A consumer group is aiming to bar JPMorgan Chase from taking a tax write-off on a potential multibillion-dollar mortgage settlement led by the Justice Department.
The US Public Interest Research Group is pushing federal officials to include a provision in the proposed $13 billion deal that would prohibit the bank from taking a tax deduction.
JPMorgan could write off more than $4.5 billion of the wide-ranging settlement to resolve claims tied to the sale of soured mortgages.
“People rightfully think it’s outrageous to think that [JPMorgan] may be able to subsidize some of its mortgage lending wrongs,” Phineas Baxandall, a senior analyst at US PIRG, told The Post.
The group plans to a deliver a petition, which had roughly 143,000 signatures as of Friday, urging the bank to include the provision as part of settlement talks.
JPMorgan is still in negotiations over a deal that would settle a raft of mortgage-related probes and lawsuits.