The latest on SEC whistleblower's case against Chase

Written by Biloxi

Last year, I had written an article on JP Morgan Chase ex-employee Linda Almonte and her lawsuit against JP Morgan Chase. Here is a recap against of Ms. Almonte's case against Chase:

Ms. Almonte was a "mid-level executive" who "supervised employees across the litigation and post-judgment functions" of the credit card litigation department at JP Morgan Chase. Ms. Almonte no longer works for JP Morgan Chase because she was terminated from her position. In March of last year, Ms. Almonte sued the bank for wrongful termination. She has claimed that she was fired because she had refused to participate in the sale of 23,000 credit card accounts Chase had packaged for sale. Ms. Almonte claimed that 5,000 of the credit card accounts were listed the wrong amount owed and that thousands more had other problems according to her statement reported in Daily Finance.

Ms. Almonte filed a whistleblower complaint with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) which adds more context and creditability to her lawsuit. In her complaint , Ms. Almonte accused the bank of illegal practices involving its credit card debt processes including robo-signing.

According to this month's court document, it looks like Ms. Almonte and JP Morgan Chase is entering a settlement:

The parties have not engaged in any settlement negotiations to date. Pursuant to the Scheduling Order, Plaintiff is to provide Defendant a written offer of settlement on or beforeMarch 7, 2011.

II.
Defendant's counsel of record is responsible for settlement negotiations.

III.
At this time, Defendant does not believe that any alternative dispute resolution procedures are appropriate.

Last month,  both JP Morgan Chase and Ms. Almonte agreed to a protective order on the confidential information produced and exchanged during the litigation according to the court document. Here is the excerpt of the court document:

AGREED PROTECTIVE ORDER

On this date came on for consideration the Parties' Agreed Motion for Entry of Protective
Order and this Court, having been advised of the premises therefore, is of the opinion that the
Motion is well taken and should be granted and that the Protective Order should be entered.

Accordingly, it is hereby ORDERED that:

1. All confidential information produced or exchanged in the course of this litigation
shall be treated as confidential by the Parties and shall be used solely for the purpose of
preparation and trial of this litigation and for no other purpose or litigation whatsoever and shall
not be disclosed or made available to any person except in accordance with the terms hereof.


It is not surprising that Chase is settling with Ms. Almonte rather than to face trial. But, Ms. Almonte was smart enough to file a SEC whistleblower complaint and be a participant on the SEC whistleblower program. We will have to see whether SEC will investigate Ms. Almonte's complaint.