JPMorgan Pays $410 Million For Enron-Style Manipulation Of Energy Market

from firedoglake.com

By: DSWright Monday August 5, 2013 7:51 am

 It’s the same old song. JP Morgan Chase & Co. has been caught once again breaking the rules to snatch profits and will only have to pay a small portion of its loot to make it all go away. No criminal prosecutions and no reforms, just a speeding ticket on the bankster highway.
This time the Too Big To Jail bank was caught manipulating electricity prices for which it will pay $410 million in a settlement to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.  Since the FERC apparently sees it as its duty to protect the bank from shareholder lawsuits, JPMorgan will admit no wrongdoing.

"JPMorgan Chase & Co. agreed to pay $410 million on Tuesday to settle accusations by U.S. energy regulators that it manipulated electricity prices. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said the bank used improper bidding strategies to squeeze excessive payments from the agencies that run the power grids in California and the Midwest. The improper conduct occurred between September 2010 and November 2012, FERC said.

JPMorgan, the biggest U.S. bank, is paying a civil penalty of $285 million and returning $125 million in allegedly improper profits."

At least Enron got a congressional hearing for ripping off California. JPMorgan rips off numerous states, pays a small fine and gives back some of its “improper profits.” That’s how it works for everyone else right? Oh, you caught me stealing from you? Here is some of the money I stole back, my bad.

Would anyone in our massive prison system like to take that deal instead of jail time? Just give back a portion of your improper profits and go home. You can even keep your license to operate so you can commit the same crime again.

"JPMorgan Ventures Energy has contracts with power generating companies to trade their electricity. FERC said the JPMorgan traders offered to sell electricity at artificially low prices in a “day-ahead” market, so that companies would put their plants on standby mode to quickly generate energy. That would allow JPMorgan to earn fees for putting the power plants on standby mode.

Later, the traders would offer to sell electricity from the plants at higher prices in the market for last-minute energy needs, according to FERC."

That is a near exact match for Enron’s scam of putting power plants offline to juice the price up. Due to deregulation Enron was able to play so many games that they ultimately caused rolling blackouts in their quest for “improper profits.”

JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s share price has, not surprisingly, been largely unaffected by the entire case. Everyone knows there are no real consequences anymore when the Too Big To Jail banks break the law. The banksters are above the law, so why get rattled when they are caught committing crimes? All JPMorgan has to do is pay a small fine until it breaks the law again – then pay another small fine. It’s the same old song.