 PM on 02/10/2011

We all wish you the best and keep on, keeping on. God Bless.

[cassie reinara]

11:26 AM on 02/10/2011

Hey, now that's nice! You might hurt Jamie Dimon's feelings! He's a person too, you know! Now, take that back or he might get into a crying party with the Boehner!

[Steppenwoof]

09:15 AM on 02/10/2011

"The bank also came under fire from committee Republicans. "Our nation's war fighters -- and their families -- should not have to fight to keep their piece of the American Dream while they are on foreign ground defending that fundamental right for all of us," Chairman Jeff Miller (R-Fla.) said. "While I am heartened that JPMorgan Chase Bank is attempting to fix these errors with respect to wrongful foreclosures and is refunding over $2.4 million in excessive interest charges, more must be done to ensure that this never happens again. I hope this is a wake-up call for the entire financial services industry.""

In other words. Carry on! And keep those campaign checks coming! Next!
"

[vippy]

12:32 PM on 02/10/2011

Neither party did anything for the home owners. Vote them all out of office,both parties.  Vote for some
unknown, like the green party and send a shock wave to the other two, who think we have to vote for them.  Maybe then they will realize to listen to the people instead of corporations.  We have a chance next election but I suspect people are not ready yet. 

[Michael Arnold]

09:00 AM on 02/10/2011

Start putting some of these CEOs behind bars and we'll see a change in they way they do business, fines do nothing, first because they come out of bank funds and not the CEOs pockets, and second, the fine just gets passed on to the consumer. Put them in the general population of the State Prison where they live and let them suffer.

[Skaperen]

07:34 AM on 02/10/2011

"Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity." --Hanlon's Razor

But I have some serious doubts that it applies to the big corporate banks.

[bluehand]

10:59 AM on 02/10/2011

You know they're not stupid.

[schatsie]

06:54 AM on 02/10/2011

How many other laws are on the books that are not enforced....This is part of what makes our tax code such a Corrupting Influence.....The lawyers can find all the loopholes and then when you get a Republican judge he agrees with them.......anyone would for the right Bribe/campaign contribution or donation to your wife's non profit..........anyone.....

[KyDude]

08:21 AM on 02/10/2011

Watch it, you're punching touchy buttons.
http://www.anthonyweiner.com/conflictedclarencethomas

[bodel]

06:42 AM on 02/10/2011

Musollini direct quotes.
"Fascism should rightly be called corporatism,as it is the merger of corporate and government
power".
"Fascism is a religion.The 20th century will be knowm in history as the century of fascism".

He was absolutely right.And I guess WWII was a waste of time.
What a self degrading government we have become.We are IMploding just as USSR did.

[vippy]

12:34 PM on 02/10/2011

Greed requires more lies and it will stand on wobbly feet!

[Djin]

06:14 AM on 02/10/2011

Why deal with a Big Bank I know a local guy that has better interest rates but if you do not pay him bam there goes a knee cap

An to Rep. Bob Filner the Soldiers and Sailors Relief Act only covors interist rates on previos balance before deployment and charges during and after are fair game

But go after the Big Banks pleeeeeze

[Ian Faus]

06:41 AM on 02/10/2011

In the long run these guys are seriously better. These loan sharks won't throw families out on the streets ( at least most wont! ), they don't give people loans they know they can't pay back and also the fear they put into people makes their "customers" more fiscally responsible.

[Jackie O]

05:16 AM on 02/10/2011

Take out a Chase "Freedom" card (24.9% interest rate)
BUY SILVER and tear up the "Freedom" card

[Ian Faus]

06:44 AM on 02/10/2011

Yeah and you think that huge Silver position they have is not hedged ? Silver is the worst commodity to buy because it has consistently under-performed vis a vis gold as an inflationary hedge and also because the market is very volatile.

[SaskiaVanderVliet]

06:51 AM on 02/10/2011

That was in the past. I buy physical silver. double money last year but I am sitting on it Look for it to go sky high by end of year.

Why? Because its extensively used in industrial applications. Gold? not so much

[Jackie O]

05:12 AM on 02/10/2011

It will be "heartening" when the criminal bankers go to jail!
Why is Jamie Dimon of the Board of The Federal Reserve?

Where's ANDREW MAGUIRE?

Crash JP Morgan BUY SILVER

[rafaelbolero]

05:54 AM on 02/10/2011

Because it is a criminal organization.

[ginger42]

04:50 AM on 02/10/2011

incredible. Jail 'em all

[Steelsil]

03:43 AM on 02/10/2011

Maybe a tad over the top, but it's nice to watch a big bank getting bashed.