Banking giant JPMorgan Chase may be left red-faced after getting into bed with a European online payment processing company that has come under fire from its own staffers for its ties to a porn studio, according to a report.
Viva Wallet — a $1.6 billion Greek financial tech startup that received an $800 million investment from JPMorgan in exchange for a 49% stake a year ago — handles online payments for Sirina Entertainment, which has an adult film catalog with titles such as “The Orgy in the Village,” the Information reported.
Staffers at Viva Wallet claim management is violating its own terms of service that bar the provision of payment services to businesses involved in pornographic content, according to the report.
Viva Wallet did not comment on the internal turmoil when contacted by The Post.
JPMorgan declined to comment.
The Wall Street giant acquired a 49% stake in Viva Wallet last year as part of CEO Jamie Dimon’s ambition to expand the firm’s footprint in Europe.
The unrest within Viva Wallet is not the only headache facing JPMorgan over its investment. The company has had a reported falling out with the bank over a dispute surrounding the composition of Viva’s board of directors.
Haris Karonis, the CEO of Viva Wallet, ignored JPMorgan’s request to appoint two people to replace board members who were hand-picked by the bank and who recently quit, according to the Information.
Karonis instead went ahead and appointed Viva Wallet’s chief financial officer as well as a former investor to fill the two spots on the board in place of the JPMorgan representatives.
He then sought to remove the last remaining JPMorgan representative from the five-member board, but later backed away from the idea.
Separately, JPMorgan declined a request from Viva Wallet for a $100 million loan amid scrutiny by European regulators this summer over alleged failure to comply with anti-money-laundering laws, according to filings obtained by the Information.
Viva Wallet management has allegedly fired staffers who raised red flags about compliance issues, the outlet reported.
JPMorgan said earlier this year that it was “aware of certain findings by Viva’s regulators that the company is working to address.”
A Viva spokesperson told The Post, “Viva.com is continuously engaging with its shareholders in a constructive dialogue, for all Company matters,”
“Having established physical branches in 24 countries, Viva.com has invested substantially in its operations to be fully compliant to the regulatory framework of each one of those countries.”
The company said it took “due diligence measures” to ensure that it was in “full conformity” with the “local and regulatory framework” in Europe.
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