Ex-JPMorgan Exec. Pleads Not Guilty In Chinese Princeling Case, Probably Without Wink And Nod

While we all fondly remember “Joe” Gao Jue, possibly the worst candidate for a job in the history of JPMorgan Chase—and that was before the “accidental” sexually-explicit e-mail sent to HR—who nonetheless got a position—and kept it—perhaps on account of his dad’s being China’s commerce minister, there were at least 221 other beneficiaries of the bank’s “Sons and Daughters” program. Another of these alleged failsons was Ang Ren-yi. While not quite as well connected as Gao—he was merely the son of the chairman of a company JPM hoped to take public—he was also not quite as much of an obvious disaster as Gao (who, it should be noted, has gone on to not-at-all-suspiciously work at Goldman Sachs): His GPA sucked, but he did go to Harvard, where he didn’t study economics or finance or some such, but also didn’t major (sorry: concentrate) in visual studies or folklore (his degree is in environmental engineering, which I understand they need a lot of in China). I don’t even think he fenced. Like Gao, however, he got a job, and like Gao, got it through the efforts of a JPM executive who really wanted to win his dad’s business, at least according to Hong Kong prosecutors. And unfortunately for that now-former executive, Catherine Leung Kar-cheung, those prosecutors have in their possession messages like this one.

She told colleagues in an email that JPMorgan was in the running to get a role in the company’s IPO, according to a court document. “We are a strong contender. Blink Blink nod nod, can we find a place for his son…” Ms. Leung’s email said.

Ms. Leung also pressed colleagues to find him a permanent position within the bank or its securities arm, and “expressly suggested” that hiring him would help JPMorgan get Kerry Logistics’s IPO business, the court document said.

Punchline: It didn’t!

Kerry Logistics eventually went public in 2013 and didn’t pick JPMorgan to handle the listing.