Former boss of London Whale pushes back against regulator
FORMER JP Morgan executive Achilles Macris is challenging the findings of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) surrounding the London Whale scandal.
Macris has referred his complaints to the upper tribunal, a tax court. His spokesman commented: “Some of the findings in the notice clearly identify and criticise him, that these findings are made in error and that he wrongly was not given a proper opportunity by the authority to respond to these criticisms prior to their being published.”
The spokesman said that Macris denies the assertions made by the FCA as factually wrong, adding: “Prior to issuing the final notice, the authority should have given Mr. Macris the opportunity to respond to these assertions. However, it chose not to do so.”
Macris was head of JP Morgan’s London chief investment office (CIO), where Bruno Iksil – nicknamed the London Whale – made a trading loss of $2bn (£1.23bn).
The FCA did not name Macris in its findings on the major trading losses, but did determine that the “conduct of CIO London management deliberately misled the authority”. The FCA refused to make any comment on the challenge to its findings on the incident yesterday.