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The embarrassing and costly trade that got JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon called before Congress, may actually cost the bank four times more dollars than originally thought. The New York Times reports that a internal estimate of losses from the trades made by "London Whale" Bruno Iskil was projected to be as high as $9 billion, far far higher than $2 billion figure that got everyone in up in arms when it was first announced in May. That was a worst-case scenario number, but sources in the bank say it could actually be along the lines of $6 billion to $7 billion in red ink.
As CNBC's Aaron Ross Sorkin pointed out this morning, the $9 billion estimate was formulated back in April, well before news broke that bank's Chief Investment Office was set to lose a massive amount of money on an ill-advised and over-sized trade. That means that the numbers could have changed significantly since then, but it also means that (presumably) Dimon has known all along that the losses could be far greater than what was reported in the news — even before his numerous media appearances and his testimony before Congress. Yet all along, the bank has assured the public that the bank was more than capable of managing the losses.
