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Watchdog group sues over $13 billion JP Morgan Chase settlement

WASHINGTON, Feb. 10 (UPI) -- Financial policy watchdog group Better Markets said Monday it was suing the U.S. Justice Department over a $13 billion settlement with JP Morgan Chase.

The lawsuit filed in the nation's capital challenges the department's November 2013 settlement, described as the largest settlement ever made with a single company by a factor of 300 percent. The lawsuit the deal was made "with no judicial review or approval."

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The Justice Department settled a case with the bank over improprieties and potential fraud that contributed to the 2008 financial crisis, which in turn was a contributing factor to the 2007-2009 recession.

"The Wall Street bailouts were bad enough, but now taxpayers are being forced to accept a secretive backroom deal that may well have been another sweetheart deal," said the group's President and Chief Executive Officer Dennis Kelleher in a statement.

"The Justice Department cannot act as prosecutor, jury and judge and extract $13 billion in exchange for blanket civil immunity to the largest, richest, most politically-connected bank on Wall Street," Kelleher said.

"The executive branch does not have this unilateral power because it violates the constitutional requirement of checks and balances," he said.

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The group said the $13 billion deal pales in comparison to the damage that was done, which comes to more than $13 trillion.

"A monetary sanction of $13 billion seems small given it contributed to such economic wreckage and given the size of JP Morgan Chase, a bank with 2.4 trillion in assets," Better Markets said.

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