JPMorgan officials discussed the bank's questionable hiring practices in China over a year before federal investigations started, The Wall Street Journal reports, citing internal emails and sources familiar with the matter.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the internal emails showed conversations back in 2011 about the "Sons and Daughters" program, an alleged system of hiring the kids of powerful Chinese officials to score deals.
In 2011, Chris Charnock, a JPMorgan compliance officer in Asia, first emailed five colleagues including one in the legal department to raise a red flag about the hiring, The Journal reported. He reportedly said the bank may have scored an IPO because it hired a senior government official’s child, and he suggested having more disclosures about new hires.
In 2013, it emerged that federal investigators had been looking into whether the bank violated anti-bribery laws through its “Sons and Daughters” program. Because JPMorgan may have hired these people to land business deals, it could be in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
One of the first reported cases was JPMorgan's hire of a Chinese railway official's daughter in its Hong Kong office in 2007. Meanwhile, his agency, The China Railway Group, was selected to advise JPMorgan on its IPO.
The investigations are ongoing. We reached out to JPMorgan and a spokesman declined comment.