Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Members of Senate Banking Committee Will Question Their Top Donor: JP Morgan Chase

Of the 22 members on the Congressional hearing charged this week with questioning JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon over his bank’s $2 billion trading loss, 7 members, including the Chairman and a ranking member, have JPMorgan as one of their top five political contributors.

As AlterNet reported, Tim Johnson, the Senate Banking’s chair, has JPMorgan as his single largest contributor (from 2005-2010). But there’s more to the story. Six other members on the supposed watchdog committee enjoy sizeable contributions from JPMorgan as well (numbers from 2007-2012), totaling $351,582.
They include:
  • - Richard Shelby (R-AL) — $72,950 (Ranking Member)
  • - Jack Reed (D-RI) – $29,850
  • - Robert Corker (R-TN) – $61,000
  • - Michael Crapo (R-ID) — $33,982
  • - Jon Tester (D-MT) – $45,000
  • - Mark Warner (D-VA) – $108,800
What’s more alarming, the entire Congressional panel is fraught with political donations from the “Securities and Investment” industry. The grand total? $13,423,762.

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