– How JP Morgan Bribed the Chinese Prime Minister’s Daughter Using a Fake Name (Liberty Blitzkrieg, Nov 14, 2013):
Allegations of JP Morgan’s use of clever tactics to bribe Chinese officials recently received mainstream attention when Salon journalist Alex Pareene mentioned it in a comical and classic interview on CNBC (you need to watch the video before reading this) with presstitute Maria Bartiromo. When Mr.Pareene mentioned these claims against the TBTF bank, CNBC mocked him for the fact that his information had come from the New York Times. Well it appears the paper has now given CNBC a taste of its own medicine; with some actual real reporting, something the clownish financial-tv channel drowning in a zero ratings death spiral doesn’t seem all that interested in doing.
This article from the New York Times details how JP Morgan paid $75,000 a month to an obscure consulting firm called Fullmark Consultants, which had only two employees. The firm was run by a woman named Lily Chang, which in reality was the alias used by Wen Jiabao’s only daughter Wen Ruchun. Wen Jiabao was the Prime Minister of China at the time.
Unsurprisingly, many lucrative deals followed for the JP Morgan in China. How about we #AskJPM about that.
More from the NY Times:
To promote its standing in China, JPMorgan Chase turned to a seemingly obscure consulting firm run by a 32-year-old executive named Lily Chang.
Ms. Chang’s firm, which received a $75,000-a-month contract from JPMorgan, appeared to have only two employees. And on the surface, Ms. Chang lacked the influence and public name recognition needed to unlock business for the bank.
But what was known to JPMorgan executives in Hong Kong, and some executives at other major companies, was that “Lily Chang” was not her real name. It was an alias for Wen Ruchun, the only daughter of Wen Jiabao, who at the time was China’s prime minister, with oversight of the economy and its financial institutions.
JPMorgan’s link to Ms. Wen — which came during a time when the bank also invested in companies tied to the Wen family — has not been previously reported. Yet a review by The New York Times of confidential documents, Chinese public records and interviews with people briefed on the contract shows that the relationship pointed to a broader strategy for accumulating influence in China: Put the relatives of the nation’s ruling elite on the payroll.
Now, United States authorities are scrutinizing JPMorgan’s ties to Ms. Wen, whose alias was government approved, as part of a wider bribery investigation into whether the bank swapped contracts and jobs for business deals with state-owned Chinese companies, according to the documents and interviews. The bank, which is cooperating with the inquiries and conducting its own internal review, has not been accused of any wrongdoing.
Of course not, don’t be ridiculous!
For Ms. Wen’s consulting firm, Fullmark Consultants, the JPMorgan deal was lucrative. While many Hong Kong investment bankers were earning as much as $250,000 a year, JPMorgan paid Ms. Wen’s firm $900,000 annually from 2006 to 2008, records show, for a total of $1.8 million.
A spokesman for JPMorgan declined to comment. In a previous regulatory filing, the bank disclosed that authorities were examining “its business relationships with certain related clients in the Asia Pacific region and its engagement of consultants.”
The children of China’s ruling elite, according to experts, have occasionally used government-approved aliases to protect their privacy while studying or traveling abroad. Ms. Wen used her alias for both schooling and business. According to government records, Ms. Wen holds two national identity cards with matching birth dates, one issued in Beijing under the name Wen Ruchun and a second issued in the northeastern city of Dalian, as Chang Lily.
JPMorgan’s contract with Fullmark called for the consultant to “to promote the activities and standing” of the bank in China. According to Fullmark’s letter to JPMorgan, the consulting firm had three main tasks. One, it helped JPMorgan secure the underwriting job on the China Railway deal. It also advised JPMorgan about forming a joint venture with a Chinese securities firm and provided counsel on the “macroeconomics policy in mainland China.”
The letter, sent around the time of the financial crisis, struck an optimistic tone. “We hope JPMorgan Chase will grasp the opportunities and become to be the winner in the financial crisis,” it read.
Well we all know how that turned out…
Full article here.
In Liberty,
Mike
A few months ago, the UK Guardian carried a great story about the opening of the world’s largest building…..in China. It even has an indoor, man made seashore, complete with synthetic ocean, hundreds of miles away from the real ocean. It sounded marvelous!
I got to the posts. People who were there were writing about it. It was beautiful, but empty. The Chinese people cannot afford to rent, work or vacation there…….there is no market. The beautiful cities China has built have become known as ghost cities…..the people cannot afford the houses.
The only money in the economy is coming from the government…….just as in the US, a few people are making lots of money building these great projects…..all through corrupt government contracts. None of the money is going into the real economy……..just like the US.
The contractors, like the PM family are just as corrupt as the ones in the US. All money is coming from government, and now, following the path of the FED, they are printing money nonstop.
Riots over unemployment and survival issues are in the hundreds every day. The real economy (sound familiar?) is suffering massive unemployment and the anger towards the few who are getting everything (sound familiar?) is breeding a class war. When a riot breaks out, they shut down TV news and the Internet, they don’t want It to spread nation wide……..regardless it already is.
The old Chinese philosophy of the extended family, taking care of all generations has become obsolete thanks to their adoption of all thing western. Just a few months back, parents have been given the right to sue their children for abandonment. Such behavior was unheard of until recently.
China has no system in place for caring for the aged because until now, each family took care of their own. No longer. It is all about “ME” and to hell with anyone else.
Why they adopted such a sick model as the US is beyond me, but they have followed our example. Building cities and landmarks on debt, all contracts worth money come from government contracts (like the US)……..until they took this path of no return, I thought they would be #1 soon. Now, I sincerely doubt it.
Because of China’s terrible choices, I think it migh be Russia…….it will not be the US, we are in sharp decline. The Euro, many emerging African nations, such as Kenya, China……all have adopted the financially suicidal methods of the US. Russia will have to do something about their people, only a few people have all the money there, too.
Class wars destroy civilizations, and they are happening in China, US, Greece, Spain, Italy, and many other countries.
There are also the greedy guts who are working for a world government, with the greediest in power. That won’t happen because too many things are happening to our world and planet for such a system to work.
Fukushima has already broken the food chain. But, I don’t think much thought has been given to the portend of the situation. We can no longer eat fish, or anything from the sea. We might learn this when the media no longer hides the fact, but the birds won’t. Then, the predator that eats the birds get poisoned……and the poisons continue to climb up the food chain.
Dogs that ate dead sea turtles that washed up on the coast in Central America dropped dead instantly this week. This is a major problem, and much of what people think important right now will be washed away.
The poisons are in the air, water, soil and crops. Safe food will soon be a very important essential. If I were young and strong, I would be developing greenhouses to grow safe food while untouched seeds and plants are still available (if they are). Finding safe water will be an even greater challenge.
People in the west, and even in the EU, are not getting any of the truth about Fukushima. It is an ignorance that will cost the lives of millions. ABC news declared the radiation will be “too diluted” when it reaches here next March to be a problem……what a bloody lie!
Do these fools think saying it will change the reality?
People can stockpile gold, money and all kinds of stuff…..but when you cannot find safe water and food to consume……that is the stuff that destroys civilizations. We are on the precipice of a fast acting collapse not seen since the fall of Rome……only much faster, and far reaching. They didn’t have to worry about radioactive food and water…….
What will this do to our plant life? Trees and oceans give oxygen.
This is an overwhelming problem, and we have fools in power.