U.S. charges two men with fraud in "London Whale" scandal

U.S. prosecutors in Manhattan have accused two former JPMorgan Chase & Co employees who worked in London of wire fraud and a conspiracy to falsify books and records in criminal charges related to the bank's $6.2 billion trading losses last year, according to court papers.
   
The charges, filed on Wednesday in federal court, say the two employees, Julien Grout and Javier Martin-Artajo, deliberately tried to hide hundreds of millions of dollars in losses on trades in a portfolio of synthetic credit derivatives, according to the court papers.
   
U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara will hold a press conference on the charges Wednesday afternoon, his office said in a statement to the press.
   
Lawyers for Grout and Martin-Artajo have previously said that their clients, both of whom are in Europe, did nothing wrong.
   
A spokesman for JPMorgan declined to comment.

 
REUTERS