“WASHINGTON — A public interest group on Monday sued the Justice Department over last year’s record $13-billion settlement with JPMorgan Chase & Co., arguing the deal to resolve investigations into faulty mortgage investments was unconstitutional because courts did not review it.
“Better Markets Inc., which has been critical of Wall Street and regulators in the aftermath of the financial crisis, filed the suit in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.
“The nonprofit group said that Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder and other top Justice officials should not have been allowed to give JPMorgan “blanket civil immunity for years of alleged pervasive, egregious and knowing fraudulent and illegal conduct that contributed to the 2008 financial crash and the worst economy since the Great Depression.”
“The bailouts and suffering of the American people in 2008 and 2009 were bad enough,” Dennis Kelleher, president of Better Markets, told reporters at a news conference.
“It’s too much to ask taxpayers and the American people to put up with a secret backroom deal that might well be another sweetheart deal for yet another big Wall Street bank,” he said.
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