WASHINGTON — JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon told Congress on Wednesday he bore ultimate responsibility for a $2 billion trading loss, but the bank might financially penalize some of the executives involved. JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon takes responsibility, but not blame
JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon takes responsibility,
but not blame
WASHINGTON — JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon told Congress on Wednesday he bore ultimate responsibility for a $2 billion trading loss, but the bank might financially penalize some of the executives involved.
Two months ago to the day after telling analysts concerns about the company’s trading practices were “a tempest in a teapot,” Dimon said he was “dead wrong” and admitted his management had been flawed. Since Dimon became the chief executive in 2005, he had pushed for the company’s chief investment office to make more profits with bigger, riskier bets.
“I’m absolutely personally responsible,” Dimon told the Senate Banking Committee. He sidestepped his personal role in the trading strategy that led to the loss, however, saying, “I was aware of it, but I didn’t approve it.”
Dimon said some executives could be required to give back pay or bonuses under bank policy in the wake of the $2 billion loss, which the nation’s largest financial institution revealed last month after a risky multibillion-dollar bet made by London traders.
Panetta: ‘Huge gaps’ in military’s review of mental health cases
WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told a Senate panel on Wednesday he is unsatisfied with the Pentagon’s current approach to combating military suicides and the Defense Department will review its procedures for handling mental health cases.
Under questioning by Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., Panetta said there are “still huge gaps” in the way a mental health diagnosis is determined.
“We’re doing everything we can to try to build a better system,” Panetta said at a Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee hearing. “But there are still huge gaps in terms of the differences in terms of how they approach these cases and how they diagnose the cases and how they deal with them — and frankly, that’s a whole area we have to do much better on.”
Murray’s questioning came one week after the Pentagon announced 154 active duty military suicides have occurred this year, meaning more soldiers have died from suicide this year than in combat.
Tensions high as Egypt awaits court ruling
CAIRO — Egypt’s Justice Ministry warned Wednesday the military has broad powers to arrest civilians in what appeared to be preparations for potential protests ahead of two critical court decisions expected Thursday.
The announcement was the first such warning issued since the fall of former President Hosni Mubarak 16 months ago and came one day before Egypt’s Supreme Constitutional Court is expected to issue rulings that could abruptly dissolve Egypt’s first democratically elected Parliament and cancel this weekend’s scheduled presidential runoff election.
Some interpreted the decree as foreshadowing the military’s plan to extend its rule past July 1, when the new president is supposed to take over. Others said they believed Egypt was now under martial law and the announcement represented a continuation of Egypt’s emergency law, which had expired May 31.
Under Wednesday’s announcement, the military will have broad powers to detain people until the government agrees on a new constitution, which will take at least six months.
Russia brushes aside U.S. accusations involving Syria
BEIRUT — Russia’s foreign minister on Wednesday denied allegations by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that Moscow was sending attack helicopters to the Syrian military.
All of Russia’s military contracts with Syria are for air-defense systems, not for any weaponry that can be used in civil conflicts, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at a news conference in Tehran after meeting with his Iranian counterpart, Ali Akbar Salehi.
Lavrov, who at times appeared agitated, insisted Russia’s weapons trade with Syria doesn’t violate any international laws or export legislation.
“We don’t supply Syria or anyone else with things that are used to fight against peaceful demonstrators, unlike the United States, which regularly supplies that region with such equipment,” Lavrov said, according to the Russian-owned RT network.
Washington has said it has only provided “nonlethal” aid, such as communications equipment, to the Syrian opposition.
By wire sources
