JPMorgan to pay $153.6 million to the SEC for defrauding investors

$153.6 million fine would be paid by JPMorgan Chase & Co to settle the litigation with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC accused the banking giant of defrauding investors who bought mortgage securities sold just before the nation's housing market collapsed.

The regulator supported its arguments in the complaint with the excerpts from internal communications of JPMorgan that showed bankers sold a collateralized mortgage obligation in 2007 to ensure that it could get credit-scarred mortgage securities off its books.

"We are soooo pregnant with this deal, we need a wheel-barrel to move around," the head of CDO distribution wrote in a March 22, 2007 email to the sales staff. "Let's schedule the cesarian, please!"

Besides, on Tuesday the SEC also filed civil charges against Edward Steffelin, 41, a former managing director at the now bankrupt GSC Capital Corp, which served as collateral agent for the JPMorgan CDO marketed as Squared CDO 2007-1.

It alleged that he hoped to get a job with the Magnetar Capital LLC hedge fund, while helping to create marketing materials that failed to disclose that Magnetar chose some securities in the CDO and had a nearly $600 million bet that they would lose value.

JPMorgan sold $150 million of Squared CDO notes to pension funds and investors worldwide that lost most of their value in just 10 months, the SEC said.