Ala. county sues JPMorgan, others over debt deals at heart of bankruptcy threat

Ala. county sues JPMorgan over debt deals

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Alabama’s most populous county filed suit Friday blaming JPMorgan Chase & Co. and others for the financial disaster that brought it to the brink of filing the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history.

The suit, filed in state court by Jefferson County, is similar to the government’s federal lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase, which agreed to a more than $700 million settlement last week.

The county’s lawsuit contends JPMorgan Chase, former Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford and others were part of a conspiracy to generate huge fees for a series of deals called rate swaps. The county is now struggling with some $3.2 billion in debt linked to the deals.

A spokesman for JPMorgan Chase called the lawsuit “meritless.”