JP Morgan CEO and former head of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York Jamie Dimon wrote an extensive letter to shareholders of America’s largest bank, accompanying the bank’s annual report for 2022.
Dimon claimed there is a need for affordable energy immediately and a need for decarbonization for tomorrow, meaning moving away from fossil fuels, such as oil and gas. In the same paragraph, he mentioned the war in Ukraine and climate change.
“We may even need to evoke eminent domain—we simply are not getting the adequate investments fast enough for grid, solar, wind and pipeline initiatives,” Dimon wrote.
Eminent domain refers to a government seizing private land or property and converting it for public use while compensating the owner.
He continued mentioning the Inflation Reduction Act and other U.S. laws that “hold the potential to unlock over $1 trillion in clean technology development” and that they “need to be implemented effectively.”
Dimon called for the cooperation of governments, businesses, and non-governmental organizations to create policy changes that “comprehensively address fundamental issues that are holding us back. Massive global investment in clean energy technologies must be done and must continue to grow year-over-year.”
Dimon in Epstein’s Case
Dimon is going to be interviewed under oath over the bank’s relationship with late sex offender and former client Jeffrey Epstein.The deposition is expected in early May, according to Brad Edwards, a lawyer representing women who claim they were sexually abused by Epstein and are suing JP Morgan for allegedly enabling the financier’s sex trafficking.
Epstein had been a JPMorgan client from 2000 to 2013—five years after he pleaded guilty to a Florida prostitution charge.
JP Morgan’s Politicized Climate
Meanwhile, investors who are fighting the politicization of America’s banks scored a rare win last week with a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ruling that allowed a shareholder proposal in favor of political and religious diversity at JPMorgan Chase to go forward, despite the bank’s objections.On March 29, the SEC green-lighted a shareholder proposal that would direct the bank’s board to investigate what some say is a “disturbing trend of politicized debanking” at the bank. These shareholders argue that JPMorgan Chase has systematically discriminated against customers because of their political or religious beliefs, and taken steps toward implementing personal social credit scores in America.
The proposal, submitted by the Bahnsen Family Trust, will go to a shareholder vote at the company’s annual meeting on May 16.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with senior members of JPMorgan Chase in Kyiv on Feb. 11 after the two parties signed a “memorandum of understanding” to attract private investments to aid in the reconstruction of the war-torn nation’s infrastructure.
Zelenskyy also appeared via video link at “one of the largest annual investment summits organized by JP Morgan,” which was attended by 200 of the largest corporations, investors, and financial companies over the weekend, according to a statement from Zelenskyy’s office.
The Ukrainian leader and bank members spent the weekend discussing the creation of a “platform for attracting private capital to rebuild Ukraine” following Russia’s invasion, which has left much of the country’s infrastructure damaged or destroyed.
