JP Morgan’s bond claims rebuffed
Mike Savvides, a former senior employee of investment bank JP Morgan, said yesterday that he could not understand why his previous employer has denied knowledge that a 280-million-euro bond it had underwritten would be sold on to other investors. Savvides was dismissed by the bank for allegedly not telling his employer that the bond would be sold on by London-based hedge fund North Asset Management (NAM). The former JP Morgan banker told Kathimerini that he could not understand the investment bank’s behavior. «Maybe they consider Greece is a Third World country,» he said. Jakob Stott, JP Morgan’s chief operating officer for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, told a parliamentary committee on Tuesday that the bond sale was approved on the basis that North was a buy-and-hold investor. Stott clarified yesterday that at no stage had he said that Economy and Finance Ministry General Secretary Giorgos Kouris had been informed about the structured bond from October 2006. Meanwhile, Savvides gave evidence to a deputy prosecutor yesterday for his involvement in the bond scandal. According to sources, Savvides told the prosecutor that his only involvement in the bond, underwritten by JP Morgan, was to submit an investment plan dictating the bond’s terms. Approximately 40 people have been called in to testify to prosecutors. It is thought that most of those questioned will be charged.
