Victimized Marine To Testify Today At Congressional Hearing Probing Allegations That JPMorgan Chase Ripped Off Active Duty Servicemembers

McClatchy Newspapers reports:

• U.S. Marine Capt. Jonathon Rowles of Beaufort is to appear today before a congressional committee investigating allegations JPMorgan Chase repeatedly violated a federal law designed to protect active-duty military personnel from financial stress.(1)

• Rowles has filed a lawsuit in federal court against a subsidiary of the nation's second-largest bank, alleging it violated the law during his recent deployment by threatening to foreclose on his home, requiring him to verify his active-duty status every 90 days for more than two years and aggressively seeking to collect more than he owed on a 2004 mortgage for a home in Colorado.

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• Rowles, a fighter-jet pilot stationed at Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort, and his wife, Julia, are scheduled to testify before the House Committee on Veterans Affairs, [his lawyer, Bill] Harvey said.

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• The House committee will investigate the bank's actions, said its chairman, U.S. Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla. "The Servicemembers Civil Relief Act has been in place for decades, and I cannot believe that one of the nation's largest financial institutions appears to be disregarding the protections offered by that law," Miller said in a Jan. 21 announcement of the hearing.

For more, see Marine to testify to bank misdeeds.

(1) The Servicemembers Civil Relief Act allows active-duty troops to receive mortgage-rate reductions and protects them from foreclosure.