US government investigations into the hiring practices of JP Morgan in China, which had initially cantered on the bank’s Hong Kong office, has widened to include countries across Asia and more than 200 interns and full-time staff.
The Justice Department has joined the SEC in looking into whether JP Morgan hired people in China so that their family members would steer business to the bank.
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The probe has highlighted the hiring of dozens of employees as worthy of additional scrutiny and uncovered documents that link names of new appointments with specific deals, according to the Bloomberg report.
The employees include influential politician’s family members who worked in JP Morgan’s investment bank, as well as relatives of asset-management clients.
The investigation could see the US bank charged under the Foreign Corrupt Practices act, which prevents companies from paying cash or providing anything of value to government employees in order to win business.
Bloomberg reported that the spreadsheet, which links some hiring decisions to specific transactions pursued by the bank, may be viewed by regulators as evidence that JP Morgan added people in exchange for business.
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By GlobalDataMarie Cheung, a JPMorgan spokeswoman based in Hong Kong, said: "The bank is cooperating fully with regulators."
