JPMorgan's Grinchies have stepped up their refusal to pay pensions to the widows of former employees who have been battling the financial giant over money for more than a decade, The Post has learned.
As The Post exclusively reported last month, 73-year-old Elaine Silverberg sued a bank led by Jamie Dimon for 13 years over a dispute over missing documentation, withholding money from her husband Mel's $331-a-week pension pot. I am begging you to hand over the.
But America's largest lender has repeatedly denied her claims and is pursuing her again this holiday season, people familiar with the matter told the Post on Friday.
Insiders at the global banking giant, whose profits rose to more than $12 billion in the third quarter of this year due to soaring investment banking fees, said they were disappointed in Mr. Silverberg's Scrooge-like stance that he was not entitled to a single penny. There is no change.” .
Officials at the Wall Street giant insisted the bank conducted a “full and fair investigation” into her case “multiple times.”
Silverberg's husband, Mel, died suddenly at the age of 43 in 1988 from multiple organ failure.
He worked as a systems analyst at Chase Manhattan Bank for 10 years until 1979.
Chase Manhattan merged with JP Morgan in 2000.
JPMorgan Chase acknowledged that her husband had received defined retirement benefits before leaving the bank.
But the bank also said she did not fill out paperwork to elect to receive a pension in the event of her death.
President Ronald Reagan's administration passed the Retirement Benefits Act in 1984, which automatically provided spouses like Elaine with benefits when a loved one died.
“Based on changes to the law after he left the company, he could have made an election for survivor benefits. The company has no record of him making that election,” JPMorgan said. an insider said.
Mel's fully vested cash pile is now worth an estimated $53,000, Silverberg said.
“I can't find a lawyer who wants to sue JPMorgan Chase for the amount of money this lawsuit will generate,” she said. “We just hope for goodwill from them in the spirit of the season.”
A JPMorgan spokesperson declined to comment.
Silverberg, who was only 37 years old at the time of Mel's death and had raised their three children on her own, said that after last month's Post article, the world's largest banking giants treated her poorly. spoke.
“I am very disappointed that no one responded. No one responded to me, no one gave me any explanation. There was a deafening silence. It continues,” the former government administrator explained.
“I always thought that if Jamie Dimon knew about this, he would want to do the right thing and respect pensions,” she added, who has been CEO of JPMorgan since 2006. , referring to Dimon, a 68-year-old Queens native who raised the money. Last year it was $36 million.
The grandmother of eight described how Mel volunteered to work nights and weekends while caring for her young family.
“He was a team player when they needed him. He was always there for them, she said.
The bank claims it wrote three separate letters to Mel after he resigned, but Elaine said none of the letters were delivered to her parents' home.
He said pension administrators could only unearth documents proving they had contact with Mr Mell in 1990, two years after he died.
“They did not provide any evidence that they had tried to contact him three times,” she told the Post.
Mr. Silverberg, who once helped get New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker and former Bronx Rep. Eliot Engel to fight in his corner, said he is trying to convince Wall Street titans ahead of the upcoming holiday season. urged him to back off.
“This is a time when companies can be very generous to their employees, their subordinates, and their leadership, and they may decide that now is the time to do the right thing,” she says. . “They are punishing my family based on the technology they created.”
