Hit With Billions In Fines, JP Morgan Gives Jamie Dimon A Raise?

Why is this man smirking? Because he just had his salary doubled, despite his company having been hit with billions in fines for crimes related to the massive mortgage fraud.

JP Morgan Chase has almost doubled chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon’s pay for 2013, rewarding the executive for settling probes against the bank.

Dimon will receive total compensation of $20m in 2013, consisting of $18.5m in stock options and a base salary of $1.5m, the bank said in a statement Friday.

That compares with total compensation of $11.5m a year earlier, down from $23m in each of the previous two years.

The bank says it took several factors into account when deciding on Dimon’s pay, including the “sustained long-term performance” of the bank, gains in market share and customer satisfaction as well as his handling of the legal issues facing the lender.

JP Morgan agreed in November to pay $13bn in a settlement with the Department of Justice and acknowledged that it misled investors about the quality of risky mortgage-backed securities ahead of the 2008 financial crisis. The bank was among the major lenders that sold mortgage-backed securities that plunged in value when the housing market collapsed in 2006 and 2007.

By: dave-dr-gonzo

David Hirsch, a.k.a. Dave "Doctor" Gonzo*, is a renegade record producer, video producer, writer, reformed corporate shill, and still-registered lobbyist for non-one-percenter performing artists and musicians. He lives in a heavily fortified compound in one of Manhattan's less trendy neighborhoods.

* Hirsch is the third person to use the pseudonym, a not-so-veiled tribute to journalist and author Hunter S. Thompson, with the permission of his predecessors Gene Gaudette of American Politics Journal (currently webmaster and chief bottlewasher at Liberaland) and Stephen Meese at Smashmouth Politics.