“A Washington activist group has sued to derail the Justice Department’s record-setting $13 billion settlement with JPMorgan, laying out a compelling philosophical case against such privately negotiated deals but failing to make a legal argument that a judge will buy.”

“The lawsuit filed yesterday in federal court in Washington by Better Markets reads like a position paper, accusing Attorney General Eric Holder of negotiating a “contract” with JPMorgan that allowed the bank to keep out of public view the details of how it allegedly undermined financial markets with fraudulent mortgage-backed securities.”

“‘At a critical juncture, with the DOJ just hours away from filing a lawsuit,  JP Morgan Chase ’s CEO directly and personally called the cellphone of the third highest ranking official at the DOJ, who reportedly `recognized’ the incoming phone number of the CEO, who then offered billions of dollars more to prevent the filing of the lawsuit. This very well- timed call to the DOJ official’s cellphone was successful: The DOJ called off the filing of the lawsuit later that day; face-to-face negotiations between the Attorney General and the CEO commenced a day later; JP Morgan Chase began offering billions of dollars more to prevent the filing of any lawsuit; and the $13 Billion Agreement was reached and finalized, ensuring that no lawsuit would be filed and no meaningful disclosure of JP Morgan Chase’s vast illegal conduct would ever occur.’”

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Read full Forbes article here.