WASHINGTON (Reuters) - No American financial institution is too large to indict and no bank executive immune from criminal prosecution, Attorney General Eric Holder said in a television interview.
In an interview with MSNBC scheduled to be broadcast on Friday, Holder cited the case against JPMorgan Chase & Co, which in November agreed to a civil settlement under which it would pay $13 billion to end a series of government investigations into its marketing and sale of mortgage-backed securities.
The settlement with JPMorgan, the largest U.S. bank, allowed prosecutors to pursue criminal charges if warranted, and that investigation is ongoing.
"There are no institutions that are too big to indict," Holder said, according to an MSNBC transcript released before the interview.
"There are no individuals who are in such high level positions that they cannot be indicted, criminally investigated," he said.
The Justice Department is investigating "significant financial institutions," Holder said without elaborating.
"And the focus of those investigations is not only on the institutions but on individuals as well," he told MSNBC.
Holder told Reuters in December the Justice Department plans to bring civil mortgage fraud cases against several financial institutions early in 2014, using the JPMorgan case as a template.
(Writing by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)
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