Oct 10 (Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase & Co must pay more than $18 million to a trust in a suit stemming from its improper recommendation of a type of complex security that was unsuitable for the trust and benefited the bank, a U.S. state court judge has ruled.
The bank engaged in misconduct and breached its duties of care to the trust in recommending so-called "variable prepaid forward contracts," wrote Judge Linda Morrissey of the District Court for Tulsa County, Oklahoma, in an opinion late Tuesday. That caused financial harm to the trust beneficiaries.
JP Morgan and the trust entered into numerous variable prepaid forward contracts between 2000 and 2005. A court, in 2007, ordered the transfer of the trust's assets to another bank. The investment contracts between the trust and JP Morgan, by that time, had been settled.
The court, in an unusual move, also ordered JPMorgan to pay punitive damages, to be determined at a later date, along with the trust's legal fees.
Investors who buy variable prepaid forward contracts typically agree to give a certain number of stock shares to the brokerage at a future date but receive a significant percentage of the value of those shares at the time of the agreement. While the arrangements can have tax benefits and help insulate investors from certain losses, they can also involve hefty fees.
The 32-page court decision illustrates the extent to which certain investment fees and conflicts of interest can damage a portfolio. JPMorgan, for example, breached its fiduciary duty to the trust - which required the bank to act in the trust's best interests - by investing proceeds from the contracts in its own investment products. It then charged investment fees for those transactions in addition to corporate trustee fees, Judge Morrissey wrote. That "amounted to double dipping that was inherently unreasonable," she wrote.
Punitive damages against JPMorgan are appropriate in the case because the bank "has been guilty of reckless disregard for the rights of others," the judge wrote.
A JPMorgan spokesman declined to immediately comment.
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