Blavatnik Takes JPMorgan to Trial for Subprime Loss

The subprime mortgage-backed securities scandal (i.e. fraud) took down many unsuspecting investors, many of them sophisticated who are not your garden-variety Joe Six-Pack retail investor.  One was Leonard Blanatvik, who sued JPMorgan in 2009 for deceptively putting his fund at risk by stuffing it full of toxic assets.  Defendants at JPMorgan should be worried for two reasons:

1) Blanatvik is a billionaire, worth some $15 billion.  He is not your average day trader living in his mom's basement.  The man has clout and he will use it, irrespective of the outcome of the lawsuit.
2) Blavatnik is a Russian billionaire.  Russian billionaires didn't get where they got by allowing others to defraud them--with impunity.  Heads will roll--and let's hope I'm not being literal.  Maybe I've seen too many Hollywood movies, but these guys normally have bodyguards surrounding them, which means so should those who cross them.

All kidding aside, this case illustrates the depth of the rot on Wall Street.  It's one thing for a too-big-to-fail bank like JPMorgan to rip off its run of the mill clients on Main Street.  It's a another proposition when the wronged investor is a billionaire whale the size of Blanatvik.  He won't just go away after JPMorgan tries to wash its hands of any wrongdoing and receives a customary wrist slap of a fine from the government.  There will be blood.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-14/blavatnik-takes-jpmorgan-to-trial-for-subprime-loss.html