JPMorgan sells New York building to Chinese firm for $725 million

[Cebu_4_2]

JPMorgan sells New York building to Chinese firm for $725 million
http://i2.cdn.turner.com/money/dam/assets/131017234813-jpmogran-chase-building-620xa.jpg
HONG KONG (CNNMoney)
JPMorgan Chase has sold the One Chase Manhattan Plaza skyscraper to Fosun International for $725 million, the latest in a series of New York real estate purchases by Chinese investors. The purchase was disclosed Friday in a regulatory filing by Fosun, a Shanghai-based conglomerate that controls large swaths of China's pharmaceutical, investment, property and steel industries.
The 60-story Lower Manhattan office building is a New York landmark, and one of the anchors of the city's financial district. It's not yet clear whether the building will continue as a commercial space, or be converted to an apartment building. A JPMorgan spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A spokeswoman for Fosun said that property will only grow in value, citing its prime location and the renovation of the nearby Fulton Street transportation hub.
The purchase is the second major property acquisition by a Chinese company in recent days as buyers with money to burn look for value outside China.
Related: Chinese acquisitions of U.S. firms (http://money.cnn.com/interactive/economy/chinese-acquisitions-us-companies/?iid=EL)
Shanghai-based Greenland Group last week became 70% owners in a joint venture (http://money.cnn.com/2013/10/11/real_estate/china-brooklyn-real-estate/?iid=EL) that will develop Atlantic Yards, a 22-acre residential and commercial real estate project in downtown Brooklyn.
The overall project, located at a commuter rail hub, includes the Barclays Center, a basketball and hockey arena that opened last year. It is home to the NBA's Brooklyn Nets and will be home to the NHL's New York Islanders starting in 2015.
Earlier this year, a Chinese property developer took a 40% stake in the General Motors Building in Manhattan.
Related story: China not impressed by U.S. debt deal (http://money.cnn.com/2013/10/17/news/economy/debt-ceiling-deal-china/?iid=EL)
http://i2.cdn.turner.com/money/dam/assets/130809160556-n-chinese-homebuyers-00011523-620x348.jpg (http://money.cnn.com/video/news/2013/08/09/n-chinese-homebuyers.cnnmoney?iid=EL)
Why Chinese are buying U.S. real estate


For JPMorgan, which is in talks to settle a number of government investigations, the sale should provide a cash infusion.
The bank is facing a possible settlement related to mortgage-backed securities that could cost (http://money.cnn.com/2013/09/25/news/companies/jpmorgan-mortgage-settlement/?iid=EL) as much as $11 billion. JPMorgan (JPM (http://money.cnn.com/quote/quote.html?symb=JPM&source=story_quote_link), Fortune 500 (http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/2013/snapshots/2608.html?iid=EL)) said Wednesday that it would pay $100 million to the U.S. regulators, conceding "reckless" behavior led to the London Whale trading debacle that generated about $6 billion in losses.
Chase moved its headquarters from One Chase Manhattan Plaza to an address near Grand Central Terminal in 1996, although some employees remain stationed downtown.
It was not immediately clear whether those employees will be relocated. http://i.cdn.turner.com/money/images/bug.gif (http://money.cnn.com/2013/10/18/news/china-jpmorgan-real-estate/?iid=EL#TOP)

[Horn]

Official Name (http://www.skyscrapercenter.com/info.php?go=officialname)

One Chase Manhattan Plaza


Former / Other Name (http://www.skyscrapercenter.com/info.php?go=formername)
Chase Manhattan Bank Building


Type (http://www.skyscrapercenter.com/info.php?go=type)
building


Status (http://www.skyscrapercenter.com/info.php?go=status)
Completed


Country (http://www.skyscrapercenter.com/info.php?go=country)
United States (http://www.skyscrapercenter.com/create.php?list_status=COM&status_COM=on&status_UC=on&status_UCT=on&status_DEM=on&list_country=US&search=yes)


State
New York


City (http://www.skyscrapercenter.com/info.php?go=city)
New York City (http://www.skyscrapercenter.com/create.php?list_status=COM&status_COM=on&status_UC=on&status_UCT=on&status_DEM=on&list_city=US-NYC&search=yes)



Street Address (http://www.skyscrapercenter.com/info.php?go=address) / Map
1 Chase Manhattan Plaza (http://www.skyscrapercenter.com/map.php?building_id=900)


Building Function (http://www.skyscrapercenter.com/info.php?go=func)
office


Structural Material (http://www.skyscrapercenter.com/info.php?go=material)
steel


Start of Construction (http://www.skyscrapercenter.com/info.php?go=status_UC)
1957


Completion (http://www.skyscrapercenter.com/info.php?go=status_COM)
1961


Global Ranking (http://www.skyscrapercenter.com/info.php?go=globalrank)
#233 tallest in the World (http://www.skyscrapercenter.com/create.php?list_status=COM&search=yes&status_COM=on&status_UC=on&status_UCT=on&status_DEM=on&page=2&rank=233)


Regional Ranking (http://www.skyscrapercenter.com/info.php?go=regional)
#48 tallest in North America (http://www.skyscrapercenter.com/create.php?list_status=COM&status_COM=on&status_UC=on&status_UCT=on&status_DEM=on&search=yes&page=0&rank=48&list_continent=NA)


National Ranking (http://www.skyscrapercenter.com/info.php?go=national)
#44 tallest in United States (http://www.skyscrapercenter.com/create.php?list_status=COM&status_COM=on&status_UC=on&status_UCT=on&status_DEM=on&list_country=US&search=yes)



City Ranking (http://www.skyscrapercenter.com/info.php?go=cityrank)
#12 tallest in New York City (http://www.skyscrapercenter.com/create.php?list_status=COM&status_COM=on&status_UC=on&status_UCT=on&status_DEM=on&list_city=US-NYC&search=yes)




I think they did the same for the Japanese immediately before they destroyed their economy.

[vacuum]

One Chase Manhattan Plaza

Hm, wonder if it includes what's under the building?




Why Is JPMorgan's Gold Vault, The Largest In The World, Located Next To The New York Fed's?

http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/pictures/picture-5.jpg (http://www.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden)
Submitted by Tyler Durden (http://www.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden) on 03/02/2013 20:49 -0400

When two weeks ago we exposed the heretofore secret (http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-02-16/where-secret-jp-morgan-london-gold-vault-located)location of JPM's London gold vault (located under the firm's massive L-shaped office complex at 60 Victoria Embankment (http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-02-16/where-secret-jp-morgan-london-gold-vault-located)) we thought: what about New York? After all, while London is the legacy financial capital of the "old world", it is in New York that the biggest private wealth of the past century is concentrated, and it is also in New York where the bulk of the hard assets backing the public money of the world's sovereigns are located, some 80 feet below ground level in the fifth sub-basement of the New York Fed, resting on the bedrock of Manhattan.
That the topic of the gold "held'' by the New York Fed - historically considered the gold vault with the largest concentration of gold bars in the world - has become rather sensitive, in the aftermath of the Bundesbank's request to repatriate it (surely, but very, very slowly), is an understatement. Yet in the aftermath of some of the revelations presented here, we believe quite a few other countries will follow in Germany's footsteps for one very simple reason: suddenly the question of whether their gold is located at 33 Liberty, or just adjacent to it, in what we have learned is the de facto largest private gold vault in the world, located across the street 90 feet below 1 Chase Manhattan Plaza, doesn't appear to have a clear answer.
But first, some background.
The locations of New York's commercial vaults, like those of London, are closely guarded. While there is occasional anecdotal speculation of where one may find any given vault, a definitive answer is rarely if ever in the public domain. Luckily, the past few years, which saw a surge in the price of gold and silver, have provided a variety of useful clues, as one after another bank applied to have its legacy precious metal vault certified for commercial use with the CFTC.
For those who aren't easily discouraged, buried deep in the bowels of the CFTC's website, is a veritable goldmine of data, in the form of supplemental applications from assorted CME members, who one after another, and very quietly, had the CME provide supplements to the CFTC vouching for their approval as "licensed depositories and weighmasters for gold, silver, platinum and palladium."
For those curious (and that should be all who are interested by the precious metals space) what constitutes an approvable vault, we present the fully filed supplement application by Brinks (recently best known for having two of its armored cars captured in a Google Streetview snapshot just outside the JPM office at 60 Victoria Embankment) filed with the CFTC:


The application submitted by Brink's, Inc. and Brink's Global Services USA, Inc. for licensing its facility at 580 5th Ave., New York, NY for storage of the respective NYMEX and COMEX Gold, Silver, Platinum, and Palladium contracts meets the requirements of the Exchanges.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Brink's Global Services USA, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Brink's Inc. The Brink's Company, which owns Brink's Inc., was founded as Brink's City Express in Chicago in 1859, and has been in operation for 150 years. Currently, it is based in Richmond, Virginia. Starting as an armored transportation service, it evolved to expand its operations to include precious metals storage in the late 1990s. Brink's has been operating Licensed Depositories approved to store precious metals against the Exchanges' Futures Contracts for 10 years. Brink's international network operates about 875 facilities and services customers in over 50 countries. It is estimated that it employs approximately 59,400 employees.

NAME AND ADDRESS OF APPLICANT

Office Location

Brink's Inc. and Brink's Global Services USA, Inc. Suit400
580 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10036

Vault Location

Brink's Inc.
580 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10036

LEASE/VAULT CLASSIFICATION/INSPECTION

Exchange staff inspected the facility at 580 5th Ave., New York, NY on Thursday, June 17, 2010, which is owned by Forty Seventh Fifth Company, LLC. Brink's Inc. is the Tenant in the signed copy of the Lease Agreement, entered into on November 9, 1992, that was provided to the Exchange. There are 5,000 square feet of space available, enclosed by four steel reinforced cinder block walls with a concrete ceiling and concrete floor on top of bedrock. The interior of the facility is divided into several work areas, including a 752 square foot, modular vault capable of housing one million ounces of gold, platinum, and palladium, and an additional two million ounces of silver. The no floor vault solution is surface mounted to the existing basement slab which is described as bedrock. The walls and ceiling-grid carry a U.L. Class-3 designation which is torch and tool resistant. The vault is equipped with one U.L. listed Class-3 oversized vault door offering a clear opening of 52"wide x 78" high. Custom Vault Corporation has certified that the existing vault system at 580 5th Ave., New York, NY meets all current U.L. listings as a Class-3 five-sided structure. It has also certified that all modular components (the modular vault panel components were manufactured by International Vault, Inc.) of the system have passed testing in accordance with the U.L. "Burglary Resistant Vault Doors" and "Modular Panels" standards. Cameras, motion detectors, and entry way alarms are installed throughout the interior and exterior access points. The activity is monitored 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. Access from exterior points to interior spaces is limited by the use of biometric proximity readers that record all activity. A majority of employees assigned to the area are licensed to carry Brink's issued firearms. The Depository employs Metler Toledo SG32001DR high precision self calibrating balances. The scales weigh to a tolerance of 1/1000th of a troy ounce, and meet all of the Exchange's requirements

Thus we know where at least one of the world's largest precious metals depositories is located: deep underground the Diamond Tower (http://www.580worlddiamondtower.com/)located in the heart of Manhattan's jewelry district.
Another such supplement was filed by the Bank of Nova Scotia's Scotia Mocatta (http://cftc.gov/files/submissions/rules/approvals/2006/comexscotiamocatta.pdf).


Full article:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-03-02/why-jpmorgans-gold-vault-largest-world-located-next-new-york-fed

[Neuro]

So the gold is in the hands of the China man now? Or the gold is just gone dispersed into the greedy grubby hands of the elite, so there is no need to keep the building?

[Twisted Titan]

This a foreboding omen of major upheavel is in the offing.


Think about it logically.


Why would the richest firm in the world with untold power and influence just decide to willfully withdraw?

Anytime a firm moves its after deep thought.

These jokers knows what is coming and when the shit hits they dont want to be anywhere near the unwashed masses when it goes down

[Ares]

I see it 2-fold. Chase unloads a building and "cashes out" while China dumps a cool 725 million worth of worthless FRN's for a piece of property right next to the NY Fed. So when Yellen has the uncontrollable urge to print, she can look out her window on who she's going to piss off.

[Neuro]

I wonder if it somehow can have some connection with the capital controls Chase has introduced to its small customers. IOW they are going down, and its owner JPM tries to sell of its valuable assets prior to bankruptcy, apart from the fact that the vault is empty of gold?

[EE_]

Maybe the EH&S is about to announce One Chase Manhattan Plaza is slated for asbestos abatement?
That could run into 100's of millions. What Jew would want to pay for that when he can stick it on an unsuspecting non-Jew.

[Son-of-Liberty]

I wonder if it somehow can have some connection with the capital controls Chase has introduced to its small customers. IOW they are going down, and its owner JPM tries to sell of its valuable assets prior to bankruptcy, apart from the fact that the vault is empty of gold?

This is what I was thinking. They are in trouble and trying to raise capital.

[Ponce]

Interesting, and I had a dream where I bought the Budweiser beer company for 51 million dollars, I know that it would cost more than 51 million.....maybe that's all that is worth?

V

[Horn]

So the gold is in the hands of the China man now?

I'm betting, yes.

Ransom for keeping the bond game going.

When that fails they will have to come and physically collect it though, due to the imminent domain laws.

[Jewboo]

http://www.gwu.edu/~erpapers/teachinger/images/icj_worldcourt.jpg



You guys don't get it. At some point the Court of International Justice will rule that creditor China is the new owner of all THIS REAL ESTATE. (http://www.mapsofworld.com/usa/national-parks/maps/major-national-park-usa.jpg)

[Horn]

You guys don't get it. At some point the Court of International Justice will rule that creditor China is the new owner of all THIS REAL ESTATE. (http://www.mapsofworld.com/usa/national-parks/maps/major-national-park-usa.jpg)

Not until every man woman and child in China abandon the yuan and exchange $.

There is no key on my keyboard for any other option.

[EE_]

More problems for JP Morgan

JPMorgan Faces Possible Penalty in Madoff Case
By BEN PROTESS and JESSICA SILVER-GREENBERG

Bernard L. Madoff, whose Ponzi scheme reaped billions from investors, was a JPMorgan client.Federal authorities are preparing to take action in a criminal investigation of JPMorgan Chase, suspecting that the bank turned a blind eye to Bernard L. Madoff’s Ponzi scheme.

The Madoff case, coming on the heels of a tentative $13 billion settlement over JPMorgan’s mortgage practices, poses another major threat to the reputation of the nation’s largest bank.

Reflecting the magnitude of the investigation, prosecutors and JPMorgan have held preliminary discussions about a so-called deferred prosecution agreement, people briefed on the inquiry said. Such an arrangement would suspend criminal charges against JPMorgan in exchange for a fine, certain other concessions and an acknowledgment that the bank will face charges if it fails to behave. Prosecutors may also require JPMorgan, which has repeatedly said that “all personnel acted in good faith” in the Madoff matter, to hire an independent monitor.

Article ToolsFacebookSaveTwitterE-mailGoogle+PrintSharePermalink.Related Links Graphic: Tracking the JPMorgan Inquiries
.While deferred-prosecution agreements are the Justice Department’s preferred tool for punishing corporate giants — they allow prosecutors to appear tough without imperiling a company’s health — they are typically deployed only when misconduct is severe. For a large American bank, they are nearly unheard-of.

But the government, the people added, has not ruled out a harsher punishment for JPMorgan Chase’s national banking subsidiary. Prosecutors could demand that the unit plead guilty to a criminal violation of the Bank Secrecy Act, a federal law requiring financial institutions to report suspicious activity to the government.

Underscoring concerns that a guilty plea could destabilize the bank, the people said, prosecutors have discussed the ramifications of criminal charges with one of JPMorgan’s regulators. But the regulator, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, assured the prosecutors that it would not interfere.

Representatives for JPMorgan, the Comptroller and the prosecutors declined to comment. Authorities could announce an action by the end of the year, the people briefed on the inquiry said, a move that could cap a multiyear investigation. Prosecutors, the people said, are weighing criminal charges against JPMorgan employees who did business with Mr. Madoff. It is unclear which employees are under investigation.

The investigation, led by the F.B.I. and the United States attorney’s office in Manhattan, centers on whether JPMorgan failed to alert federal authorities to Mr. Madoff’s conduct. JPMorgan served as Mr. Madoff’s primary bank for more than two decades, giving it a unique window onto his practices.

The case will most likely hinge on a series of e-mails that suggest JPMorgan continued to work with Mr. Madoff even as questions mounted about his operation. In one e-mail that surfaced in a separate lawsuit, a JPMorgan employee acknowledged that Mr. Madoff’s outsize returns seemed “a little too good to be true.”

The people briefed on the inquiry, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss private negotiations, cautioned that the government had not decided to charge any current or former JPMorgan employees. Likewise, the discussions with the bank itself are preliminary and the government has not concluded what action to take. Two of the people noted that prosecutors were more likely to seek a deferred prosecution agreement than to demand a guilty plea.

Neither JPMorgan nor any other big Wall Street bank has ever been subjected to such an agreement before, according to a University of Virginia Law School database. Among large American banks, only Wachovia and the banking arm of American Express have entered into such an agreement.

But if it does pursue a guilty plea, the government would deal another blow to the reputation of JPMorgan and its chief executive, Jamie Dimon. The bank was once an industry favorite in regulatory circles.

The actual repercussions would depend on the underlying criminal charge. The most serious potential violation could complicate JPMorgan’s business with certain clients, possibly forcing investors like pension funds to withdraw some money from the bank. But a lesser violation would be likely to have more of a reputational consequence.

For the government, it would represent an extraordinarily rare show of force. Ever since a criminal indictment led to the demise of the accounting firm Arthur Andersen, Enron’s auditor, the government has been wary of imposing criminal charges on big corporations for fear that it would imperil the institution and have ripple effects on the broader economy. Under federal guidelines, prosecutors must weigh “collateral consequences,” like job losses and economic implications, in such an action.

HSBC, for example, paid $1.9 billion to settle a money-laundering case, but the Justice Department stopped short of indicting the British bank. The case reinforced concerns that big banks, having grown so large and interconnected, are too big to indict.

Yet Preet Bharara, the United States attorney in Manhattan whose office is handling the JPMorgan case, has disputed that theory. In a recent speech, Mr. Bharara said he rejected the idea from companies that “because we’re so big, to take action against us, the sky is going to fall.”

“I don’t think anyone is too big to indict — no one is too big to jail,” Mr. Bharara said at another speech.

The Manhattan United States attorney and the F.B.I are not the only ones pursuing JPMorgan over the Madoff case. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency recently sent the bank a notice indicating that the agency would soon fine the bank over the Madoff case, two people briefed on the case said.

Irving H. Picard — the trustee seeking to recover money for Mr. Madoff’s victims — also sued JPMorgan in 2010 for $6.4 billion, saying the bank allowed “fraudulent transfers” and accusing it of “aiding and abetting” Mr. Madoff’s fraud. The trustee sued UBS, HSBC and UniCredit Bank Austria, as well, although a federal appeals court in Manhattan has tossed out his lawsuits against the banks. Mr. Picard recently petitioned the United States Supreme Court to hear his appeal.

JPMorgan has denied Mr. Picard’s allegations.

The developments come at a difficult time for JPMorgan, which faces an onslaught of government scrutiny.

The tentative $13 billion settlement in the mortgage case would resolve an array of state and federal investigations into the bank’s sale of trouble mortgage investments. The bank, authorities suspect, sold mortgage securities in the run-up to the financial crisis without fully warning investors of the risks.

JPMorgan is also grappling with an investigation into the bank’s decision to hire the sons and daughters of senior Chinese government officials. And Mr. Bharara’s office is examining whether some of the bank’s trading in the energy markets amounted to manipulation.

The Madoff case is particularly thorny. Any action would link the bank to the most notorious financial criminal in more than a generation. Mr. Madoff orchestrated a Ponzi scheme lasting decades that wiped out an estimated $17 billion in cash for his investors. Paper losses reached more than $64 billion.

Mr. Madoff is serving a 150-year sentence in a federal prison in North Carolina after pleading guilty in March 2009. In a 2011 interview from prison, Mr. Madoff told The New York Times that the banks he did business with “had to know.”

Mr. Madoff’s ties to JPMorgan trace to 1986, when it became his primary banker. Over the course of that relationship, Mr. Picard claims, JPMorgan “made at least half a billion dollars in fees and profits” from the relationship.

The bank, according to Mr. Picard’s lawsuit, generated handsome sums by allowing Mr. Madoff’s brokerage firm to “funnel billions of dollars” through its account with JPMorgan, “disregarding its own anti-money laundering duties.”

The bank, starting around 2006, also pursued derivatives deals linked to Mr. Madoff’s so-called feeder-fund investors, the hedge funds that invested their clients’ money with him.

About that time, concerns began to circulate within JPMorgan.

“I do have a few concerns and questions,” one JPMorgan employee wrote in February 2006 after studying some of Mr. Madoff’s trading records, according to an e-mail cited in the lawsuit. “All trades are generated by Madoff’s black box.”

But JPMorgan’s derivatives deals, which allowed investors to collect returns tied to the profits of the feeder funds, took off anyway. By June 2007, JPMorgan’s “Equity Exotics” unit had sold more than $130 million worth of the deals to investors, Mr. Picard’s lawsuit said.

That month, JPMorgan employees sought approval to push the total to $1.32 billion, according to the lawsuit.

On June 15, 2007, when a JPMorgan committee met to ponder the proposal, new suspicions emerged about Mr. Madoff. A senior risk management officer at the bank e-mailed colleagues to report that another bank executive “just told me that there is a well-known cloud over the head of Madoff and that his returns are speculated to be part of a Ponzi scheme.” The senior officer added that “I think we owe it to ourselves to investigate further.”

But according to Mr. Picard, the bank’s further research amounted to a phone call with Mr. Madoff and “a Google search with no follow-up.”

Similar concerns were enough to deter JPMorgan’s own private bank from doing business with Mr. Madoff. In an e-mail, a JPMorgan wealth management executive remarked that Mr. Madoff’s “Oz-like signals” were “too difficult to ignore.”

After Mr. Madoff’s arrest in December 2008, Mr. Picard said, a flurry of JPMorgan e-mails captured the lack of surprise at the bank.

One employee, referring to the agenda for the June 2007 meeting, wrote, “Perhaps best this never sees the light of day again!!”
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/10/23/madoff-action-seen-as-possible-for-jpmorgan/?_r=0

[Neuro]

This is what I was thinking. They are in trouble and trying to raise capital.
I think JPM is trying to move out good assets and in bad assets and liabilities into Chase, with the purpose of bankrupting Chase. A building with the name Chase Manhattan, would be difficult to argue that it didn't belong under Chase umbrella. $725 Million cash is far easier. Whether the vault is full of Gold or Tungsten or empty we will never find out I am sure...