Ethical Issues at Chase
Team C
PHL/323
August 15, 2013
Felicia Harris

Ethical Issues in Chase
In class professor, Harris brought up the question of why we study ethics. That question though it may seem Ironic to ask in an ethics class, it’s a perfect question to ask ourselves in this day and age were we see so many unethical things happening in so many different places. It seems that no matter where we may be, we have a chance of runng into and ethical dilemma. Ethical issues affect us in our jobs, government, and even our finances, so why do we as a society study ethics; I believe it to be for that very reason. Just as ethics are influence our morals we study ethics to learn moral value from the issues that we saw through those unethical dilemmas that devastated us so greatly. We study ethics so that we learn how to build a foundation so we may live in a functional society so that we may work together with integrity. As average consumers, we seek for professional help every time we need help with an issue that we do not understand, such as investments. We seek these professional individuals, because we trust them to use their knowledge and understanding of their trading world to look out for our best interest. People seek investors for different reasons; some seek them for greed, and some for financial security. No matter your reason, you trust this individual with your money, and your lively hood, because you believe they are looking out for you. This was the case for many investors that decided to trust their finances to JPMorgan Chase. They saw their great power and their extensive knowledge of the stock market. The majority of the investors believe that the traders had morals and integrity, and believed that they would handle their hard-earned money responsibly, but sadly this was not the case. Many of the Chase trades in New York and London were falsified and wrong. The accused men reported false earning to hide the mounting losses from their reckless behavior. While these investors were, not only lying to their investors and losing all their money, they were also defrauding the trading market by advertising false earnings. “If traders misrepresented the facts with the intent to defraud, they can be subject to criminal charges, “said Alan R. Bromberg, a securities law expert at Southern Methodist University. (SILVER-GREENBERG, 2013). We do not know what their motives were, and what drove these men to lie to their investors, was it fear or just greed. Whatever the driving force for these actions the traders intentionally hid the truth for years from their trusting investors. The CEO said that this was the stupidest, embarrassing thing he has ever been involved in. Fraud not only hurt a few rich people but, but it actually rocked Wall as well. This affected the economy and in reality the consumers and you and I. This sort of action brings up the question of why the fraud was not noticed sooner. If a manager or a supervisor, had better controls and kept a log of the outcome. This deception came to light when Chase had to reinstate earnings possible deceptions came to light in a regulatory filing early Friday just before the bank reported its second-quarter earnings. While the bank posted a profit of nearly $5 billion despite the trading losses of $4.4 billion for the quarter, some analysts and regulators zeroed in on the valuation of the trades. (SILVER-GREENBERG, 2013). Officials and bank representatives cannot place the blame on the traders themselves because the firms that employed these traders publicly announcing these fake earnings to investors and the stock market, in order to influence JPMorgan’s stock. This defrauding tragedy started with the traders and made its way up the chain to the CEO because no one saw to release any of JPMorgan’s trading loses. It was not until outside sources such as the FBI and Securities and Exchange Commission started asking questions that JPMorgan decided to admit