Jonathan Weil, Columnist

JPMorgan Wrestles With Sons, Daughters and Corruption

The probe into whether JPMorgan hired the children of China's elite in order to win business is headed into new legal territory, since the relevant laws have never been applied to a bank.

January 22, 2014 at 9:08 PM UTC

By Jonathan Weil

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The federal investigations into JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s "sons and daughters" program in China may end up being yet another test of the maxim that too-big-to-fail banks are too big for prosecutors to bust.

Yesterday, the New York Times reported that JPMorgan had dropped out of the running to underwrite a potential $1 billion share sale by a Chinese chemical company, while U.S. authorities are probing the bank's hiring practices in China. Last week, Bloomberg News reported that agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation had questioned a former head of JPMorgan's Asia-Pacific business after stopping him in a New York-area airport. The government is probing whether JPMorgan hired the children of China's elite so that their powerful relatives in government would steer business to the bank.