Report: WaMu parent wants U.S. documents in failure probe

The bankrupt parent of Washington Mutual Bank asked the judge in its reorganization case to allow for an expansion of a probe into the circumstances immediately leading up to the September 2008 failure.

From the Puget Sound Business Journal:

A filing in the Washington Mutual bankruptcy case says that new evidence supports allegations that JPMorgan Chase used access to inside information about WaMu to drive down the bank?s credit rating and share price, scare away other suitors and arrange to buy the ailing Seattle bank from regulators at a bargain price.
The 20-page motion cites hundreds of internal documents received from JPMorgan through discovery in the bankruptcy case, including emails between JPMorgan executives and other banks interested in bidding on WaMu as well as slide show presentations discussing the viability of a WaMu purchase.
The latest motion now seeks to expand the subpoena to include regulators such as the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the Office of Thrift Supervision, the U.S. Treasury Department, the Federal Reserve, other banks that considered buying Washington Mutual, Goldman Sachs in its capacity as an adviser to WaMu, credit-rating agencies and other banks involved in lending to WaMu.

Conspiracy theories have been rampant since the S&L's failure, and WaMu's parent has been battling JPMorgan and the FDIC in multiple court venues over billions of dollars in assets.

As Jordan Weissmann wrote on law.com in October:

Washington Mutual is arguing in its suit brought in D.C. federal
trial court that the government sold the bank for less than it would
have been worth in liquidation, which it further argues violates the
FDIC's obligations under the Federal Deposit Insurance Act.
It also contends that many assets should never have been transferred to JPMorgan at all.

-- Tom Petruno