FOREIGN AUTHORITIES ESCALATE PROBE INTO JPMORGAN CHASE VIOLATING ANTI-BRIBERY LAWS IN CHINA

US and foreign authorities have escalated probes into whether JPMorgan Chase's hiring practices in China and Hong Kong violated anti-bribery laws, the bank said on Friday.
The probe centres on whether JPMorgan hired the relatives of powerful Chinese officials and businessmen in order to win business.

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the bank said US and foreign authorities are looking at its "hiring practices relating to candidates referred by clients, potential clients and government officials, the firm's employment of certain former employees in Hong Kong, its business relationships with certain related clients in the Asia Pacific region and its engagement of consultants in the Asia Pacific region."

JPMorgan, the US's largest bank by assets, said it had received a subpoena from the US Securities and Exchange Commission and document requests from the US Justice Department and unspecified foreign authorities.

"The firm is cooperating with these investigations," JPMorgan said.

According to media reports in August, the bank is being investigated over its hiring of the son of Tang Shuangning, a former banking regulator who is now chairman of the state-run financial conglomerate China Everbright Group.

The bank also allegedly hired the daughter of a Chinese government railway official around the time a rail firm was seeking an underwriter for a public listing.

Both worked from JPMorgan's office in Hong Kong.